Talented designer Alice Holliday works from a cosy third-floor atelier on Main Street in Skibbereen. Alice grew up in Castlehaven and her love of fashion and rare sense of style appeared early. Her surroundings, especially nature and the sea, became an inseparable part of her aesthetic.

At the age of nine, Alive already knew she wanted to become a designer. Childhood games with her sister – trying on vintage clothes and putting together improvised fashion shows – became the first steps towards her future profession. Over time, this grew into a clear creative path: making clothes that do not simply decorate a person, but help them express who they are.

Today, Alice works mainly with vintage and upcycled materials, reimagining them and giving them a new life. Her designs are defined by a love of experimentation and sustainable fashion – layering, texture, bold combinations of colour and print.

Look One

This ethereal, nature-inspired outfit captures a sense of joy.

At the centre is an airy, almost weightless dress made from sheer fabric and decorated with bright floral appliqués. The flowers are not just decoration – they create a sense of handcraft and individuality.

The silhouette is soft and flowing, with a fine belt accentuating the waist. At the same time, the layering – the dress worn over denim – adds a modern feeling and a gentle boldness.

It’s a timeless piece created around nature, flowers, light fabric and a feminine silhouette are elements that return to fashion again and again. The accessories also strengthen the look. A bright bag adds energy and focus, while the shoes and sheer socks support the softness and playfulness.

Stylist’s tip: To let dresses like this truly shine, play with contrast. Wear them not only with romantic shoes, but also with more grounded pieces – denim, chunky boots or minimalist accessories. This creates the balance between fairytale and real life that makes an outfit feel modern and stylish.

Look Two

This look feels as though it has stepped out of a fairytale.

The foundation is a layered silhouette. A flowing skirt in a warm terracotta shade creates soft movement and gives the outfit an earthy, natural base. Over it, a dark tunic with a painterly print recalls brushstrokes or floral motifs in a muted palette. This contrast – dark and warm, structured and airy – makes the look visually rich and interesting.

Accessories play a special role. A small bag on a long chain adds a vintage mood. The necklace and hair detail strengthen the sense that the look has been thoughtfully and artistically composed. The red footwear with a large flower is a bold, almost theatrical gesture that brings the whole composition to life.

Stylist’s tip: In a complex, layered outfit like this, it is important to keep a clear focus. Here, that focus is already created by the red shoes. When styling such a look, avoid adding too many more bright accents. Instead, support the colour of the shoes with lipstick or a small detail in the accessories, so the whole outfit feels complete and harmonious.

Look Three

This look is pure fairytale, with a touch of dramatic fashion and ethnic chic. 

The foundation is a black skirt with an ethnic print and a wide leather belt, which emphasises the waist and adds structure. A light mesh layer creates airiness, while the lower layer with ornamental print adds depth and visual interest. This contrast between transparency and dense pattern makes the outfit complex and multi-dimensional.

On the shoulders is a textured white fur cape, which immediately draws attention and adds theatre, luxury and a little fairytale innocence. The printed blouse softly echoes the hemline, creating a sense of unity. The loose sleeves look almost like wings, giving the outfit movement and a delicate, magical fragility.

Accessories are key here. The floral wreath in the hair strengthens the natural theme, while lace gloves add vintage refinement. The layered necklace makes the look more theatrical, and the round bag shaped like an old clock becomes the main narrative accent. The black shoes and sheer tights balance everything without drawing attention away from the main story.

The mood of the look is magical, slightly mysterious, but still warm and feminine.

Stylist’s tip: To adapt such an expressive look for everyday life, you can break it down into separate elements. For example, wear the printed skirt with more minimalist accessories, or replace the fur cape with a calmer jacket. This keeps the character of the outfit, while making it more wearable.

Photographer, stylist, make-up artist and text: Galyna Zaitseva

Clothing and headpieces:
Alice Halliday @alicehalliday alicehalliday.com

With thanks to Violette for providing the clock bag for the shoot.

While this change is outside of our control and will be managed, maybe even embraced in the future, we must allow ourselves to ‘have our moment’ and allow time to genuinely feel uncomfortable feelings. I am not a ‘get on with it’ type of person and very often find it hard to disguise what I’m feeling. The process of anything, as far as I’m concerned, is as, if not more important, than the task. So how something happens is as valuable as the way it actually happens.  The balancing of the process and task is embedded as a principle in community work training and in mindfulness training also. It’s the journey, not the destination that is important.  

But, in this moment, the destination matters too, because we don’t know where the mindfulness groups at Myross Wood will re-locate to. This will take months to figure out but I am relying on patience and trust and will take it one step at a time. And I’m not at all on my own, so many people care, including my weekly drop-in meditation group on Tuesday mornings, people who have been sitting meditating collectively for six years. Everyone offers comfort and potential solutions. My monthly mindfulness peer support for family carers, also in its sixth year, care very much where we will gather in the future.  

This work really matters to me, it supports us through grief, loss and change in our lives, helping us to manage the micro and the macro moments, allowing us to feel real happiness and joy. We are in the process of developing an online communication page and notice board for all carers in West Cork and this is vital work, led by the carers group at Myross Wood.  The empathy and compassion for others in this monthly group is very special to behold. Huge thanks to Cork ETB who have funded this work for a number of years through REACH funding with the welcome addition this year of the Collaboration and Innovation Fund. The work won’t stop, it will need a new venue.

But here now, reflecting over my time at Myross Wood, I have such appreciation for every single person I have encountered along the way.  Whether it was at a weekly mindfulness drop-in session, a themed workshop, staff teambuilding/wellbeing days, last year’s overnight retreat for family carers, or at a fundraising workshop last November to honour Dermot and all the souls. Or perhaps we connected at our monthly mindfulness peer support sessions for family carers, annual reconnect and re-engage programme or outdoor mindfulness in nature sessions.  Thank you every single one of you, from the bottom of a very full heart.

I have an appreciation for the place itself, close to my native Castlehaven, that held us all, surrounded by nature, such a special place connecting us to our very roots. Walking the other day, I had the most magical encounter with a giant hare, who lolloped along the road, stopped and rose up to his/her full height, just looking at me for a couple of minutes before heading off down the path.  I hope so much that the wildlife and nature living there will continue to be supported after CECAS leave.  The many staff and volunteers who supported us over the years deserve a massive mention on this list of gratitude and appreciation. Thank you for the wholesome soup for our carers group and associated events, the homemade cake and most of all the care.

We will deal with what’s happening but it’s ok to pause and take a moment or more, to feel our feelings around the loss of this community space. I will keep people posted in these monthly writings but please keep an eye on my Facebook page for up-to-date information on where we’re heading.  Care by Rachel Holstead feels very apt today.

‘In those moments when you want to care for all the world, / Remember that in you is also the whole of the world. / And you can only begin here – caring for this skin, / These bones, this heart. / Delve deep into caring, and every cell becomes a temple in which to honour the world.’

Mindfulness in June

Our last two drop-in mindfulness sessions at CECAS, Myross Wood, Leap on Tuesday mornings 10-11am, June 16, and 30. €12. Beginners, returners and newcomers are always welcome.

For more information: phone: 087 2700572 or email: susanoreganmindfulness@gmail.com 

f susanoreganmindfulness

www.mindhaven.ie

When I was young, I recall being intrigued by a poster in the Post Office warning farmers that they could be prosecuted for having noxious weeds growing on their land. The full list I have forgotten but it certainly included ragwort, dock and, I think, thistle. We are constantly trying to eliminate weeds from our gardens. Sometimes I find this hard to do because these so-called weeds are often beautiful and were once used widely in folk medicine and for other uses.

