There's no-one as Irish as Barack OBama

To celebrate Barack Obama's inauguration, I thought you might like to hear a song I can't get out of my head:

A new dawn....

I have just finished watching the news, seeing the queues lining up to vote in the US election.

It has become the norm for the rest of us around the world to criticise everything about the US, but something about this campaign seems to have reminded everyone of the dream of freedom and democracy that was its foundation.

Every poll suggests that tomorrow morning we will wake up to the first black leader of the free world. At a time when the world is dropping into recession all eyes are turning to one man, desperately hoping that he will lead us to a bright new future. I can't help but wonder whether that is too much expectation for anyone - let's hope he's up to it!