ONCE we got up Ray D'Arcy's nose, well? that's when we knew Blogorrah had truly made it.

Being condemned by the Catholic church is one thing, but Nice Guy Ray calling you a liar? Now that's serious.

Let's not jump the gun, here - you're probably still wondering what Blogorrah is. So let's try to keep things short and, by and large, to the point. It goes a little bit like this: Irish journalist (hello there) moves to New York City.

Whatever. Irish journalist spends hours waffling away to fellow Irish journalist-cum-dogmagazine-mogul (that would be Celtic Tiger 1.0 icon and creator of VIP magazine John Ryan) about his inability to source the news from home? Not the boring old REAL news, mind you - we're talking about all the good stuff. The gossip. The sc�al. The scandal.

It's agreed that a one-stop internet source for fellow Irish travellers is urgently required.

Both of the individuals in question are massive fans of legendary NYC gossip website Gawker, so they promptly decide to apply the Gawker template to Irish culture. Scratch that - they decide to shamelessly rip it off wholesale. If it ain't broke, etc. Cheers, Gawker.

The mogul has made his fortune stateside publishing upmarket dog magazines (another long story, one already well-documented), so decides to squander that fortune on yet another crazy publishing experiment, this time a virtual one. He already has a name - the site will be called Blogorrah. Even though it's not technically a blog, per se. But that's another discussion.

The average Blogorrah day, then, might cover everything from our doomed efforts to complete the new Colm T�ib�n book (we gave up after 40 pages - print is dead, after all) to the latest Wezanna news (that would be former Miss Ireland Rosanna Davison and hunky beau Wesley Quirke - our favourite 'celebrity' couple), by way of a smattering of current events and an old Auto Da Fe video off YouTube, topped, as ever, by a healthy smattering of dodgy photo opportunities. When it works, Blogorrah is the place where political discourse and trash culture messily (and spectacularly) collide.

A few cultural milestones come to mind, not least the now-legendary Twink Tapes - the recording of Ireland's panto queen leaving a caustic message on her ex-husband's mobile phone, thus ensuring that the expression 'Zip Up Your Mickey' entered the cultural lexicon forever. Blogorrah carried a link to a MySpace page where you could hear the message.

And doubled its readership en route.

Thanks, Twink. Why feature it? Because it was hilarious, that's why. We later featured the dance remix of the phone message AND a site where you can buy 'Zip Up Your Mickey' t-shirts.

Then there was the picture purporting to be Irish rugby 'ledge' Ronan O'Gara enjoying a few bevvies down in Dublin hotspot Copperface Jack's ("a comfortable and lively place", according to DublinTourist. com), while allegedly copping what resembled a bit of a feel of a lovely young lady. The jpeg that landed in our inbox had already become the stuff of random emailing legend. We immediately published it - thus igniting the storm in a teacup that we dubbed 'Fondlegate'. It transpired, then, that Blogorrah was seeking to besmirch the good name of an Irish sporting hero. And, what's more, we had more than likely digitally manipulated the image in question to implicate poor ROG. Or at least, that's what Ray D'Arcy said. A reader promptly sent us a link to the Bebo page of the girl featured in the picture, showing the very same image with the unfortunate positioning of Ronan's hand. It seemed we were off the hook.

These days, a clip found on YouTube and posted on Blogorrah of a supposed joyriding incident on Dublin's Gardiner Street can prompt a police inquiry. We're now a legitimate news source. Or at least somewhere the papers can nick stories from. Either way, Blogorrah is a monster.

In April 2006, our first month of operation, Blogorrah attracted approximately 420 visitors. A year later, it's attracting over 70,000 visitors a month, with users across the globe.

Including at least one devoted reader in Andora, the country with the highest life expectancy in the world - 83.51 years, apparently. We read that on the internet, so it must be true.

During our first year in business, Blogorrah managed to completely offend a broad variety of b-, c-, d-, e- and f-list Irish celebrities, be simultaneously embraced and denounced by the rest of the Irish blogosphere, get accused of sexism, racism and homophobia AND create/facilitate at least three fair-sized tabloid scandals. None of this, it should be stressed, was intentional. We swear. And we're so terribly, terribly sorry. But sure Blogorrah is soooooo over, anyway.

But what does Blogorrah do? Good question.

The site is essentially a filter, a one-stop popculture shop that channels news, gossip and Irish-related ephemera of every shape and size, from the mildly significant to the deeply stupid. It's a cracked mirror that hopefully, in some small way, reflects the demented schizophrenic grandeur of today's super-duper Ireland, a truly fascinating, mad old place altogether. And one that demands constant definition and redefinition. If anything, being Irish is truly, more than ever, a state of mind.

