The end of the innocence

Thu, Jan 31, 2013

After all is said and done, after every last eulogy is recited, after every representative pays his respects, after every bit of shock etched on our furrowed brows falls away, then and only then, will two little children begin living a life with a large void in it.

From spellbinder to outsider

Thu, Jan 24, 2013

Being an altarboy was the nearest we got to showbusiness in South Mayo in the 1970s — The rota for an altar boy in those days would be one week doing Last Mass, one week doing Second Mass, and the third week doing First Mass which would also mean you were on duty for the daily morning and evening masses for the week ahead. The week when you were on fulltime was great as it felt like a night’s run in the Gaiety.

Getting through the longest month

Thu, Jan 10, 2013

It's a long wait from mid December until the end of January. A long time between wage packets for those lucky enough to have wage packets. At the start of this New Year there are not many families who are not feeling the pinch . To pretend otherwise would be to ignore the reality that is life in Ireland this winter. The country is full of households where the heads are just above water but where there is an intense amount of frantic paddling underneath.

Bringing manners back into the social media conversation

Thu, Dec 27, 2012

Social media can be a wonderful experience. It allows those who do not have a voice to have a voice. It creates links and new communities that pave the way for new sorts of communication. It allows businesses and organisations to communicate directly with their customers and members in ways that would have been deemed impractical in the past. It also gets people using the medium of language in order to praise, to encourage, to support, to embolden people who need emboldening, to vocalise causes that might otherwise remain silent.

Let the light in, as the days get longer

Thu, Dec 20, 2012

At the start of this year, we knew that Galway would for a short while anyway, attract the eyes of the world; that the name of the city would feature across the pages of the top newspapers, that it might just grab a few minutes at obscure hours for sports-mad insomniacs. We knew that the city would be the location for an event that would make headlines — up until November, we thought that this would be the Volvo Ocean Race, but it was not to be.

Don’t be afraid to ask for help this Christmas

Thu, Dec 13, 2012

In all of our communities right now, there are husbands and wives, fathers and mothers, who have lost their jobs and are wondering how they are going to make it through the winter and out the far side. They know that there are just 10 days until Christmas yet they have never been as badly prepared as they are this year. Thousands of homes will experience a Christmas the likes of which they have not experienced for some years.

Don’t deprive our children of the light of hope

Thu, Nov 29, 2012

In just six days time, we will find out the extent of the effect of what is likely to be the most harrowing budget in living memory. Although kiteflying about the repercussions has been limited this year, stifled no doubt by the ongoing and unexpected abortion debate, there is no doubt that there is a fair degree of negative apprehension about the contents of Michael Noonan’s briefcase next Wednesday afternoon.

The sad reality of a dream shattered

Thu, Nov 15, 2012

This morning, as you read this, wherever you are in the world, a man is broken, inconsolable, shattered. He is a man around whom a maelstrom of controversy has erupted in the past 48 hours. A man who just a few days ago was unknown to many of us, but who has been thrust into the limelight by a personal tragedy, the horror of which we can only try to imagine.

Don’t let complacency be a further rebuke to victims of Letterfrack

Thu, Nov 08, 2012

There is a sadness that envelopes anyone who takes the time to stroll around the former industrial school at Letterfrack. The sculpture in memory of those who suffered there in the adjacent church is also a silent reminder that screams out at us in a way the children who were incarcerated there were unable to do. In the dark days of the fifties, sixties and seventies, when hope was in short supply in Ireland, it was even less in abundance for those who were placed there often through no fault of their own, abandoned by the State to become the sexual and physical playthings of a brutish regime.

The Irish-American vote

Thu, Nov 01, 2012

The Irish-American vote used to be a sure thing. If you were Irish-American, you voted Democrat. It was as simple as that. When I was growing up in 1950s Chicago, Republicans were like another species. An analogy from Baseball. As a Chicagoan, you supported either the White Sox or the Cubs. It was a tribal thing. My family were White Sox fans. So I was a White Sox fan. Cubs fans, on the other hand, were weird. Why would anyone support the Cubs? In much the same way, Republicans were weird too. Why would anyone support the Republicans? If you were Irish-American, even to pose the question bordered on the ridiculous.

Debate needed on Children’s Referendum

Thu, Oct 25, 2012

With three weeks remaining before Irish citizens vote on an amendment to the constitution, information on the proposed changes arrived in most letter boxes this week.

