I have a love-hate relationship with historical movies. If you’re into historical material, of course you’ll be enticed to go see one. But so many historical movies have led to misleading facts and wrongful portrayals, like the much-loved Micheal Collins movie; with its 1970s-style IRA car bombs going off in 1920s […]

Anyone reading this who had a child doing Leaving Cert 2023 – send all complaints to the editor of the West Cork People for what I am about to say – I don’t believe there was anything wrong with the much-maligned maths paper 1, the hot topic on the airwaves […]

A few weeks ago, Sudan descended into a bloody conflict, prompting thousands to flee, including a raft of European diplomats. When the diplomats leave a country it’s always a sure sign of the beginning of something serious. Without diplomacy to advocate for peace and talks, well it’s inevitable that violence […]

During Easter, I had the good fortune to spend some time in Sofia, which one can access directly from Dublin. It lays claim to being the site of one of the oldest settlements in Europe, dating back 7000 years, but the city of Sofia claims the more modest date of […]

There is an old Russian communist joke that goes something like this: a local communist meeting is taking place in a village outside Moscow and the party leaders are attending, to indoctrinate the local peasants. The leader asks the assembled crowd, ‘If you had ten cows what would you do?’ […]