April and May are known as the hungry gap in the gardening world but not in our garden where we’re consuming colonies of cauliflowers and infinite amounts of spinach and kale. The spinach and kale are giving their last ditch effort before reaching for the sky and going to seed; […]
Columnists
Our gardens are the place where we grow many health-giving plants. Among the culinary delights that form the bedrock of our cooking are parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme. Other important culinary herbs are mint, bay, horseradish, fennel, marjoram, oregano, lovage, dill, basil, and lemongrass. The latter can be a bit […]
“War brings circumstances with it that changes our normal concepts of morality. It’s a tough, dirty business, caused in the first instance by the filth of corruption.” – Dessie O’Hare Dessie ‘The Border Fox’ O’Hare was, for a time, the most wanted man in Ireland. Bestowed on O’Hare by the […]
According to Edna O’Brien countries are mothers or fathers and “engender the emotional bristle secretly reserved for either sire”. Ireland has always been a woman, a beautiful maiden, a womb, a cow, a Rosaleen, a bride, a harlot and the gaunt Hag of Beara. For James Joyce, in ‘A Portrait […]
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 […]
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 […]