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 […]
Columnists
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 […]
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 […]