The Real Donnybrook

St. Louisans think of Donnybrook as being the free-for-all current affairs program on local public television that features retired St. Louis Globe-Democrat editor Martin Duggan, a fine Irish-American lad, and his sidekicks, including St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Bill McClellan and former Riverfront Times publisher Ray Hartmann, the show's alleged liberal. But the real Donnybrook is an upscale neighborhood in Dublin, which long ago hosted the Donnybrook Fair, a place, according to legend, where horsetraders and other riffraff regularly came to blows. And believe me, the Irish are still arguing about the details of that particular interpretation. If you'd kindly buy me a pint, sir, I'd be happy to explain it all to ya, fer yer edification, no less, and in the name of historical accuracy, of course. Fair play, lads. Mind yourselves. Cheers!