Just what we needed — another dozen councillors

Thu, Oct 18, 2012

It was only a matter of time before the human being was replaced entirely by the computer, but to be fair it was not expected to happen for another few decades at least. And one would never have thought that when the time came for Man to be made redundant by the electronic chip, it would be the humble county councillor who would be used as the guinea pig.

The bright legacy of a black day

Thu, Oct 04, 2012

Five years ago today, this city and county was reeling from the shock that a young languages student had been attacked and murdered just 10 minutes away from the city centre. In the half decade since, the name of Manuela Riedo has become known in nearly every household in this region. More so than the dozen or so other people who has lost their lives violently in Galway city and county over the past decade or so. The memory of Manuela though has been kept strong by the randomness of the incident and the fact that Ms Riedo was but a few days into her trip to Galway. It was an incident that sent shockwaves through the region as a collective sense of shame and guilt was verbalised, as people rushed to protect the notion that Galway was a safer place to be after dark than any other. We now know that it was not, as several other serious fatal and non-fatal violent atacks in the city centre have since illustrated.

The hurlers can shorten our winter

Thu, Sep 27, 2012

One minute we were shepherding in the summer and all it promised — the Volvo, the arts festival, the races, the oysters, and it all came with such a flurry that before we knew it, the summer had disappeared into thin air and we were left facing down the hill into Christmas. But what an unexpected bonus it is that we are on the cusp of October and yet there is still reason for fire in our ample bellies. Who could have believed that with darkness falling across the land as the lowing herd winds slowly o’er the ( bit of Gray there, but not the fifty shades variety) and that as yet, the destiny of the premier hurling title is still undecided and that better still, our team has shown that it is well capable of entering the final replay and bringing home the McCarthy Cup for the first time in a generation.

Farm tragedy focuses on health and safety awareness

Thu, Sep 20, 2012

Twenty deaths as a result of farm accidents have been recorded in the last 19 months in Northern Ireland alone. Drowning in a slurry was once identified as the second most common cause of farm death. In the year 2011 there was a massive increase in farm-related fatalities which represented one of the worst years in a decade for accidents involving loss of life on Irish farms. This year it is estimated that farm accidents have increased yet again - by 35 per cent. According to the Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Shane McEntee, there were 6,673 non-fatal accidents reported on farms, in addition to 22 fatalities.

Croi — tacking the illnesses of a new Ireland

Thu, Sep 13, 2012

Croi has come a long way since it had that funding barometer sign outside the hospital, where passers-by could see just how much money it had to raise in order to give West of Ireland people a fair shot at surviving heart disease. Prior to Croi, if you had a dodgy ticker, you had to get on bone-rattling buses and cross the country in order to have your lifesaving surgery. Your chances of survival were reduced if you lived in the west. Back then too, the trauma of open heart surgery was so much more than it is today. Now, thanks to great leaps in technological advancement, bypasses and other invasive heart surgeries are becoming common and incredibly more lifesaving.

New heroes for a new generation

Thu, Sep 06, 2012

The world has changed a lot in the last quarter of a century. Back in 1987 and 1988, we did not know what we did not know. I remember those summers as times when I was likely to meet a neighbour as we waited at 5am in the lines outside the cafe in Cricklewood where we gathered in those hours before dawn, trying to look desperate enough to be given ‘the start.’

Reducing alcohol without reducing enjoyment

Thu, Aug 23, 2012

There is no doubt about the role that the consumption of alcohol plays in the economy of this city. No city could earn the monicker of being a party city, a city that never sleeps, without acknowledging the role that drink plays in the creation of this perception. Just a cursory search of the world Galway in Twitter reveals the number of exchanges hourly that praise Galway for being a place where time gets lost, where today ends and tomorrow begins, inevitably lost in a haze of alcohol and music.

Gardai seek Interpol assistance to identify Lettermullen beach body

Thu, Aug 23, 2012

Galway gardai are continuing their efforts to establish the identity of a body found washed up on the rocks of a Lettermullen beach last week with assistance now being sought from international police organisation Interpol.

Why doesn’t Kerry love our lovely girls?

Thu, Aug 16, 2012

You may wonder why I am thumbing my way through the list of finalists in next week's Rose of Tralee contest and then gently rocking back and forth with disappointment at the realisation that for the umpteenth time, Galway will not have its worthy representative taking part in the national televised final.

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