Ragwort, with its bright yellow, daisy-like flowers and toxic leaves, was regarded as a fairy plant to be treated with caution. It is known in Irish as Buachalán Buí, with alternative names such as Balcaiseán, Bóthanán, Buafalán, Gaosadán, Coiseog Bhuí and Las San Séan (Plant of St James). In English it has several alternative names including Bohalawn, Fairy Horse, James’ Weed, Ragged Jack, Staggerwort, Yellow Boy, etc.

In ancient Ireland it was believed that ragwort was used like a horse by the fairies to ride around on. Their favourite time for doing this was Hallowe’en and many stories tell of unfortunate people abducted and forced to ride around with them all night, only to wake the next morning exhausted, clutching the ragwort in their hands. However, the fairies could also be more generous. A well-known folktale relates how a fairy host takes a man with them on a magical journey. They give him a special cap and tell him to mount a ragwort as if it were a horse. He finds himself flying through the air and landing in a wine cellar in a foreign country. There he drinks his fill, but the next morning he finds himself alone and is then arrested for breaking into the wine cellar. He is sentenced to be hanged, but before the rope can be put around his neck, he manages to reach into his pocket and put on his fairy cap. He is lifted up into the air and brought back home, to be left standing beside the ragwort at the very spot where he first met the fairies. An old song describes the fairy ride: ‘Is gur shiúil mé na cúig cúigí; Is gan fúm act buachallán buí’ (And I travelled through all the provinces with nothing under me but the ragwort). A Sligo saying reflected the caution generally shown in Ireland towards ragwort: ‘Don’t call it a weed, though a weed it may be, ’tis the horse of the fairies, the booholaun buidhe’.

In the Scottish highlands, it was said that the fairies sheltered beside the ragwort on stormy nights, and also rode astride it on their journeys in the Hebrides, from island to island. Witches and warlocks were also believed to ride around on ragwort stems, as well as the more usual broom. A poem by Robbie Burns describes the devil and his witches and warlocks riding together: ‘Let warlocks grim, an’ wither’d hags / Tell how wi’ you on ragweed nags / They skim the muir (moors) an’ dizzy crags / Wi’ wicked speed.’ In Scotland, after the battle of Culloden, the victorious English are said to have named the garden flower ‘Sweet William’ in honour of their leader, William, Duke of Cumberland. The defeated Scots (who were massacred cruelly by the English) retaliated by giving ragwort the name ‘Stinking Billy’. Alternatively, the Scots maintained that the spread of ragwort throughout Scotland was due to the rampage across the land by the Duke of Cumberland’s troops during the Culloden campaign. Ragwort is the national emblem of the Isle of Man, perhaps because of the island’s nickname, ‘Ynn Ellan Shiant (The Fairy Isle).

Ragwort’s association with the fairies was believed to give it other magical properties. A Donegal folktale tells of a man with fairy power who used to turn a bunch of ragwort into the form of a pig. The man brought the ‘pig’ to a fair and sold it, but as the unfortunate buyer was driving it home, he crossed running water and the ‘pig’ instantly turned back into a bunch of ragwort. In places it was believed to be bad luck to strike a cow with the flowers of ragwort because it meant the ‘wee folk’ would be sure to come and steal the cow’s milk.

Ragwort was called the ‘herba Sancti Jacobi’ (the herb of Saint James) whose feast day is July 25 when the ragwort is in full bloom. Interestingly, in view of the ragwort’s role as a ‘fairy steed’, St James is said to be the patron saint of horses.

Ragwort is despised by farmers because its leaves are toxic to livestock. Despite this, ragwort features in several Irish cures. The leaves were used in many places as the basis for poultices and the juice was used for curing cuts, sores and inflammation, including burns, scalds and boils. Perhaps because of its yellow colour, ragwort was also considered as an effective cure for jaundice. Ragwort was also used for treating coughs, colds, sore throats, rheumatism and sore joints. In West Cork, ragwort was used to make brooms and brushes for sweeping the house. In Scotland and Ulster ragwort was put in with oats when they were stored to keep mice away.

by Cadhla Ó Conchobhair

As the old saying goes ‘a wet and windy May fills the haggard with corn and hay’. I think we could all do with seeing a pleasant summer after a long spring!

We would usually have the calves out to grass by the start of May. The farm sits on a hill and, as those cold northeasterly/westerly winds postponed their turnout, we are counting ourselves lucky to have gotten them out just ahead of the June bank holiday. As I type this month’s article, I can see the calves out my kitchen window, basking in an unexpected two days of blistering sun in the field; they are delighted with themselves and I am happy with them too because they have been very well-behaved outdoors and not gone through any fences.

The hedgerows are looking beautiful, with the whitethorn blossoms, cow parsley and wild bluebells, to name just a few. Even the blossoms are a little later this year, as if they have been waiting for warmer weather too. There is a great buzz about the place and it isn’t just the pollinators that are busy – the silage contractors are like busy bees, going from farm to farm harvesting first cut silage. Our silage ground wasn’t grazed this spring and we spread less organic N because the ground was too wet when we would normally spread it, so we decided to cut it a little earlier than usual, and we hope to have a better quality and heavier crop for the second cut in July. 

Most of the cows had calved by the first week in April with the exception of Cow 728 who, by way of a miraculous conception, calved three weeks later. Paul, our Hereford bull, must have paid a little sneaky visit last season!

After calving season finished, we barely had time to catch our breath before breeding season kicked off, the first round being AI. We used a combination of sexed and conventional straws for dairy replacements on the best cows and a selection of easy calving high DBI beef bulls on the rest. Good old Paul the bull is now spending a few weeks with the cows and will happily oblige if any of the cows do not hold to AI.

The Innishannon Steam Rally takes place over the June Bank holiday weekend, which is always a family favourite event every year; it is like a step back in time with the steam engines, many of which serviced the agricultural sector back in the day. The steam engine revolutionised not just work on farms, but also transport. Upton, where the steam rally is held every year, was once a stop on the West Cork Railway line that connected communities from the city all the way to Bantry. The railway closed, despite fierce local opposition, which included massive petitions, protests and even saw a delegation travelling from West Cork to plead their case. However the then government refused to overturn CIE’s decision to close the West Cork line on April 1, 1961 – how apt for a foolish decision to be enacted on Fool’s Day. 

CIE proceeded to lift the tracks and, because the railway had originally cut directly through many agricultural properties, local farmers purchased back these tracts of land to unify their fields. Over the decades these sections were integrated into active farmlands, roadways and farmyards with other landowners building new houses and businesses.

Because the land was completely broken up and sold off by Iarnrod Eireann, it is no longer state-owned or semi-state-owned land. 

You might be wondering why I am reminiscing about the rail line in the farming section?

Cork County Council and their handling of the proposed Cork-Kinsale Greenway has caused a fierce backlash from the farming community, businesses and homeowners on Cork County Council’s preferred route, which cuts right through farmland, some of which was never even on an old rail route. By all accounts, the process of consultation and communication has not been handled well and farm families on the route are fearful of CPOs (Compulsory Purchase Orders) being imposed on their land. 

DJ Keohane, Chairperson of West Cork ICMSA spoke to West Cork People about these concerns.  Mr. Keohane informed us that he and an ICMSA delegation had met with the Council at County Hall on behalf of their members. He described it as a very “straight talking” meeting, during which they raised the concerns of members who would be directly impacted by this route, as well as the concerns of other farm families farming between Cork City and Bantry. They also expressed fears that, if CCC is allowed to enforce CPOs on the proposed Cork–Kinsale route, their communities could be next on the list.

