Where does the tradition of bringing a tree into your home to celebrate Christmas come from? It took a little research but it turns out the tradition is very ancient indeed. Long before Christians started to celebrate Christmas, many cultures around the world celebrated this very special time of year […]
Columnists
Christmas as a time of celebrations and revelry goes back to the customs of pre-Christian times. Mistletoe, yule logs, holly and evergreen trees are of pagan origin, sacred to the Romans and Celts. Of all the Christian festivals, Christmas was considered the most important in Ireland, and preparations began some […]
“I only did my duty, and what I was told to do as well as I could.” – Simo Häyhä The Winter War, sometimes referred to as the First Soviet-Finnish war, began on November 30, 1939 and ended 105 days later on March 12, 1940. Out of this war, which […]
How little we know. I had no idea that we’d still be in pandemic mode when I sat down to write my 2021 Christmas column. I was slowly starting to try and feel my way back to some semblance of pre-Covid normality, and it was working. Despite my reticence, going […]
As I start this new column the future seems to be more fragile than ever. In a world that is still struggling with the Covid pandemic, the thought of trying to do something about the ever present Climate Crisis can feel pointless and even overwhelming, but never has the adage […]
by Mark Holland What is BROD about, like ‘what do we do?’ is a question we keep asking ourselves. We know what we are for but what are we actually doing? It’s possibly a question that a lot of Local Community Groups (LCGs) have been asking themselves lately, for different […]