Recently there has been a surge of interest in a food supplement called Berberine. Berberine has some very interesting properties (so interesting and effective in fact that it seemed for a while that it might be removed from sale and made prescription-only on the Irish market!) Thankfully that hasn’t happened […]
Columnists
The week of sunshine around the ploughing has drifted into distant memory and you’d swear we have just skipped October and gone straight into November. Southeasterly wind storms tend to be the worst here and the one on the last weekend of September left every east-facing window with a spattering […]
One of the most fascinating insights I ever got from American politicians was watching a documentary about Trump’s first run for the White House. One of the many ordinary voices interviewed was a humble blue collar worker from Detroit. Detroit used to be called ‘Motor City’ but years of under-investment […]
Séan Ó Súilleabhain, in his book ‘Caitheam Aimsire ar Thóraimh’ (translated as ‘Irish Wake Amusements’) describes the customs attached to waking the dead in Ireland. The title is startling in that we don’t associate a wake with pastimes or call it merry. Ó Súilleabhain noted that wakes were “far merrier […]
And just like that summer is over. It feels like it happened overnight, but really, it’s been fading for a few weeks now. The Celtic calendar got it right. Lughnasa on the first day of August is when the season changes. It always seems to me too early to call […]
Meán Fómhair, the Irish for September, translates as the middle of autumn and is a time when Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) begins to affect many people. SAD is a kind of depression that occurs primarily during the autumn and winter months, when sunshine hours are reduced. While the specific origin […]