The Council stated to the ICMSA that it was implementing government policy to deliver greenways, and that Compulsory Purchase Orders would only be used as a measure of last resort.

ICMSA emphasised to the Council that their members were not opposed to greenways, they are opposed to CPO use for greenways, especially when, without proper engagement, the landowner’s livelihood, privacy and the natural biodiversity of the farm may be impacted. “Greenways can only be achieved through voluntary access and proper, on-farm and face-to-face consultations and constructive engagement”. 

Mr. Keohane added that the affected ICMSA members had lost confidence in the engagement process, particularly due to the absence of an impact assessment on the farms and families affected, leaving them feeling they had no control over the future of their family farms.

There are always alternative route options to consider, such as utilising Council-owned land to allow a greenway to run parallel to existing roads, rather than cutting directly through farms and undermining the viability of farming businesses. Projects of this nature can remain in limbo for years, depending on the availability of government funding and shifting Council priorities — a level of uncertainty that no other business sector would be expected to endure.

Reflecting on the meeting, Mr. Keohane said he believes the Council and its consultants acknowledged the concerns raised and accepted that engagement and communication regarding the route should have been handled in a more respectful manner.

This is not just an issue within this county; similar concerns regarding greenways are being raised across the country, leading groups of citizens to bring their protests to Dáil Éireann, where their concerns have been heard by the Joint Committee on Transport, while local TD Michael Collins has also raised the matter directly with An Taoiseach in the Dáil.

As I write, the Minister for Transport, Darragh O’Brien, has engaged consultants to carry out a review of the National Strategy on Greenways, with some elements of the Code of Best Practice National and Regional Greenways expected to be included in the review. Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) will oversee the review and Minister O’Brien has said “It is expected that the review of both the code and the strategy will conclude in 2026”.

The importance of personal engagement is often overlooked when decisions are driven by desktop policies and prescriptive procedures developed in an office setting.

No doubt farmers along the old railway line to West Cork will be closely watching how this project progresses. Hopefully, following the review of the greenway process, confidence in engagement procedures can be restored and workable solutions reached.

This year there has been a definite uptick of enquiries into Moneytree Finance from renters who have been given a ‘Notice to Quit’ by their landlord, because he or she intends to sell the house amid the uncertainty created by the recent changes to Irish rental law. Since March 1, 2026, there are now increased restrictions on landlords around rent increases and ending a tenancy, and crucially going forward all new tenancy agreements will become ‘Tenancies of Minimum Duration’ (TMD) lasting for six years, provided the renters are meeting certain standard obligations (for example paying the rent on time). And rather than navigate this new rental world, many ‘small landlords’ (defined as those having three or fewer tenancies) are instead selling up, creating opportunities for some first-time buyers but also great uncertainty for those who are receiving the notice to quit.

Indeed, being told you must leave your rental property can feel incredibly overwhelming, especially amid the serious housing crisis Ireland is currently experiencing. In certain circumstances, however, it can present renters with the chance to buy the house they have been living in themselves. In fact, provided certain criteria are met, there is even a government scheme – the Tenant Home Purchase Scheme – designed for this exact scenario. Below, I will explain this scheme in much more detail.  

The Tenant Home
Purchase Scheme 

In general, mortgages for renters who have been given notice to leave operate in the same way they do for other prospective borrowers. If they are first-time buyers, they can qualify for a loan of ‘up to four’ times their annual income, either single or joint (depending on whether they are applying alone or with a partner), and if they are second-time buyers the maximum loan is up to 3.5 times their annual income. And, as always, whether or not the bank will release the full potential loan will depend on the applicants’ financial profile, bringing factors such as the general cost of living, whether the borrower has any dependents/children and/or loans, and how much they have been saving on top of the rent over the last six months, into play. Like all buyers, renters hoping to purchase their landlord’s house will also need a deposit of at least 10 per cent ‘and’ be able to afford the ‘extra’ fees and charges such as Stamp Duty (one per cent of the purchase price) and legal costs (we always tell people to budget ‘about’ €3,000 for a good solicitor).

Imagine, however, that a renter (let’s call him James) has €30,000 in savings and as a first-time buyer has been mortgage approved for €200,000, giving him an overall budget of €230,000, but the landlord wants at least €280,000 for the house? Here is where the Tenant Home Purchase Scheme can help. An offshoot of the better-known First Home Scheme, the Tenant Home Purchase Scheme operates along similar lines, with the one crucial difference that it can be used to purchase a second-hand house. Indeed, this is the only scenario (a renter buying the landlord’s house) in which any of the government-backed schemes can be used to buy a home that has already been lived in: both the Help to Buy and the regular First Home Scheme are strictly for new-builds only. In the simplified scenario outlined above, James is €50,000 short if he wants to purchase the home he has been living in; provided he meets the criteria, however, and is open to the government holding an equity share in his home (at least for a time), the Tenant Purchase Scheme will give him that €50,000, allowing him to own a property which would otherwise have been out of his reach.

Of course, as already mentioned, certain conditions must be met to avail of the scheme. In terms of the landlord/rental element, the renter ‘must’ have been served with a valid notice of termination, and the tenancy ‘must’ be above board and registered with the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB). Beyond this, though, the scheme operates in similar terms to the First Home Scheme: applicants must be first-time buyers, they must apply to one of the ‘pillar’ banks (Bank of Ireland, AIB, or PTSB) for the mortgage, and they must borrow their maximum amount available, meaning they can’t leave any borrowing power behind them. The maximum eligible purchase price in Cork County is currently €450,000 (in Cork City it is €500,000), and the maximum equity share receivable is 30 percent of the purchase price; the minimum is 2.5 percent or €10,000, whichever is higher. Crucially, those using the Tenants Home Purchase Scheme ‘cannot’ also use the ‘Help To Buy’ tax rebate otherwise available to first-time buyers, as they are not buying a new home but a second-hand one. In terms of cost, participants in the scheme pay nothing at all for the first five years (though they do of course pay their regular mortgage during this period), and then a simple interest charge of 1.75 percent from year six onwards. This then rises again incrementally from years 16 and then 30, up to a maximum of 2.85 percent ‘simple’ interest per year, which would still be one of, if not ‘the’, cheapest loans you could ever get.

In any case, many people will choose to buy back the equity share from the government long before year 30 of the loan, and this can be done in a lump sum and/or over a longer period of time. Buying back the equity is where the most major caveat of the Tenant Home Purchase Scheme lies, however, as it is the ‘share equivalent’ that applicants owe the scheme, not the euro amount they originally received. Let’s again use James as our example: if James takes the scheme’s €50,000 to buy his landlord’s house for €280,000 now, then the equity share of his new home held by the government will amount to 17.86 percent (let’s call this 18 percent to keep things simple!). Now imagine that 10 years passes and James has come into some money, perhaps via an inheritance or just by saving diligently over time, and he decides to buy back the scheme’s equity share – he will owe them 18 percent of his home’s value ‘at that point in time’, which well may no longer amount to the €50,000 he originally borrowed. If James’s home has risen in value to €350,000, for example, he will owe them 18 percent of €350,000, which is €63,000. On the other hand, though, if his home happens to fall in value (a less likely but not impossible scenario), he will owe the scheme ‘less’ than he originally borrowed.

