Full disclosure: the following column will be a total lovefest of West Cork. If you’re feeling contrary and want to complain about West Cork, stop reading now. It’s been warm and sunny for most of the past six weeks, and I am so bewitched by summer that I don’t remember […]

This is it lads! The moment we’ve all been waiting for. The prize that dangles in the distance through the dark days like a beckoning light at the end of the winter tunnel. Summer 2023 here we come! Is there ever a time more filled with hope? More anticipatory? I […]

I do so love this time of the year. Whether it’s hailing or basking in sunshine, each day is full of little signs that the best is yet to come: The fat buds on the trees, the hedgerows lined with the promise of bluebells and foxgloves, the blackthorn sporting its […]

I’m not sure why, but every year January takes an eternity to get through rather than just a month. It feels like it will never end. Maybe it’s a delayed reaction to all the excess of Christmas. Maybe it just takes a while for our hibernating brains to react to […]

Who doesn’t love a bank holiday? It’s a day off from work. A day to celebrate, to lounge around, or perhaps even an occasion to grab a quick break away as most bank holidays are tacked on to a Monday to create a three-day weekend. This year we’re getting a […]

Like the rest of the country, I began 2023 feeling like death warmed over. Our first proper Christmas since lockdown 2020 and many of us were too sick to party. It was a pick and mix lottery of diseases, but most of us got a winning ticket of sniffles, coughs, […]