2023 Irish Pop Culture Moments That Changed Our Brain Chemistry
Words: Dylan Murphy
Words: Dylan Murphy
We could say a lot but the end of year burnout is real. So sit back, get your scroll on and enjoy some memes, flops and down right ridiculous moments from the past year in Ireland. From scandals, to music videos connecting Dublin to Compton and cursed event announcements. 2023 permanently altered our brain chemistry.
Benny The Butcher Meets Young Fans Jumping into the Liffey
“Benny, stick this on the Insta, yeah?”
This changed our brain chemistry, but in the nice, I don’t feel the crippling weight of the world’s impending doom for just a brief moment kind of way. Griselda spitter Benny The Butcher took time to chat to some young fans that were jumping into the Liffey the day after he performed in the Sugar Club in Dublin.
Coldplay Announcing 4 Gigs in Dublin
Earlier this year, Chris Martin joined Westlife and Garth Brooks as the latest agent of chaos causing mayhem in Croke Park. You can just see them scheming around a cauldron about how many people are going to be pissing in gardens in D3. It sold out instantly too. All for people enjoying live music, but can’t deny there’s something incredibly cursed about these multi-day Viva la vida extravaganzas. Hey Siri, play ‘Yellow’.
Bobby Finger’s Giant Jeff Bezos boat
Rubberbandits alumni and modern day renaissance man, Bob McGlynn, might have just made the most beautifully unhinged art piece of the year. Words don’t do this justice, just watch.
Sound Quality Gifts’ Grip On TikTok
We should be talking about Helen’s run on TikTok in the same way people gush over Drake’s Billboard streak. She never misses. The queen of the social media app has made Sound Quality gifts Ireland’s most loved gift store. Carroll’s could never. If you are unfamiliar, get to know.
Bank of Ireland ATMs Giving Out Free Cash
A technical error meant that Bank of Ireland ATMs gave out free cash, even if you had zero bills in your account. In a cost of living crisis, that feels like a gift from god. Of course, people had to pay it back and honestly, while the videos were chaotic, the reaction on Twitter is what made it.
Spice Bag’s “Politically Motivated Art”
In the world of wrestling they call this “Getting your ass handed to you”. For those unfamiliar, Irish artist Adam Doyle AKA Spice Bag reworked a piece from Cork artist Daniel MacDonald that shows an eviction taking place during the famine to now show Gardai from today. In a debate on Virgin, Editor of the Independent, Fionnan Sheahan, alleges to Spice Bag that his work is “Politically Motivated” – as if all art isn’t inherently political. Fionnan does his best to rile Adam, but he doesn’t flinch, instead making the journalist look like a very silly billy.
Kendrick Lamar and Baby Keem shooting a music video in St. Stephen’s Green Shopping Centre
“Is that… Stephen’s Green?”. This was a proper fix your glasses and squint at the screen type moment. Throughout his career, Kendrick Lamar has teamed up with some of the most important directors, artists and musicians of our time. His own company PgLang has collaborated with Calvin Klein and converse and his own music videos have won GRAMMYs and have been a product of budgets that most could only dream of. So, when K Dot and his cousin Keem shared a video for ‘The Hillbillies’ shot on a handheld camera in the city centre shopping centre we weren’t sure whether to believe it or not. Sure enough, it was real. Honestly, this is the kind of headline we’d dream up as the most District post of all time. I’m betting on the collab album having a video in Nutgrove next year.
Joe Biden’s WWE Entrance
This is the worst.
Joe Biden’s WWE entrance last night
byu/CdRnB inireland
Tub’s RTÉ Scandal
So many moments to chose from. The quotes, the unholy amount of money spent on flip flops, his lawyer’s fit… Earlier this year, it was revealed that Ryan Tubridy received €345,000 more than was disclosed by RTÉ over the course of six years. If this wasn’t such a complete and utter scandal and misuse of public funds then how it all played out might be funny.
Either way, it made for some premium hash on Twitter.
Meteorgate
Even on a genuinely ridiculous list, this is an easy choice for the strangest Irish pop culture moment. Virgin Media News interviewed Dave Kennedy, an Irish astrophysics enthusiast after a hole appeared in the sand on Portmarnock Beach (As if that is a rare occurrence?). He said he was “certain” that a rock found inside the hole was an asteroid and part of a “cosmic” event.
Probably the only good thing Elon Musk has done with his cursed app is adding the ‘additional context’ note. Crying literal tears when Virgin Media News are fact checked with the words “It is in fact not a cosmic event instead it was dug out the day before by 2 lads with a beach spade”.