As long as borrowers are willing to abide by the rules and criteria of the Tenant Home Purchase Scheme, and accept the fact that they may end up paying back a bit more than they originally received over time, then the scheme is a viable and useful option for renters who have been given notice and would like to buy the home themselves. Like all the government schemes, it is not perfect, but it does frequently get people into houses that they could otherwise not afford. If you think any of the above is relevant to you and have further questions, or you would like to discuss any mortgage query further, please don’t hesitate to contact Moneytree Finance today! 

It was while reading the compelling story of Puerto Rico’s nationalist failed uprising against American colonialism that I stumbled onto a connection between the leader of the uprising, Pedro Albizu Campos, and Eamon de Valera. Nelson Denis, author of ‘The War against all Puerto Ricans’ wrote that ‘Albizu Campos had helped Eamon de Valera draft the constitution of the Free State’ – which of course is incorrect because Dev and his anti-treaty republicans bitterly opposed it. But like all historians, we carry that most necessary trait – curiosity. While Nelson Denis may have erroneously mentioned the Free State constitution, he certainly was correct that Albizu met Dev, and what’s more, modelled his Puerto Rican revolution on the 1916 Rising. 

It turns out that Campos was something of a child genius and despite his improvised background, gained entry to Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. After serving patriotically and bravely in World War One for the US, he returned to Massachusetts, this time completing his law degree in Harvard in 1921, becoming the first Puerto Rican to graduate from that great institution. It was here in Harvard, where he met Eamon De Valera who of course was engaging in a fundraising American tour between June 1919 and December 1920. There is British Pathe footage of the massive crowds that assembled to meet and support Dev in Boston, where he was welcomed with vibrant enthusiasm by adoring Irish Americans, many first generation émigrés or descendants of The Great Famine.

Swept up by a wave of Irish euphoria, it seems Campos was well placed to meet and learn from Dev about the Rising in 1916, Sinn Fein and the Irish War of Independence that was in full sway at this time. Looking closer at Nelson Denis’s footnotes, he mentions a Puerto Rican writer with Irish heritage – Aoife Rivera Serrano’s, quoting her book ‘Ireland and Puerto Rico; The Untold Story’ in reference to this event. Digging a little deeper, I went in search for more of this, only to find that Ms Serrano has also published (in 2012) a book entitled ‘The Quickening of Albizu Campos: How Fenianism Galvanized the Last American Liberator’. In it she claims that Albizu was influenced by Fenians. They were very active in American circles since 1870, under the flagship of Clan Na Gael, and were the supporting body that organised Dev’s tour of America. In that book she reveals how Campos was initially exposed to ‘members of the American Anti-Imperialist League and Irish American Union, whom Campos encountered in Harvard Library’. From them, Albizu Campos would learn that many Irish soldiers ‘fought for the Union to learn skills they could take back to Ireland in the struggle’, something he would do in his own homeland. Whatever the Irish connection, there is certainly one thing both movements for independence shared – tiny resources against a mighty adversary.

One of his greatest attributes was his rhetorical and oratory skills. At a lecture in the Sanders theatre at Harvard, he was outspoken in support for Irish independence. Lord Miller, a British imperialist nobleman in attendance, admitted ‘it was the most brilliant speech on the matter I ever heard’. Campos would also visit the Irish dominated administrative wards in Boston to canvass for money for Sinn Fein and the Irish revolution. 

The geopolitical situation in 1898 brought into conflict, the once mighty but increasingly brittle Spanish imperialistic powers, with the world’s fastest growing military power, the USA. The Americans also ‘liberated’ the Philippines in that year yet continued to occupy them until finally relinquishing power in 1946. In 1898, they also added Hawaii and Puerto Rico to their imperialistic real estate. The irony in Puerto Rico’s case, was that the Spanish had promised the islanders independence not long before the Americans ‘liberated’ them from Spain. 

Their freedom from Spain was only the beginning of their colonisation by the US. Within a decade of saving them, their Spanish tongue, like Irish, was slowly being obliterated. (The Spanish as we know were as bad a coloniser as any country and had long wiped out the indigenous Taino tongue from memory). An act in 1902, made law that all public office, courts and local government departments use English as a coequal language. By 1909, English had become the dominant language of instruction in schools. Later, The Puerto Rican flag and their national anthem, ‘La Borinquena’, was outlawed under the 1948 Gag Law (‘Ley de la Mordaza’). By 1922, the year Albizu formed the PR Nationalist party, the country was declared a territory by the USA supreme court, as it remains to this day. This means that the protective rights of the American constitution did not apply to the people. Economic hardship already a factor in life, became worse particularly for the sugar cane workers which was the dominant employer. Without the protective rights, they endured colonial taxes, devaluing of the peso all intended to squeeze them out of land ownership, only to be hoovered up by large American corporations, intent on gaining access to the ludicrous cash crop and creating American monopolies. By 1934, 80 percent of the sugar cane farms were owned by American syndicates and it would even get worse.

Albizu became a champion of the workers and, using his lawyer credentials, tried to help the workers and backed their strikes. In an age where communism was growing globally, any nationalist movement that had a socialist agenda as part of its manifesto, was easily tarnished with the stigma and threat of red terror. This is what would happen to Campos and his nationalist party to try to discredit his socialist agenda. Even today, some in Puerto Rico only know him erroneously as a ‘communist agitator’. What Campos was witnessing, was the development of a feudal type grip over Puerto Rico that was not only impoverishing the natives and enriching the Americans, but also attempting to eradicate any sense of national identity. Puerto Rico was ruled by a set of military governors in those days, rather than civic politicians. The most notorious was General Blanton Winship, whose goal was to crush the labour strikes, and to dismantle and destroy the nationalist party, which had been gaining popular support. In moves reminiscent to British rule in Ireland, Winship imprisoned leaders, prohibited public demonstrations and banned speeches at funerals (Campos would have known and understood the power of those such as O’Donovan Rossa’s funeral and Thomas Ashe’s funeral, as powerful catalysts for the Irish revolution movement).

Winship’s iron rule was best demonstrated by the 1937 Ponce massacre, where 17 civilians, including a child of seven, were shot dead and clubbed in the streets while out demonstrating. Over 200 more were injured by the Insular police force sent there to crush it. This too had shadows of the cold-blooded massacre of twelve Irish civilians in Croke Park in 1920, at the hands of the Auxiliaries. In both cases there were false claims by the ruling authorities of shots being fired at the police forces.  Neither were there repercussions for the ruling power. However, unlike Ireland, the Ponce massacre, was erased from popular history, and would have remained so, if it was not for the amateur footage taken by a young film maker, Juan Emilo Viguie.  Despite having actual evidence of the atrocity, he knew to release it publicly would have led to its censorship or destruction by the omnipotent power that was the USA. Albizu and other leaders would be rounded up, exiled or imprisoned. But their spirit would live on and would re-emerge in the 1950 revolution.

Albizu had to painstakingly build up the movement once again that had been savagely suppressed. But worse was to come. It was the era of the Red Scare all over the US, which had created a culture of paranoia against anyone who was un-American. US intelligence agencies increasingly monitored and infiltrated nationalist movements during the early Cold War period. The US was now the global dominant power after World War Two and the nationalist movement was poorly armed and low in numbers. Albizu knew any rising would only be a way to draw the world’s eyes to the cause of freedom and abuses within Puerto Rico, similar to Easter 1916. The revolution was easily put down, not before the town of Jayuya was bombed from the air, the only time the US has bombed its own citizens (again – parallels to the British burning of a British city – Cork in 1920).  What garnered even more attention was how close two Puerto Ricans came to successfully assassinating the president Harry Truman, days later.