Which is why, in many ways, it's much easier to interpret it from the comfortable distance of New York.

A typical production day involves traipsing through every imaginable Irish-related website (and the ever-expanding Irish blogosphere) for gems, coupled with suggestions and tip-offs from our network of moles? It's about late nights spent posting items at 3am NYC time to ensure they're live and up-to-theminute back in Mother Ireland. People want pictures from the VIP Style Awards, dammit - and they want them now. And here's the thing: we love it. It's exhausting. And exhilarating. It certainly isn't lucrative. Not yet, anyhow. We're playing the long game, however.

If you build it, advertisers will come. And they are.

Blogorrah isn't meant to be nasty. Snarky, maybe. And Blogorrah doesn't have an agenda, either - save a desire to mercilessly lampoon (and simultaneously celebrate) Modern Ireland. There's a painful lack of decent satire on offer these days, after all. Not that we're necessarily doing anything to change that. But we try. So no, Blogorrah isn't John Ryan's revenge on the Irish media. Nor is it based in NYC to avoid Ireland's stringent libel laws - or for tax purposes. And the Sunday Independent's Barry Egan (or Bazza Ego, as we affectionately call him) doesn't write all the stories about himself, either. Although we'd love to have him on board, if he's free. Call us, Baz. We're so lonely.

The bizarre psychological side effects that come from immersing oneself in the daily minutiae of Irish culture - all the while living in New York - are considerable. One of the most invigorating aspects of relocating to The Most Exciting Town In The World (as a resident, I'm contractually obliged to say that, although Letterkenny runs a close second) is the sudden, glorious absence of context. Now the job's all about context. And having successfully spent the first three decades of my life in well-deserved obscurity, the sudden scrutiny afforded by Blogorrah's meteoric rise to infamy proved a tad overwhelming;

karma naturally dictates that a due amount of payback is in order, and we've been duly hauled over the coals by various elements within the media and the blogosphere. And gotten some really nasty emails. But it's all part of the game.

Which is why it's fascinating to spend time in the stratosphere of a figure like John Ryan, a veritable pariah back home after his adventures in the Irish media world culminated in the legendary Stars On Sunday debacle; with a single bound, JR escaped the considerable baggage he'd accumulated in Ireland and triumphed in America. Approximately one in every three emails I received for the first few months of Blogorrah contained either one or both of the following questions: "What's John Ryan like?" and "Is he gay?" John is by turns incredibly brilliant and utterly infuriating, a visionary and a madman, ceaseless in his belief and enthusiasm for the whole Blogorrah thing. He made it happen. And he's totally gay. Not really. He's a bigger-picture kind of fella, ably empire-building and all the while battling with the misanthropic basket of neuroses that occasionally passes for an editor? But I'm in much better form these days.

Honestly.

Then there are the Lovely Girls. One of the true cornerstones of the Irish mediaverse involves the random juxtaposition of a spokesmodel and a product or event only crying out for creative interpretation at the hands of the Irish PR gods. This usually involves sticking a young lady in something skimpy and setting her loose on St Stephen's Green - a place where, as all dedicated Blogorrah readers know, Irish models roam wild and free in their natural habitat, foraging for food from the bins of the Bang Caf� on Merrion Row.

It's a dangerous game. An innocuous comment posted by a reader in response to a picture we published of another former Miss Ireland, the lovely Andrea Roche, resulted in a very angry phone call from La Roche herself. Naturally enough, we profusely apologised. The only problem is that when you're editing an allegedly satirical website, the more you apologise, the more people think you're just taking the piss. That said, they might have a point. So by the time we ran a vintage radio interview of Andrea losing the head with a radio interviewer - "Ask me a simple question" - we were, according to one hilarious press report, now embroiled in a 'bitter feud'. Lawyers were mentioned. But we never heard from any of them. And Andrea never called again. She hasn't been in Blogorrah for ages, either. Neither has Glenda.

Possibly because they're laying off the dodgy photo opportunities. Possibly because we began to think we were only encouraging them. And don't get us started on that Katy French.

Where does it go from here? The brunt of the heavy lifting round Blogorrah Towers once fell on the shoulders of a redoubtable twentysomething by the name of Larry Ryan (no relation to John), a Celtic Cub who came to us by way of Dublin hipster bible Mongrel. Poor Larry came to New York to live it up a little and instead spent his days trawling about on YouTube for clips of Wan - derly Wagon. He's gone now. You can have his job if you fancy. This is the beginning of something, we swear. Something huge.

