A Christmas like never before...or will it?

Thu, Nov 26, 2020

These days are very important in all our lives, as we count down the days to a return to normality.

Fantasy Football round 10 preview

Thu, Nov 26, 2020

For the first time in a long time, a Premier League round did not have any real headline news apart from Spurs defeating Man City 2-0 at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Saturday evening. Champions Liverpool soundly beat Leicester City 3-0 at Anfield, Chelsea cruised to a 2-0 win over Newcastle, and Man United's most important asset, the penalty, earned them the three points over struggling West Brom.

It’s time to hear the songs again

Thu, Nov 19, 2020

At around midnight on New Year’s Eve last, I stood with friends and family and listened as the bells of St Nicholas rang out across Galway City, their wonderful peals soaring high into the night sky, hanging there and waiting until the ship’s horns in the bay answered their call. It was a fitting moment; the juncture of the civic and maritime, two key attributes of the city over many centuries.

​Fantasy Football round nine preview

Thu, Nov 19, 2020

That was a pretty depressing week for Irish football. Defeats to England (3-0) and Wales (1-0), and a dour 0-0 draw with Bulgaria, sees the Republic of Ireland slip further down the world rankings and into pot three for the December draw of the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifiers.

Cead mile failte Joe Biden

Thu, Nov 12, 2020

The collective sighs of relief and whoops of joy were audible throughout the free-thinking world. Democrat Joe Biden eclipsed incumbent Donald Trump at the polls to become the 46th president of the United States, and also the 23rd to have Irish roots.

Fantasy Football review

Wed, Nov 11, 2020

With the international break on the horizon, it gives us a chance at Advertiser Towers to have a look back at my top tips and to see whether I have the golden touch or need to be doing more homework on my football.

The world waits to heal itself

Thu, Nov 05, 2020

Perhaps this was the week when we thought the world would start to heal itself, when a new sort of leadership would emerge to replace the dark days of the past few years.

Fantasy Football round eight preview

Wed, Nov 04, 2020

Round seven concluded at Elland Road on Monday night when Leicester gave league new boys Leeds, a reality check with a 4-1 thumping. The game summed up another game week packed with goals.

Sad events remind us that we need to mind each other

Thu, Oct 29, 2020

There has been a lot a sadness in our news lately, and I don’t mean that of a purely Covid nature. Tragedies in Cork and Dublin have shocked us all, but saddened us even more.

Fantasy Football round seven preview

Tue, Oct 27, 2020

Round six of the Premier League is done and dusted and I think it is fair to say that no one would have predicted Everton, Aston Villa, and Leeds being in the top six and Man City and Man United in the bottom seven at this stage of the season but this is the unpredictable beauty that is football.

Fantasy Football round six preview

Fri, Oct 23, 2020

Show your pride with SockerClub.com
With the Premier League now in full swing, why not show your support for your club by purchasing a pair of retro kit socks from SockerClub.com via https://www.sockerclub.com/default/ . Whether you are heading to the shops or just watching the game, wear your colours with pride.

Let’s winter together

Thu, Oct 22, 2020

And so to wintertime. The clock wintertime...not the wind and rain wintertime, even though we have that too. In a year when the seasons seemed in a hurry to pass one another out, we reach the stage where the clocks go back, (2am Sunday) where darkness becomes our constant companion, there when we leave home in the morning, there to greet us in the evening.

Normally winter has had an inhibiting effect on us. But then this year we have winter’s first cousin. It is as if we are cocooned inside a large tea-cosy — slowly descending, preventing us from living our lives the way we want to. Everything seems much more of an effort in winter and lockdown. Roads and paths are slippery, getting out and about to do the things we want is more involved and now when you overcome that, there is only so far we can go.

Fantasy Football round five preview

Thu, Oct 15, 2020

It was not a great week for Irish fans as their dreams of participating at next year's European Championships ended in penalty shootout heartache in Bratislava against Slovakia. And the results did not improve with a drab 0-0 draw coming against Wales in Dublin on Sunday and another 1-0 defeat to Finland in Helsinki on Wednesday afternoon.

Are we really all doing the best we can?

Thu, Oct 15, 2020

For the past few days I have been remotely immersed in the Galway of the future...or a certain future anyway. Reporting from the oral hearing into the proposed new road to bypass Galway, it seemed surreal, to be contemplating concepts that seemed more logical last Spring but which have changed a thousand times since the hearing last sat.

Let’s get to the water break

Thu, Oct 08, 2020

This summer, we saw the introduction as de rigeur of the water break in our team sports. Initially introduced because players were playing in games at times of the year when temperatures were higher than normal, they also allowed an opportunity for players to rehydrate hygienically.

Fantasy Football review

Wed, Oct 07, 2020

I think it is fair to say no one would have predicted what happened in game week four of the Premier League. Champions Liverpool were thumped 7-2 by Aston Villa, Man United were smashed 6-1 by Spurs at Old Trafford, and Leeds earned a point against Man City. What a weekend it was.

Time to be sound, not silly

Thu, Oct 01, 2020

A community is formed by the willingness of all of to share in the responsibility for upholding the common good. Now, more than ever, we are aware of what the common good is. Now more than ever at any time in history, we know what the enemy is. Now, for the first time perhaps, the whole world shares a common enemy — an enemy that can be defeated the same way in Colombia, Canberra, California or Clifden.

It is not as if this thing that challenges us has a different line of attack in different places. No, it seems to have found a universal human weakness and is set to target this for the next six months or more.

Through The Glass Darkly

Thu, Oct 01, 2020

Stoicism is a school of Hellenistic philosophy founded by Zeno of Citium in Athens in the early third century BC. The name "Stoicism" derives from the Stoa Poikile, or "painted porch", a colonnade decorated with mythic and historical battle scenes, on the north side of the Agora in Athens, where Zeno and his followers gathered to discuss their ideas. It was one of the major philosophical schools in classical Athens, along with the Plato’s Academy, the tradition of Aristotle, and the Epicureans. Stoicism flourished throughout the Roman and Greek world until the third century AD, and among its adherents was Emperor Marcus Aurelius. It experienced a decline after Christianity became the state religion in the fourth century AD. Since then it has seen revivals, notably in the Renaissance. The French philosopher and essayist Michel de Montaigne was a notable stoic as was the great Jewish philosopher Baruch Spinoza.

Fantasy Football round four preview

Wed, Sep 30, 2020

Game week three brought 36 goals, thrillers, and upset; it really had it all. Result of the round came at the Etihad Stadium where Leicester City thumped Man City 5-2.

AVOIDING FURTHER RESTRICTIONS: It's in our hands.

Tue, Sep 29, 2020

As outlined in the graph below, showing figures up to September 27th, the rate of new Covid-19 cases in Galway has increased dramatically in recent weeks. The city and county have now entered a critical phase where the behaviour of all of us will determine the extent of the further restrictions to be imposed. The number of new cases in Galway for September is over ten times as high as the number of new cases for August. In the last week alone, Galway has had more new cases of Covid-19 than in total for the three months of June, July and August.

E-paper

Read this weeks E-paper. Past editions also available from within this weeks digital copy.