Unlike MacSwiney, or Padraig Pearse, or Tomás Mac Curtain – the US would not make a martyr of Campos. He and the other nationalist were not shot but arrested. The men were locked into cells in horrendous conditions in San Juan, in what we must not forget was American territory and under American law. Many of the men were tortured to ‘supply names’ of other nationalists, including methods such as electrocution. It had mirrors of a cold war movie, but it’s not the maligned Soviet’s doing the torturing, but the so called ‘good guys’.  The strangest event were the lesions, headaches and burns Campos was getting, but not from overt abuse. Doctors (selected by the USA) declared he was going mad but when he finally got independent medical attention, via massive international pressure, his wounds were akin to radiation exposure. The United Nations denounced it as torture and demanded his extradition abroad in 1952 but to no avail. The swelling, burns, headaches continued until he eventually suffered a stroke, which silenced the most outspoken voice of Puerto Rican nationalism. By 1956 he was dead and with him a nationalist dream for independence. But unlike the Irish story where from the attempts to silence our martyrs, grew screams for freedom; the echoes of the ghost of Campos, sadly are still only a whisper today.

by Melissa Byrne & Gillian Hegarty

One of the tastes of summer is most definitely that of a fresh strawberry, eaten in the (hopefully!) West Cork sunshine. In West Cork, we are so lucky to have Union Hall and Bushby’s strawberries on our doorstep. What makes our local strawberries special is not just our rich West Cork soil, but the way they are grown. Instead of using harmful pesticides to manage pests that might damage the crop, Bushby’s uses other beneficial insects in a preventative role. This means what ends up on your plate is as clean and natural as it gets. Hotels, restaurants and food lovers across West Cork all make local strawberries their preferred choice, for that exact reason. And if you’ve ever tried them, you’ll know what we mean. 

Strawberries are packed with Vitamin C, so one small bowl gives you more than your daily dose. They are also full of fibre, which is great for your gut, and they have natural sugars that give you energy.

This summer, keep an eye out for the Alpine strawberry, a tiny wild strawberry, which you might know as sú talún fiáin in Irish. It grows in hedgerows, along woodland edges and on grassy banks .These are much smaller than the ones you buy, but the flavour is intense and sweet in a way that is hard to describe until you have tried one. Top tip: you might find some near the playground in Dunmanway! Wild strawberries are perennial, meaning they come back every year in the same spot once established.  

Strawberries are one of the easiest fruits to grow at home: in a garden bed, a pot on a windowsill, or even a hanging basket. They like sunshine and well-drained soil. Plant them in spring and you could be picking your own by June or July. Once the plant finishes fruiting, it sends out runners, which are long thin stems with a baby plant at the end. You can pot those up and they will grow. So one plant can become many.

Strawberry frozen yoghurt pops

We have a tasty – and healthy – recipe for you! These frozen strawberry pops are brilliant on a warm day and they could not be simpler to make. You will need ice lolly moulds, which you can find in most supermarkets or hardware shops.

You will need:

•  250g strawberries

• 120g natural yoghurt

• 1 tablespoon of honey

There are two ways to make these: You can either just blitz the strawberries in a blender and freeze in moulds – these are delicious on their own, and great for teething babies, too.

Or, combine with the ingredients above. If you don’t have fresh strawberries, frozen is fine! Mix in the yoghurt and honey and stir until combined. Pour into your lolly moulds, insert the sticks, and freeze for at least four hours, or overnight. To release, run the outside of the mould briefly under warm water.

Tips: Strawberries freeze beautifully on their own too. Take out the stems, and freeze in a bag. Frozen strawberries are perfect for smoothies, porridge toppings, or blitzing into a quick sauce for pancakes.

Fruit skewers with chocolate dip

Thread chunks of strawberry, banana, apple, and whatever fruit you have, onto wooden skewers. For a dip, melt a bar of good dark or milk chocolate in a bowl set over hot water, stirring gently until smooth. Dip and eat immediately.  

Chocolate-covered strawberries

Wash and dry a punnet of strawberries and set aside. Line a baking tray. Melt good quality dark chocolate (we like 70pc cocoa). Dip strawberries into it and lay out on a baking tray to harden. Pop in the fridge or freezer and enjoy once chocolate has set.

Did you know?

Unlike most fruits, the seeds of the strawberry are on the outside. If you’ve ever bought a packet of strawberry seeds, you’ll know that they are tiny: those tiny yellow specks you see on the skin. A strawberry is not actually a berry at all, in the botanical sense. Bananas and avocados are true berries. The strawberry, meanwhile, belongs to the rose family, which perhaps explains why it smells so good.

We love the surprises Irish holds: ‘sú’ is from Old Irish, meaning juice or berry, and ‘talún’, comes from ‘talamh’, meaning earth or ground. So strawberry means ‘berry of the ground’ or ‘ground berry’.

Fun Facts

• The average strawberry has around 200 seeds.

• Strawberries were used in medieval times to treat everything from fevers to sore throats.

• The world’s heaviest strawberry on record weighed 289g, roughly the same as a small tin of beans.

• In Japan, strawberries are so precious that a single perfect fruit can sell for several euros.

Follow us for more news about our cooking and gardening workshops in West Cork schools: Instagram: @kidsfoodrevolution. Newsletter: kidsfoodrevolution.substack.com. Website: www.kidsfoodrevolution.com.

I was recently shown a photograph of something from a local beach that I hadn’t noticed before. It resembled a giant honeycomb growing over a mussel-covered rock. The thing was a colony of Sabellaria alveolata, the honeycomb worm. The individual worms are only about four centimetres long, but each builds a tube made of sand grains and tiny pieces of broken shell, all stuck together with mucus, which is attached to neighbouring tubes, forming an extensive colony that looks like something a bee or wasp might have made. At low tide, the worm hides inside the tube, but when the tide comes in, it extends its tentacles to catch microscopic food particles. Most Sabellaria reefs are found between tide marks, although the largest one in Ireland, the Wicklow reef, is sub-tidal.

The word ‘worm’ doesn’t apply precisely to any one group of animals. Some creatures are called worms that are not worms at all – I wrote before about the shipworm, which is a bivalve mollusc. A woodworm is a beetle, so is a glow-worm; an inch-worm is a type of caterpillar, a slow worm is a legless lizard. Several other unrelated creatures, most known only to zoologists, are called worms too, such as arrow worms, acorn worms, bootlace worms and tongue worms.  

The worms that ordinary people are most likely to encounter belong to the phyla Platyhelminthes, Nematoda and Annelida. The platyhelminths are the flatworms, tapeworms and flukes. Flatworms are mostly free-living. Some are brightly coloured sea creatures; others are invasive garden pests such as the Australian and New Zealand varieties. Tapeworms resemble very long strands of tagliatelle, made up of dozens of units that are actually bags of eggs. They are all parasitic, living in the digestive systems of many vertebrates from fish to pigs, and humans too if you don’t cook your meat adequately. Flukes are also parasitic; the best known in Ireland is the liver fluke, Fasciola hepatica, which infects sheep and cattle. The serious tropical disease, bilharzia, is caused by a fluke called Schistosoma.

The most abundant worms are the nematodes or round worms. There are many thousands of species, mostly microscopic, living in every known ecosystem from the Arctic to the ocean floor; in some soils, there might be a million nematodes per square metre. Many roundworms are parasites; those of the family Anisakidae are common in fish; eating raw fish can lead to anisakiasis which, not surprisingly, is common in Japan. In the tropics, other nematodes cause more horrible afflictions, such as elephantiasis and river blindness. 

The annelids are segmented worms; their bodies are divided into many sections, each with copies of all the important organs. There are three classes of annelids: Oligochaeta, the earthworms; Hirudinea, the leeches; and Polychaeta, the marine worms.

