Our weather woes will encourage us to help Haitians

Thu, Jan 14, 2010

Over the past three months this region has suffered at the hands of mother nature — first with the floods which devastated and continues to devastate lives in parts of South Galway and in and around the Claregalway area where many people are still to return to their homes.

It didn’t take long for Galway’s ugly side to come to fore

Thu, Jan 07, 2010

Last year was one to forget in terms of crime in the city. In the Spring, we had to listen to the harrowing details of how Manuela Riedo met her end. In the midst of the Volvo Ocean race, we had the killing of young Kieran Cunningham on a night out with his pals. As I write this, another young man fights for his life in a Dublin hospital after being assaulted in the city at the end of the year.

Give the gift of yourself this Christmas

Wed, Dec 23, 2009

You know there is nothing in this world as important as the present you have yet to pick up for Christmas. Or the friend you just have to meet. Or the things you just have to do. Or the stuff for the turkey that your one without the hairnet on the telly said you just must have. And so on and on and on.

M6 and the cities — end of the road

Thu, Dec 17, 2009

Right folks, get a good sleep on ya, pack a bag of food, get some small change, make sure there’s something good on the radio ‘cos a lot of you are going to have the ride of your lives this weekend.

Tiger, chin up. You could be over here with us!

Thu, Dec 10, 2009

Tiger. It could be worse.
Ok, ok, they’re coming out of the trees as often as Padraig Harrington on the back nine of a major, but things could be worse. You could be living in Ireland. What are ya telling me, that it’s terrible to be cooped up in a doghouse in one of your many houses with your mother-in-law giving ya grief and your wife down the road waiting for an explanation or two (or eight) and your favourite car wrapped around a tree and your reputation in shreds, and every girl you’ve looked at since you were 12 selling her sceál to the tabloids, but hey, Tiger, or can I call ya Tigger (I’ve a Winnie the Pooh fetish thing, ya know) it could be worse. Ya could be over here with us miserable sods on this rock in the middle of the Atlantic with the rain peeing down for a month.

Help the people who know those who need help

Thu, Dec 03, 2009

In Dickens’ time, poverty was easy to identify. People in that category would, according to the writer, sidle up to you in the street and say ‘spare a tannah for a cuppa tea, guv. Bless ya.” These days it is not so easy to identify want in people.

When it rains, it pours

Thu, Nov 26, 2009

From bad to worse. In the darkest weeks of winter. In the weeks leading up to the winter equinox, when the days will get longer again, Galway families are asking themselves just how much more hardship they can take.

The knock that every parent dreads hearing

Thu, Nov 19, 2009

Tuesday night was horrific. The high winds drove in sheets of rain across the west and enveloped the region in a deluge. People who were in for the night huddled closer to the fire and listened to the lashing rain wallop their roofs and flood their gardens. Those of a spirtual bent would look at the raging elements and wish good fortune to all who had to brave them. Roads were covered with a sheet of rain; rivers and streams broke their banks, and in four households, heavy footsteps made their way hesitantly across the water-covered footpaths before delivering news that would change the lives of four families forever.

Let there be no laughing this Christmas

Thu, Nov 12, 2009

Right, testing’ wan, two, three. Am I on, Michael? Right colleagues of the Cabinet. I want to welcome ye all here today for the final briefing on how ye are going to sell to the great unwashed the idea that Christmas is an overrated festival anyway and that there’s no harm in being miserable at Christmas. Emphasise that didn’t they have a great time in June at the Volvo Ocean Race, so there’s no point getting all mealy mouthed about a few cold auld days in the depths of winter.

Our health is our wealth

Thu, Oct 29, 2009

The roll-out of the swine flu vaccine is set to start next week with the prediction that a quarter of the population will contract this new pandemic flu.

Paddy wants the right to drive when drunk, so he does

Thu, Oct 22, 2009

Paddy likes to drive when drunk, so he does.
No, that’s not fair now, Hang on, That’s a swapin’ statement which I can’t lave uncontradicted. No, I don’t want to drive when drunk. It’s just that I don’t want to be told by someone in authority that I can’t drive home after having wan pint, when I knows meself that I can drive home grand after 15.

Bull’s hit speech treated us all like gombeens

Thu, Oct 15, 2009

I used to work with a journalist who when he’d receive phone calls from irate mothers bemoaning why their son’s courtcase was splshed across the paper bringing shame to the family, he’d calmly tell her “sure now Ma’am, wouldn’t it be worse if he came in and told ya he had cancer.” It was a ploy that inevitably worked as it proved the first point of agreement between the caller and himself. Always comparing your woe to something far worse is often a way of putting perspective on things. If you crashed your car, you could say, sure’ it’d be worse if someone was hurt, ‘tis only bent metal. If you stole somethng, you could say, arragh the way people are going on, you’d swear I killed someone.

Exs and Ohs — all aboard, all aboard, the gravy train is pulling out

Thu, Oct 08, 2009

(Ring ring. Foreign ringtone) Hallo, hallo, is that Sweat-lanna. Svetlana, sorry. Hello it’s your friend here from the wesht of Ireland. Ireland. Yes, Ireland. The councillor. Yes. Big Paddy. Remember me. Remember when I was over in Belgrade in the summer for that conference on human trafficking and greenhouses gases and all that shite. Remember, ya gave me the receipt for the translation services.

From the people who brought you wife swapping sodomites...

Thu, Sep 24, 2009

Just eight days more til we do our democratic duty and put Lisbon to bed but already, things are hotting up.

Shop local and help keep our communities alive and interesting

Thu, Sep 03, 2009

With the summer emitting its death rattle and the leaves falling off the trees, we are entering that time of the year when things slow down before they then plunge headlong into Christmas.

This year more than any other year, this period is crucial for the businesses that make the places we live all the more interesting. Between now and Christmas, we can make the differenc in ensuring that they survive.

Delay in Taaffes development delaying job creation in city, claims Crowe

Thu, Sep 03, 2009

Objections to the redevelopment of Taaffe’s shop in Galway are preventing 100 jobs being created.

GAA backing of Alan Kerins’ charity shows nice guys do win

Thu, Aug 27, 2009

One of the long held regrets of those who have participated in Gaelic games over the decades is that the beauty and benefit of the games are in the main confined to this island.

Last laugh for the girl who walked funny

Thu, Aug 20, 2009

Up ahead lay the Brandenburg gate, with its two sections of six Doric columns. With the heat scorching, she can no longer hear her quick footsteps on the hot road on this Sunday morning in Germany. Atop the gate lies the Quadriga, a chariot drawn by four horses and driven by Victoria, the Roman goddess of victory. How appropriate that she should stare down on this day of achievement from the girl from Loughrea.

We must fill empty college seats to attract clean jobs

Thu, Aug 13, 2009

There were times when we media types didn’t get out of bed for anything less than 600 jobs, so accustomed were we to the massive job announcements that have seen this city accumulate almost 10,000 jobs in US-owned companies over the past decade or two. So the fact that so many gathered to welcome an announcement of what seems a mere 30 jobs yesterday morning, is a strong indicator of the times in which we live and the new realities that persist around us.

O’Shea’s sale highlights the quality on show in Terryland

Thu, Aug 06, 2009

It has been a somewhat depressing period over the past few weeks for followers of the Tribesmen, broken only by the performance of the city’s rowers in international competition and the selection of Paul and Olive Hession for the World Championships, (and only temporarily postponed for The Green and Red until the inevitible mauling by Kerry).

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