top of page

FlAsH Fiction Honorable Mentions

Poetry

​

These four (4) honorable mentions in the poetry category are very diverse and at points, dark, like early FAH sketches.  But the authors also show the love, inspiration, and clear admiration of everything having to do with FAH as people who bring so much joy and happiness into the lives of their fahns.    

​

​

Anna Stell (Instagram: @cherry768 & Twitter: @AnnaStell5)

Statement of Inspiration: When I read Arms’ statement on Patreon [below], I began to think about memories. Specifically, memories that the lads have built and collected over the thirteen years they have been together. There are so many that you couldn’t possibly take all of them and count them out. That was when I thought, I might not be able to count all the memories, but I can count specific moments, props, jokes, and quotes from their sketches. Along with the inspiration from Arms, I found inspiration I needed to complete the “countdown” from simply scrolling through their sketches on YouTube. Some were more obvious than others, such as Three Drunken Monks. For others, I looked for the smaller references in sketches that fahns would still be able to say, “I know what sketch that is.” There was a lot of counting and recounting (thank you Anne Flanagan and her lightning fast cut scene bits), but it was all worth it. 

 

“There's worth in the days, not measured by likes or shares.  Perhaps, as I said to the lads the other day, ‘these are the days, the most fun we'll ever have, the sweet spot.’ It certainly feels like it.” -- Arms

 

Foil Arms & Hog Countdown

Thirteen Years

Twelve Regional Accents

Eleven Ways to be Late

Ten Things to Enjoy about Winter

Nine Mixed Up Songs

Eight Cure All’s

Seven Cinema Foods

Six Parties

Five Cups before Lunch

Four Anxious Points

Three Drunken Monks

Two Squatters Episodes

One Comedy Sketch Group

Countless Memories

​

 

Leah AKA the Wordy Nerdy

Statement of Inspiration: The cymbal symbolises (yes I do love that word pairing) the often dramatic ending to all their live sketches. It is their silent fourth member who gets one moment in the limelight in each sketch, but for over a year now has been, in all likelihood, stuffed under a messy pile of props. I felt like giving it a voice would convey the longing FAH have to get gigging again, that even their inanimate props are feeling that longing. The poem also speaks to the abruptness in which the touring came to an end, almost as if it was suspended mid clang, with so much more performance left in it, just like FAH must have felt.  

 

A Cymbal in Irons

My clamour has

Frozen vice-like

A captive taut, 

Timbre in limbo

Like a muted thrush 

Choked with dust 

Chirping for nought

 

My stifled cries

Hide neath piled

Ties and wigs and 

bits and twisted

Brac a bric,

Gagging to gig 

Again

​

 

Nadine Day

Statement of Inspiration: The inspiration for this Acrostic Poem came purely from the heart and my sincerest love that I have for Foil Arms and Hog. They have helped me through so much over the years with so many things and not just them, but the FAHndom they have created which I have made many friends along the way. The FAHm have always got my back and for that I am eternally grateful!  This is my ode to the FAHns and of course to FAH who have kept me going through my darkest days.  This poem has a hidden message  . . . can you find it?

 

Irish Comedians Win Girl’s Heart 
Lads, lads, lads is what we chant
Overly excited, calm down we can't 
Very eager with every Thursday coming
Enchanting us with their acting and beautiful singing 

Forever grateful to the lads I am
Our little FAHndom that's becoming a FAHm
I never realised just how big we could be
Like wide open lands and the deepest sea 

Attractive, smart, witty and fun
Radio, TV and online they've done
Many memories have been made overtime
So that we can keep enjoying the ridiculous & the sublime 

All I want is too see my boys live again
New content every week so I can't complain
Deep down this rabbit hole I have fallen 

Helplessly in love, my heart they have stolen
Only now can I see through the fog 
Gratitude to the wonderful Foil Arms and Hog 

​

 

Caitriona O’Brien

Statement of Inspiration: FAH are masters of creating something out of nothing. A paper hat becomes a knight’s helmet. A butternut squash becomes a guitar. A world is created from dialogue and expression. 

I subscribed to FAH’s YouTube channel in 2019, after 4 years of watching their sketches whenever they popped up on my suggested videos. Sandcastles was not the video that made me subscribe but while watching it I had the oddest sensation of déjà vu. In 2008 (probably, my college years are a fuzzy blur) I had seen Baby FAH use a joke, which is now part of the Sandcastles sketch. It made me wonder how it came to be, how the sketch was written. But I put it to one side, as something I’d never know. 

​

We’re lucky. FAH are so accessible to their FAHns. Back in 2019, I assumed there would be no point in asking. They’d never see the question, they’d never answer. I was wrong. I asked my question, and it was answered extensively in the Patreon Livestream on the 8th of April.  

​

So, this poem is about those three lads, in a flat in Cork writing one of my favourite sketches. Creating something out of nothing. 

 

Sandcastles

Tell me a story of creation

Tell me of your imagination

 

Shadowed shabby 2 bed retreat

Whole show to write in a week

With far too much to drink

Too little time to think

 

Somewhere a flicker

Of inspiration

Became a timber

A foundation

So now a shiver

anticipation

 

I question, I wonder

I don’t understand

You built a universe

out of sand

​

bottom of page