There are about 10,000 species of oligochaetes, most living in soil, some in freshwater. Common earthworms, Lumbricus terrestris, are vital to soil quality, because their burrowing carries nutrients such as leaf litter, as well as air and water, from the surface down into the soil; Charles Darwin’s last book was on that subject. The worms that live in your compost bins – you all have compost bins of course – are brandlings, Eisenia fetida.

The longest earthworm in Europe is Lumbricus badensis from the German Black Forest, which grows to 60 centimetres, but the real monsters belong to the family Megascolecidae, e.g. the giant Gippsland earthworm from Australia, which can reach two metres.

Leeches are similar to oligochaetes, except that they have a sucker at both ends, used for locomotion (they move in the same manner as inch worms) or for attachment to a host. There are over 600 species, three-quarters of which are blood-suckers, the rest free-living predators. Fishermen might be familiar with a large leech called Pontobdella muricata, which lives on skates and rays. The medicinal leech, Hirudo medicinalis, has been used for centuries for the spurious cure-all of ‘blood-letting’. Today, doctors use them to reduce swelling and restore circulation after microsurgery, and also to treat varicose veins. When I was doing a frog survey in Malawi, I spent most evenings wading around at the edge of a small lake, and when I got back to my hut and took off my boots, there were often leeches inside, sucking away at my blood.

The last group of annelids are the polychaetes. There are also about 10,000 species, divided into two sub-classes: Sedentaria and Errantia. The lugworm is one of the former. It leads a dull life in a U-shaped burrow in muddy sand, above which, as every shore angler knows, is the cast – that coil of sand that has passed through its digestive system. Other sedentary polychaetes live in tubes made out of mucus and sand or fragments of shell, e.g. the peacock worm and the sand mason worm, both common on the lower shore. The honeycomb worm belongs to this group.

Some sedentary worms make calcareous tubes: Spirorbis, whose tube is coiled like a tiny snail shell, lives attached to rocks and seaweed; Pomatoceros, which makes long, white wiggly tubes, is  often seen on rocks, shells and fishermen’s buoys.

Many tube worms have feathery, fan-like tentacles that can resemble beautiful flowers. The Christmas tree worm, Spirobranchus giganteus, found in tropical seas, has two fans made of several whorls, each looking like an artificial Christmas tree. 

The Errantia contains active, predatory worms. Ragworms, also used as bait by anglers, have “parapodia” or false legs growing out from each segment, with which they crawl or swim. Unlike lugworms, they have tentacles, eyes and, in some species, big sharp jaws. The sea mouse, Aphrodita aculeata, which you might find at extreme low tide, looks more like a drowned mouse than a worm, being short, fat and hairy, but its bristles shine in gorgeous iridescent greens and purples. Another group, the gossamer worms, are specialised for life in the plankton, where they paddle about emitting a yellow bioluminescence at night.

Most annelids are harmless, though there are exceptions. The Mongolian Death worm from the Gobi Desert can kill humans by squirting a deadly poison; just touching this worm is fatal. Fortunately it only exists in the minds of cryptozoologists. But fireworms, found on tropical coral reefs, have bristles which contain a toxin that can cause pain, irritation and nausea. The larger errant polychaetes can give you a nasty bite. One species is especially scary –  the trap-jaw worm. This creature, which can grow to nearly three metres in length, spends its time buried in the sand around Indo-Pacific coral reefs. When it senses a fish nearby, it lunges up out of its burrow, and its huge open jaws snap shut on the surprised fish, which is then dragged down into the sand. A reef fish called Scolopsis affinis has learned how to retaliate by squirting jets of water at the worms.

Zoologists are forever changing the classifications that I learned years ago. Beard worms, for example, once in their own phylum, Pogonophora, are now classified as annelids. The best known of these is Riftia pachyptila, a giant tube worm that can also grow to three metres. It lives around hydrothermal vents deep in the Pacific, part of a community of animals adapted to darkness and temperatures as high as 380 degrees Celsius. Also now placed among the annelids are the sipunculids. I was once very pleased to be able to identify a plateful of these unimpressive worms in a restaurant in Xiamen, China, where they are a local delicacy. They came in a sort of jelly, and like so many odd things the Chinese eat, tasted only of soy sauce, garlic and ginger.

The Chinese are not the only ones who eat worms. The palolo worm, similar to a ragworm, is very important in the South Pacific. Cork-born writer and artist Robert Gibbings, in his book ‘Over the Reefs’, described their capture in Samoa. On just a few nights in October or November, when the moon is in its last quarter, the palolo rise to the surface in great writhing masses and release their reproductive segments, which are the edible bits. They apparently taste better than oysters but smell like the reef at low tide.

To the average person, worms are disgusting, squirmy things, and parasitic worms are so unpleasant that anyone without an understanding of natural selection must surely wonder why they exist at all. Sir David Attenborough (who is 100 years old this month) uses the nematode that causes river blindness to explain his agnosticism – how can a merciful god have created a worm which lives only by burrowing into a child’s eyeball?

But the majority of worms are unobtrusive, some are quite beautiful, and many are important environmental engineers; even the nasty ones have ingenious life-cycles. We should be fascinated by worms, not be disgusted by them.

A dry backend to 2024 and the lovely Spring of 2025 allowed stock on most farms to graze from March onward up to late Autumn before any weather upset to what was a lovely farming year. 

Unfortunately, Spring 2026 has not been so kind: While weather has started to improve at last, work is well behind time. Heavy rainfall and wet soil conditions have delayed the planting of tillage crops, potatoes and grass reseeding; and the on-off grazing of livestock has resulted in the ground getting poached with the addition of fertiliser going out late likely to delay silage cutting. 

No year is ever the same but farmers sometimes forget that the Springs of 2023 and 2024 were nearly just as bad as this Spring. Three of the last four springs have had elevated levels of rainfall from January to April. Is it perhaps time for beef farmers to reflect and accept that this may happen more often in the future? Beef farmers will always aim to get stock out if a spring allows, but oftentimes they are left with their hands hanging after a series of rain deluges when their stock should already be out in the fields. Those blessed to have drier, free-draining soils don’t have as much of an issue but the farmers on heavier soils have not been able to take advantage of the odd dry day, as it can take anything from four to seven days for those soils to drain. 

Teagasc Beef specialists have suggested that heavier soil farms and more typical beef farms should try to prioritise some farm management decisions in 2026 to help mitigate against these weather effects, which are more common than not.

This spring, beef farmers with six months of slurry storage spent less time worrying about slurry appearing up through the slats and trying to find dry ground to spread. Investment is worth it if it is a pressure that is happening annually. A new slatted tank may not end up costing as much as anticipated. There are grants of up to 60 per cent available subject to DAFM terms and conditions, with a two-year tax write-off for farmers in the high tax bracket. 

Similarly, suckler herds that depend on straw-bedded housing had little or no livestock turned out by mid-April. Investing in adequate lie-back areas and calving pens is therefore worthwhile, as it can help reduce veterinary costs when issues like calf scours or pneumonia arise.

Silage quality is always important, but if wetter years become more common, prioritising the harvest of high-quality leafy grass in mid-May – followed by strong second cuts – becomes even more critical. Silage cut in early to mid-June is generally suitable for dry cows up to calving. However, after calving, silage should exceed 70 per cent Dry Matter Digestibility (DMD) and have a high protein content to prevent loss of body condition before the breeding season. High-quality silage is equally important for weanlings and finishing cattle, with a target of around 75 per cent DMD being even more beneficial.

