Children - the forgotten mourners

Thu, Apr 20, 2017

When a loved one dies children are sometimes unintentionally left out of the grieving process. Families, too shocked and devastated by the passing of a family member, may not even be aware of how much a child is suffering.

The cost of a global voice on social media

Thu, Apr 20, 2017

Not that many years ago the media was the preserve of informed journalists and editors who were able to disseminate information for public consumption, and represent the public interest. All that has changed with the advent of social media where people can share their thoughts, their beliefs, their stories, their past at will. But they can also share ignorant and offensive behaviour. Worse, this week people witnessed a recording of an American announcing to the public his plan to kill, before posting another of him shooting a victim dead, via Facebook.

When has it gone too far? Facebook, the fastest growing social networking site in the world, reacted to remove the material and Mark Zuckerburg pledged Facebook would do all it could to prevent such posts becoming more frequent.

Orkambi decision will make CF sufferers feel like equal citizens again

Thu, Apr 13, 2017

CF sufferers are brave.
They have had to be.

Don’t let traffic strangle Galway

Thu, Apr 06, 2017

This morning, the city councillors convene a special meeting in City Hall to discuss the traffic problems that have been besetting the city for years, but which for some reason, other than the bus strike, seem to have escalated in recent weeks. A city the size of Galway should not be subject to the level of delay and confusion that reigns morning and evening.

What are the guards doing to the guards?

Thu, Mar 30, 2017

I grew up around guards. I was born just two doors down from the barracks so my childhood friends were invariably the kids of guards. Peeler’s brats as they were colloquially known back in the day. They were my mates with whom I navigated childhood.

That stretch in the evening has never been so welcome

Thu, Mar 23, 2017

C’mon, gimme your light. It’s been a long winter and autumn and spring.

I will gladly lean all my strength against the hand of that clock this weekend to push it forward so that we get sooner into summertime.

Farewell to a rock’n’roll bishop

Thu, Mar 16, 2017

I can well remember the last time I met Bishop Eamon Casey. I was late for a reporting gig at some event in the Crescent and we both ran on the footpath around the corner and crashed into each other, each of us as apologetic as the other. In hindsight, I should have been able to avoid him because as he walked, he sang and so his arrival was flagged well before he appeared.

Let's not be the society that created Tuam

Thu, Mar 09, 2017

They were of Galway.
These little people. Barely formed.

Societies by their nature are inequitable

Thu, Mar 02, 2017

Take a stroll out on the street and see for yourself the various manifestations of humanity that are there before your eyes. You see the strong, the weak, the confident, the loud, the shy, the timid. All human nature. Every country has people who exist under the radar, whose voices are never heard because they have not been granted a voice, or because the people who have been designated the role of being their voice are not doing their job properly.

People just want to get home — time to sort our traffic

Thu, Feb 23, 2017

It’s nice to be a table-topper. To be perched there among a group of your peers and looking down at all those ranked below you, committing the sin of pride. Top of the table. Ahead of the rest.

Gossip played a role in the week’s revelations

Thu, Feb 16, 2017

Gossip is what no one claims to like, but everybody enjoys. It is the lifeblood of every conversation. There is nothing juicier than the prospect of being told gossip that you can then trade for some more at a later stage. Gossip is the unedited bit of conversation.

An icon who didn’t need a second chance to make a first impression

Thu, Feb 09, 2017

When you look back at the recent history of Galway, and when I say recent, I mean the last forty or fifty years, you see that the progression of the city is built around a group of individuals in all spheres, political, cultural, musical and otherwise, who somehow contributed to this conviction of Galway as being a place apart.

The power of the human spirit

Thu, Feb 02, 2017

You'd envy Gavan Hennigan this morning, so you would.

We need healthy small towns

Thu, Jan 26, 2017

I love small towns. I am the product of one. The first two decades of my life were shaped within the confines of one. Back then, towns were in their heyday. While there were cities beyond the hills, everything we seemed to need was available in the small town. Sure, we had a chipper to feed everyone and a town hall to hold everything in, and to provide custom for the chipper. And we had two telephone kiosks, some schools and two churches, and three banks and a town library (in my house) and a lake and a few roads out of it. What more could a body ask for? What else in life did we need, even if there was something mildly attractive about the few roads out?

Small towns had notions. Every small town had its divides, its have and its have-nots. In my small town the haves were on the other side of the town. The have-nots seemed to be on our side, but at the time, on our side we sometimes felt we were the haves, because we had the town park, the ball-alley, the river, and all the fun places to run and hide and play and daydream about one day being a real have, not just a pretend-have with things that belonged to other people.

Living in interesting times

Thu, Jan 19, 2017

The fool on the hill
Sees the sun going down

When will we undo the undoing?

Thu, Jan 12, 2017

There was the smell of rain, through sodden duffle coats, pressing on hand-me-down jumpers over skimpy vests that guarded stringy scapulars against our puny chests.

Two men in a boat

Thu, Jan 05, 2017

The Owl and the Pussy-cat went to sea
In a beautiful pea-green boat,

Some year for one year, but what’s ahead?

Thu, Dec 29, 2016

It’s been some year for one year — but what about 2017? This week I take a look into my crystal ball and see what’s lying in wait for us.

Use Christmas to find calm after turbulent year

Thu, Dec 22, 2016

It’s been some year — a whirlwind of emotion, of joy and despair, of utter horror and desperation, of uncertainty and fear, but also a time of pride and happiness.

Let’s make a contribution to our communities

Thu, Dec 15, 2016

In comedy, there is often truth and wisdom. In the ability to laugh at ourselves, we find nuggets about life.

E-paper

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