Something defining. Something Blogorrahesque. From Beckett to Boyzone, from Glenda Gilson's eyebrows to Willie O'Dea's moustache - we can't get enough of it. It's a sickness.

And, as I finish this confession and gaze once more from my window at the resplendent majesty of the Empire State Building, one nagging question continues to haunt me.

Whatever happened to Fran 'Fortycoats' Dempsey?

Superstars of Blogorrah ENDA KENNY AKA The Enda. Never mind the policies? We're loving the hair.

CRYSTAL SKYE Pneumatic Irish clubbing goddess? She's got her knockers, etc.

DAMIEN RICE AKA Damo Ricecakes? Always guaranteed to liven up any party.

CAROLINE MORAHAN Recovered from infamous Bozo The Clown incident to triumph at this year's VIP Style Awards.

Huzzah!

JONATHAN RHYS MEYERS The sofa-lipped Corkonian poet-philosopher - and Dutch elm disease sufferer.

Classic Blogorrah moments Introducing. . . The Ultimate Irish Male http: //blogorrah. com/introducing-the-ultimateirish-male. html Ginger Hall Of Fame, Part Five: Luke Kelly (right) http: //blogorrah. com/ginger-hallof-fame-part-five-luke-kelly. html Dodgy Photo Ops Hall Of Fame, Part One http: //blogorrah. com/dodgy-photoops-hall-of-fame-part-one. html A 4th Of July Message From Colin Farrell http: //blogorrah. com/a-4th-of-july-message-fromcolin-farrell. html Brian O'Driscoll: "No Seriously Guys; I Know I'm A Total Ledge And Everything, But Does My Bum Look Big In This?"

http: //blogorrah. com/no-seriously-guys-i-know-ima-total-ledge-and-everything-but-does-my-bumlook-big-in-this. html Picture Of The Day: Irish Models Trapped In Low-Rent Felliniesque Nightmare http: //blogorrah. com/picture-of-theday-irish-models-trapped-in-lowrentfelliniesque-nightmare. html Picture Of The Day, Part Three: Fine Gael Leader Suffers Near-Fatal Collapse Of Hairstyle http: //blogorrah. com/picture-of-the-daypart-three-fine-gael-leader-suffers-nearfatal-collapse-of-hairstyle. html The 3 Rs - Rochey, Rosanna and Ronan http: //blogorrah. com/the-3-rs-rocheyrosanna-and-ronan. html Bertie Vanity Fair http: //blogorrah. com/hes-not-bradhes-just-the-pitts. html Fondlegate Zapruder Film http: //blogorrah. com/fondlegate-latest-nat-king-coleslaws-zapruderfilm. html Fondlegate Demonstration http: //blogorrah. com/mcd-refuses-to-intervene-in-fondlegate-crisis. html Lovely Irish Models Go Berserk (right) http: //blogorrah. com/lovely-irish-models-goberserk. html Sympathy for the Cheeky divil http: //blogorrah. com/sympathy-for-thecheeky-little-divil. html PS I Owe You (left) http: //blogorrah. com/byebye-bertieupdate-coming-soon-to-bookstores. html Cheeky Divil's poll numbers http: //blogorrah. com/cheeky-little-divil-poll-shockhow-could-i-falter-when-im-the-rock-ofgibraltar. html The Enda - Feckin' fecker http: //blogorrah. com/byebye-bertie-part-threetangible-glee-alert. html Enda And Pat: Laurel And Hardy http: //blogorrah. com/rainbow-coalition-offernation-laurel-and-hardy-handshake. html The Ging and I http: //blogorrah. com/the-ging-and-i. html Late Late Under Attack: Celebs Speak http: //blogorrah. com/late-lateupdate-thecelebrities-speak. html Ghost of Brian Lenihan returns http: //blogorrah. com/photo-of-the-dayghost-of-former-fianna-fail-minister-brian-lenihanterrorizes-child. html Picture Of The Day: Irish PR Industry Officially Out Of Control http: //blogorrah. com/picture-of-the-day-irishpr-industry-officially-out-of-control. html Birth of the Cheeky Divil http: //blogorrah. com/picture-of-the-day-part-sixthe-cheeky-divil-tapes. html http: //blogorrah. com/picture-of-the-day-thecheeky-divil-tapes-volume-two. html