Category: Newspaper Articles

“Imagine there’s no GAA in heaven? I’d have to come back down again!” Was Marty Morrissey joking when he said those words in a recent interview with the Irish Independent? He probably was, but I’m pretty sure he was serious when he said: “Butterflies appeared in the church during the funeral when my mum died,…

Last summer I read an excellent book called Margin, about creating margin in our lives so that we aren’t running ourselves into the ground. Space to rest, to wind down, to think, space for the unexpected. We have become fixated on time. Everything has to be fast—we time things to the second. We move from…

Those disarmingly honest words came from the mouth of the clinical psychologist Dr Tony Bates in conversation with Tommy Tiernan.  Bates, founder of Jigsaw, has spent years  working with young people facing mental health challenges.  His comment might sound stark at first—but I found it refreshingly real. I wonder how you reacted to it. Did…

90 seconds: the difference between life and death; salvation and catastrophe. In the unlikely event of an emergency evacuation of an airplane, the crew’s goal is to get every single passenger out of danger and onto the ground before one and a half minutes is up. The target is taken very seriously. Before a new…

“I was like a stone lying deep in the mud.”  (Patrick’s Confession, para 12) Perhaps you know a little bit of what Patrick was talking about? Do you ever feel trapped, stuck, like there’s no escape, maybe your stomach in knots. I felt a bit like that for about 8 years after my mum lost…

“Oh those sheep are so cute!”—said no farmer ever! Tourists or Instagrammers driving around Ireland might think so as they see sheep scattered across fields or wandering scenically along the road. Those who know better, know better. I recently saw a video of a farmer—he sounded like a Donegal man—looking at some straying sheep and…

I had my first general anaesthetic recently. I didn’t really know what to expect. I wasn’t looking forward to it. It’s a strange experience as you voluntarily walk in TED socks, something like a shower cap and surgical robe to lie down on a table under bright lights! All so that you can be put to sleep…

You’ve probably seen the photo by this stage of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor being driven away from the police station after his arrest on suspicion of misconduct in public office after documents from the Epstein files were disclosed. The photo shows a man who looks like he’s just seen the future unravelling before him, in slow motion…

The village of Trảng Bàng was decidedly ordinary. The 8th June 1972 was to be anything but. As a South Vietnamese plane flew overhead, it unleashed its payload on the residents below. Decades on, the name of this devastating weapon remains ingrained on the world’s consciousness – napalm. Napalm was an effective weapon. Buildings and…