To produce high-quality grass, farmers need to understand their soil fertility and maintain a strong proportion of perennial ryegrass, which can efficiently use nutrients from fertiliser to maximise growth. It’s also worth remembering what happened in 2022, when rising fertiliser prices led many farmers to cut back on fertiliser. The result was lighter crops, poorer-quality silage, and a negative impact on soil fertility.

Improving soil fertility through reseeding is another investment that can deliver strong returns for the farm business. One of the most cost-effective ways to boost soil health is by correcting acidity with lime, which helps unlock key nutrients and supports grass growth. Lime is a cornerstone of soil fertility and was widely used by previous generations of farmers, long before modern fertilisers – but somewhere along the line farmers stopped using it!

If we have finally turned the corner with the weather, this could be great opportunity to reseed old and poor-quality fields. Over the past three years there has been good results coming from farms that have reseeded silage ground with red clover swards. 

Identifying what is putting pressure on the farm system this spring and taking measures against it now will help mitigate against the stress of what will happen if mother nature decides to repeat the heavy rainfall next year!

Talking about a repeat of last year, calf prices were high again this spring, with dairy farmers scratching their heads wondering how beef farmers can make a margin with the price of calves being sold at the mart. 

According to Teagasc beef specialist David Argue, it is important for farmers to complete a budget now to understand their total cost of production. On Teagasc’s Beef podcast, he gave an example of an Angus or Hereford calf bought in February costing €460 plus the input costs, killing out at two-years-old, with Teagasc approximating costs to equal €1400, coming to a breakeven price of €1860. 

An expected target of 310/312 kg carcase weight divided into €1860, means a farmer would need to make approximately €5.98 a kilo to just cover the costs of the system. So, for a farmer to earn a €100 margin on the carcase, 32c per kilo would be required on top of the €5.98. 

Assuming a calf has had a good healthy start to life, calves that have a higher CBV value and good genetics, will return value.

We would need a crystal ball to know what way prices will go but what is known is that input prices for 2026 are already going up. Nitrogen fertiliser is up €200/250 per tonne with meal and contractor prices looking likely to go up as well. Getting grassland and animal health right to reduce costs should be a priority. Aim to graze correct covers and take out strong paddocks to maximise daily weight gain and monitor animal performance throughout the year. 

A date for your diary: The BEEF2026 open day takes place on Wednesday, July 1 at Teagasc Grange, Dunsany County Meath. It will showcase systems and technological advances that can be utilised by cattle farmers to increase production and drive income in a sustainable way.

And rightly so: unless you are fortunate enough to be a cash buyer, getting AIP’d by a mortgage lender is a crucial step on the road to home ownership, and one that should be celebrated. However, it is only that – a step! – and to be frank, perhaps the most important words in the term Approval in Principle are the last two: ‘in principle’. 

Indeed, while it sounds very official, and looks quite fancy when printed neatly on the bank’s headed paper, the AIP does not actually commit the potential lender to anything, nor does it mean that the prospective borrower can suddenly relax and start spending without a care in the world, or stop that carefully-planned savings regime, which has been in place for the last six months. All the AIP really means is that a bank has looked at an applicant’s income and savings at a specific point in time, and agreed that for a particular period (typically six months or a year, depending on the lender) they would in theory … all else being equal … but only if nothing significant changes, and the cost of living stays broadly the same … and the house being purchased is up to their standards, be willing to consider lending the money required to buy it. 

This last qualification is an important one and emphasises that the mortgage assessments conducted by banks have two main targets: the applicants themselves and the property they are hoping to purchase. Bank of Ireland, for example, may think that recent applicant John, with his strong income, consistent savings, and absence of short-term debt, is the ideal candidate for a mortgage, but if he returns two months post-approval, having gone sale agreed on a ‘doer-upper’ which sits in an area prone to flooding and on land whose boundary is disputed by neighbours, his AIP won’t be worth the paper it’s printed on. Bank of Ireland, along with any other Irish mortgage lender, will be incredibly wary of this house because if they ever need to repossess it, they themselves won’t be able to easily sell it on and thus get their money back. Getting paid is ultimately what matters to the banks, understandably enough. 

What an AIP ‘will’ do, however, is allow recipients to go house hunting, meaning they can view homes in their preferred area, engage with estate agents, and crucially place bids. Should they then go sale agreed on a house that the bank approves of (a valuer will be sent by the bank to assess the property), and no significant changes to the applicant’s circumstances have occurred (such as a marriage, the birth of a child, a promotion or demotion at work, or a change of employment altogether), they will be well placed to receive a Loan Offer from the bank, which is a much more meaningful document than the AIP. Also known as a Letter of Offer, this is a formal, legally binding document from a lender outlining all the mortgage’s important details, such as the term-length and interest rate, and it will also list the requirements/conditions which need to be met in order to eventually draw down the funds. 

While Loan Offers do sometimes include ‘special conditions’ specific to more complicated cases, many of them will simply include the requirements typical for any mortgage, such as the need to have both home and life insurance in place for the term of the loan. Of course, even this standard small print can sometimes cause issues, namely when people belatedly discover they cannot get either home or life insurance for one reason or another. Both scenarios can be very difficult for prospective borrowers to navigate, and banks are rarely, ‘if ever’, willing to waive this condition or compromise on it. The house insurance, for example, really needs to have all the main perils — fire, flood, subsidence — covered to satisfy the bank, and there are parts of West Cork and the wider county where both flooding and subsidence have caused issues in the past. Subsidence, where there is movement of a building’s foundation caused by the loss of support from the soil beneath it, tends to be more of an issue in Cork City, but flooding has historically occurred in West Cork towns such as Skibbereen and Bandon, so if house hunting in these areas it’s worth asking yourself “will I be able to insure this home to the bank’s satisfaction?” Getting ahead of potential pitfalls like this can prevent heartbreak down the line and ease the drawdown process for all involved. 

Issues with life insurance (known in broker-speak as ‘mortgage protection’) can be even harder to navigate. Once upon a time, banks were sometimes willing, in certain cases, to waive the requirement for life cover, but since the 2008 financial crisis they have become much stricter about this, as they have about many other things. Essentially, if your income is being used as part of the mortgage assessment, either as a single or joint applicant, you will ‘need’ to have life cover in place to draw down the funds, without exception. The policy will be legally assigned to the bank, meaning they essentially own a policy on your life, and this is designed to protect the lender should a mortgage holder pass away or become unable to work during the term of the mortgage. 

In sum, if you are hoping to apply for a mortgage at any point in the future but also have reason to believe you may struggle to get life cover, perhaps due to an ongoing medical condition, it is worth investigating your options now, even prior to getting AIP’d. This can be done in numerous ways, but one is to speak with a life insurance expert at somewhere like Moneytree Finance – (We don’t just do mortgages you know!)  — who will be advise you on the best way forward. 

If you are a potential mortgage borrower and you have questions about any of the topics discussed above, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with Moneytree Finance today.  

Why is it inevitable? Simply put – what makes an empire, breaks it. An empire is built on the manipulation, suppression and exploitation of other peoples. It is only a matter of time – it could be decades, even millennia – before the suppressed will no longer put up with those injustices. From that friction, come the sparks that will burn red; the hot passions of resistance.

