It looks like the UK might be exiting the European Union - So a British Exit - Brexit! I love the wordplay, if not the concept.  I won't get into the politics here (nah, I don't think it's a great idea to leave, and I do remember when I was a kid we were known as the 'poor man of Europe' hence us joining the EEC, but...!) however, we have people from around the world come on our literary pub celebration, and one or two people have mentioned they'd heard stories of rationing and hoarding and w...
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1.  Brexit is a word that has become used as a shorthand way of saying the UK leaving the EU - merging the words Britain and exit to get Brexit, in a same way as a Greek exit from the EU was dubbed Grexit in the past.  A referendum took place in the UK on Thursday 23rd June, 2016.  Everyone in the UK (almost) was eligible to vote, just like in a general election. But on the ballot paper were just two questions.  Should the UK leave the EU or remain in the EU.

2. The E.U. - short for the Euro...

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Seamus Heaney died yesterday. It's a loss in so many ways. Probably the finest Irish poet since Yeats, he was sometimes known as "Famous Seamus" because unlike many poets and writers, he wasn't particularly shy and retiring. He was something of a celebrity from an early age and was prepared to stick his head over the parapet to make a comment.



But I identify with Heaney the farm-boy. My folks are from the peat-bogs of Co. Mayo - he was from a Mossbawn farmhouse in County Derry, although he res...

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