Category: Newspaper Articles

As a kid my favourite TV programme was Record Breakers. I loved watching the attempts to see who could lift the most, eat the most, balance crates on their chin etc. And I loved browsing through the Guinness Book of World Records. I found an old edition of it recently in my dad’s house –…

You know you’ve hit middle age when all the targeted adverts seem to be about what you can do to maintain your health.  There are exercises for your knees, others for balance, even treatments for hair loss! I’m reminded of a saying that I often heard when we lived in Cavan – “your health is…

You’ve seen the horrendous footage from Nepal and Tibet. People running for their lives. Tiny little figures down on the valley floor. And the camera pans to an awful, cataclysmic stampede of water hurtling down the valley towards them. Sweeping everything in its path—roads, bridges, heavy-duty machinery, and people—to oblivion. The footage reminded me of…

What makes someone drive the wrong way down the motorway at high speed despite the risks to themselves and others?  Was it for social media attention? Was it to escape from the Gardai? Whatever the reason it is tragic that the five teenage boys died, and that three women and a seven-year-old boy were seriously…

I’m just back from holidays and a little late getting to Mayo’s All-Ireland win. (Adapted from an article by my friend Pastor Warren Peel in Galway) There can’t be anyone left in Ireland who doesn’t know that Mayo won the All-Ireland. 82,300 in Croke Park, a million more watching on TV, the green and red…

Listening to a recent podcast, I was surprised to hear author Lamorna Ash suggest that GEN Z (those born between 1997 and 2012, the smartphone generation) were not satisfied with AI answers, and were asking deeper questions. They were questioning political leaders, and wondering “how can I go back to something older with a different…

I’ve just spent the last few days clearing stuff at my father’s house. He was a man who collected stuff, kept things, endless things. For him, everything had a purpose. He was gifted with his hands and blessed with an inventive mind. The house and yard were bunged because he saw genuine purpose even in…

“I’m shattered!” It’s one of the most common phrases we hear.  At this time of year, many people enjoy a well earned break.  Perhaps you’ve had a break or you’re looking forward to one, or maybe you just wish you could have one.  There never seems to be enough hours in the day. Between work,…

Many of us carry worries every day. We wonder how we’ll pay the bills, whether our children will be okay, what the doctor might say, or what tomorrow might bring.  Anxiety has become one of the defining struggles of our generation.  Into our anxious world, Jesus speaks some wonderfully comforting words in Matthew 6. If…

In the news recently a Church of England minister was found guilty of indecent assault. In Ireland, we know the cost of clerical abuse of power all too well. We could add to the list the prosperity ‘preachers’ who fleece the vulnerable with their mega-ministries on TV. There’s a passage in Malachi (chapter 2) addressed…