To real chulchies, this shit IS the shit:
Big Tom & The Mainliners: 'Four Roads To Glenamaddy'
For people from Monaghan, Fermanagh, Leitrim, Ballinasloe, Kiltimagh, and other areas of the sticks, Big Tom was their Robert Plant. Or better yet, their Ozzy Osbourne. Like Ozzy, Big Tom can't do any of his dance moves since the hip replacement, and neither can Ozzy, except in his case it's a heart attack or a brain bleed. But the lifestyle's the same: auld Tom had a woman (or three) down every boreen from Tullamore to The Ring Of Kerry.
His parties were to be envied and blagging the guest list was out of the question for any jackeen. Memorable menus too: starters like six pints of Harp and the shank of lamb (on the bone) before mains like 'Meet The Bull' where they drag a bull out and you get to select the particular steak you want in chalk. Then they slaughter it out back. Desserts like the classic 'chocolate slurry surprise' or else a bowl of Trifle like your granny used to make.
Babes galore too: a few of them can be seen on Valamhic's channel under the heading 'Muff Fair' where Val does a vox-pop with friends and strangers alike at the fair. I say fair but in reality it was just a gang of scruffy old men in rag-order clothes and a few fat Biddies handing out on the hard shoulder of the Kingscourt bypass at eleven on a Tuesday morning. Loads of tractors and donkeys around. Chickens quacking, ducks getting their necks broken. Pure culchie hedonism. Sheep shagging tent and all. The winner of last years 'Shitting Ditch' competition gave a very moving speech when handing the trophy over to this years winner Consolata Hegarty-McSchneagh. Very touching stuff.
In fact, all four of those four roads to Glenamaddy are fucking death traps.
They hired Val to paint the white line down the middle of it, so he dipped his wellington's into a bucket of white emulsion and started walking.
Death trap.