A few years ago, on one of my summer trips over to Ireland, I was having a few pints of the black stuff with my father in law in a bar in Ballybunion. There was a bit of a commotion outside in the street. When I looked out the door there was a huge crowd gathered along both sides of the road.

 We were witnessing one of the events in the town's (then) annual bachelor festival - the open invitation dog race. A man at one end of the street was trying to marshall the dogs to the start line. 50 yards further down the street was a car with one axle jacked up, a wheel removed and a rope attached to it (on the other end, up by the dogs, was tied a soft toy of some description).

 I watched as several attempts were made to start the race - a number of men lined the 'course' and tried to signal down the road to the driver to put his foot on the accelerator the moment the starter waved his flag. It was complete chaos (why they didn't just use mobile phones to talk to each other I'll never know - oh actually, its because its too obvious). Through tears of laughter I said to my father in law, "This is as mad as the Quiet Man, nobody back in England will ever believe this happened when I tell them the story".

 Imagine my joy then, when I came across this short silent footage on YouTube recently (if you look really closely, you might be able to spot me). You see, doubters, living here really is quite mad....