The hallowed period of Christmas was celebrated by the ancient Irish with great pomp and festivity. Fleming’s ‘History of Ancient Irish Customs’, gives an elaborate account of the festivity and amusement at this season of gaiety and mirth. He writes: “On Christmas Eve the village maidens went to the woods […]
Columnists
I remember having a debate with a history teacher from a school in Dublin. He was dead set against conflating events from the past with the ones we are living in. I respectfully disagreed. History is not consigned to the past. For me, the past is a continuous force that shapes […]
We’re just in the door from a trip to Greece. It wasn’t our usual island hopping, we were on the mainland this time. We started off visiting the Acropolis in Athens and then drove through the plains where the wheat had been harvested leaving a golden stubble in the sunshine, […]
Every year I find it difficult to accept that summer is over. I know that Autumn is a lot of people’s favourite season, but I’m slow to give in to the joys of the season. I’ve lived in Ireland for over thirty years, but I still can’t accept that it’s […]
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 […]
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 […]