The Irish road for independence took many forms over eight centuries: diplomacy, politics, boycotts, monster meetings, economic wars, and outright rebellions. The War of Independence was all the more remarkable given the size of the opponent that the Irish had to overcome and lack of resources they had at their disposal. It was a David versus Goliath tussle. We must be careful not to underestimate just how inspiring that victory was for so many countries, who themselves were under the yoke of foreign rule. India is often cited as an example of one such country who took their inspiration from the Irish. Sir Henry Wilson, British general, imperialist and chief tormentor of the Irish rebels during the War of Independence, declared, ‘If we lose Ireland, we lose India’. How prophetic those words were. A prominent Indian nationalist, called V.J. Patel travelled to Ireland four times throughout the 1920s and 1930s, as he was a keen follower of the Irish independence movement. Not only that, he also formed part of an Ireland-Indian independence league who met in Dublin in 1932 and with De Valera. One British diplomat observed that ‘the Congress Party (the main Indian Party during British rule) are largely founding themselves on the methods by which the Irish Free State secured practical independence of Great Britain’. This type of relationship continued with the official visit of another Indian nationalist, Subhas Chandra Bose, who sought to learn from Ireland the methods to break the chains of their imperialist jailers. 

However, what is lesser known is the story of Pedro Albizu Campos, another revolutionary influenced by the daring resistance of the Irish. This Puerto Rican fought one of the mightiest empires of all – the United States of America. He met Eamonn De Valera and both influenced each other. Yet there was no fairytale ending for Campos, and Puerto Rico today is as far away from Independence as it ever has been, partly down to systematic years of making it too reliant on the USA, as well as the erosion of its identity and development of economic dependency. It’s part of the imperialistic playbook. Ireland itself was on a similar course to be subsumed as a province of the UK until the formation of the Gaelic League, the GAA and the significant development of the Irish Parliamentary Party, all in and around the 1870s and 1880s. The zenith of British colonial rule had been reached – the Irish language was on its knees. Education of the masses was conducted through English. Cricket (I kid you not), was the most popular sport in Ireland. Local governance was in the hands of the aristocratic unionists, while national politics was firmly ensconced in Westminster, in London.

Today Puerto Rico feels and smells like a piece of America: big cars, ubiquitous American chain stores, the American dollar. Baseball is their number one sport. (brought in by the Americas after occupation in 1898).  It has territory status, and thus is not a State. The US district courts operate in English though the primary language spoken by most residents at home is Spanish. The people have been given American citizenship since 1917, yet strangely they can’t vote in the Presidential elections or even be represented in Congress, yet are subject to their laws. Puerto Ricans don’t pay federal income tax, but neither do they benefit from federal funding in key areas such as Medicare or food stamps. The country’s largest party is the pro-American statehood status PNP (Partido Nuevo Progresista) whose candidate for governor won with over 50 per cent of the vote against an alliance party that includes the sovereign seeking, Independent Party PIP (Partido Independentista Puertorriqueño) on about 30 per cent. Is Puerto Rico past its moment in history where independence no longer matters? Or, is it at that point of its journey that Ireland faced in the 1870s/80s from where it sought to break from its Britishness or remain pacified and tamed.

Most Puerto Ricans like the idea of being able to work and travel in the USA and the separatist question is not an issue – depending on who you speak with. A younger generation are beginning to look into their past and connect to their Taino indigenous ancestors, though the language they spoke, sadly has become extinct. They are the generation similar to many people in Ireland who struggle to get on the housing market, made even harder by it becoming a holiday destination for wealthy mainland Americans who can benefit from ‘ACT 60’. This is a tax break on investment income, which is great for investors and people with excess money, but it means young people on local wages cannot compete and are driven out of the market. Now I know Ireland has faced its own housing problem, but without representation in Congress, how can the average Puerto Rican make their voice heard in the American Congress, which after all can overrule any laws made at a local level by the island’s parties? The aforementioned Alliance party [with the PIP] have at least made some groan in getting investors to legally invest more in local employment. 

Never has the need to know one’s history been so important, and perhaps the strongest indication of Puerto Rico becoming just another State was brought sharply into focus by a chance meeting I had with an 83-year-old Puerto Rican man. Sometimes it sounds cliché to say can we really know who we are if we don’t know our past? After striking up a convivial conversation, I was hungry to delve into the island’s past. I asked him what he thought of the ‘Ponce Massacre’ of 1937 where sixteen men, one woman and one child, were shot dead, and 200 more wounded, by police acting on the orders of the Military Governor Colonel Winship, who was appointed to the role by president FD Roosevelt. He stared at me as if I had slapped him in the face. “What is the ‘Ponce Massacre’?” He beckoned his family over, and three generations of puzzled eyes wondered how an Irishman might know more than them.

The answer was found in a corner book store, on a narrow street in San Juan, after another conversation with a guide in the local museum. When I asked her why the museum has such little information about Puerto Rico modern history, she asked me if I had read ‘Guerra Contra Todos los Puertorriqueños: Revolución y Terror’? With some luck I found the English translation ‘War Against All Puerto Ricans Revolution and Terror in America’s Colony’. It was here I learned about The Ponce Massacre, Pedro Albizu Campos and Eamonn De Valera, the economic exploitation of the sugar croppers for American companies, the laws that banned Puerto Ricans from speaking Spanish or even possessing a Puerto Rican flag, the mass round-ups, the inhumane incarcerations, the torturing of prisoners and the destruction of any revolutionary fervour. Perhaps the most terrifying thing is that the Americans even buried the history so deep, that the desire for independence has been forgotten by generations. This deserves its own telling and I intend to bring it to life in next month’s issue To do it justice, it needs a deep delve, but I had to paint the context of this most astonishing history. Its author, by the way, is not some underground radical. Nelson A. Denis is a writer, editor, film maker and served as an elected assemblyman for New York in the state legislature. It’s a remarkable story made all the more remarkable that it was the Irish Revolution that inspired Alibizu Campos in his attempt to overthrow an empire.

Kinsale is preparing to mark a historic milestone on Saturday, May 23, as the community gathers at the Kinsale Campus for ‘A Thriving Future’, a mini-festival celebrating the 21st birthday of Transition Town Kinsale.

While now a global phenomenon with thousands of initiatives worldwide, the Transition movement traces its roots back to 2005 at this very campus. It was here that the first ‘Energy Descent Action Plan’ was authored, sparking a practical, community-led response to climate change that soon spread across the globe through the efforts of figures like Rob Hopkins.

The festival invites attendees to connect offline and explore the essential pillars of a resilient community such as local food systems, renewable energy, zero-waste living, and the restoration of nature.

The event promises a rich programme of experiences, from hands-on skill-sharing workshops to live music and local cuisine and brings together a distinguished group of visionaries who have shaped the sustainability landscape, led by Rob Hopkins, the co-founder of the Transition Network. Joining him is Mary Reynolds, the acclaimed “reformed” landscape designer and founder of ‘We Are The Ark’, a movement urging people to return their gardens to the wild.

The speaker line-up also features Thomas O’Connor, a regenerative farmer and community activist from Transition Kerry, and artist, filmmaker and environmental activist Lisa Fingleton. Local expertise will be represented by Donal Chambers, the Chairperson of Transition Town Kinsale and also a teacher of permaculture and horticulture in the Kinsale Campus, as well as specialist in renewable energy, agroforestry and rewilding, alongside Maria Young, a coordinator with Green Spaces for Health.

Whether you are a long-time sustainability advocate or simply curious about building a more resilient future, this unique celebration offers a welcoming space to learn and grow. Tickets are currently available on Eventbrite, and the community looks forward to sharing this landmark day in the birthplace of the Transition movement.

In keeping with the movement’s core values, this is a strictly zero-waste event, and organisers kindly ask all visitors to bring their own reusable cup, plate, and cutlery.