Blog

Good Grief                       Word on the Week                    12th September 2020. The title of today’s blog was immortalised for those of a certain age in Charles Schulz’s character Charlie Brown.   Charlie featured in the cartoon ‘Peanuts’ and the expression ‘Good Grief’ expressed his frustration at being continually upstaged by his companions and life in general. The ‘good […]

Jehovah Tsidkenu             Word on the Week                       5th September 2020. When something like the passing of a loved one breaks into otherwise tranquil lives a choice presents itself.   We can stoically carry on bottling our grief or we can express it with the full range of emotions we humans are capable of showing.   In addition, Christians […]

Peaceful Protest                   Word on the Week                     29th August 2020. Setting aside for the moment the mea culpa of the leading lights of Irish society attending a dinner in breach of the Government guidelines and looking at the more sinister events in Belarus and Washington.    In both places peaceful protests were made against Government wrongs. The […]

Storm Ellen                      Word on the Week                    22nd August 2020. The first of the Autumn storms rolled in from the Atlantic this week.   Since they are named alphabetically by the Meteorological Office and ‘E’ is the 5th letter we must have suffered four such storms earlier this year.   The Met Office in the UK […]

Chinese Overseas Christian Church   Word on the Week   15th August 2020. The COCM was founded 70 years ago by Stephen Wang.   Next Saturday the anniversary will be marked by a zoom broadcast.   It is good in the midst of our anniversaries’ commemorations to remember one which marks the establishment of Christian Churches and not wars! […]

John Hume                             Word on the Week                              8th August 2020. The death of John Hume this week produced an outpouring of gratitude the like of which he never experienced in his lifetime!   The Nobel Laureate and former Social Democrats leader was one of the architects of the North’s peace process and the 1998 Belfast Agreement.   He […]

Religious Ceremonies during Covid        Word on the Week            1st August 2020. Eid-al-Adha in Croke Park.   A celebration of Islam on the revered turf.   The age of inclusion has arrived almost without warning!    The Muslim “festival of sacrifice” was a bloodless one last Friday at least any sacrificing was done outside the park. The festival […]

The Taking of Oaths             Word on the Week                          25th July 2020. The Government pledged this week to replace the taking of oaths in Courts with “a statement of truth”.    We wish them well with this new effort to extract the truth from the accused, witnesses and all who take the stand.    There has […]

Jack Charlton                         Word on the Week                          18th July 2020. The death of Jack Charlton at the end of last week brought back a flood of sporting memories from the glory days of Irish soccer.   Never was an Englishman so loved by an Irish sporting population which had grown up to dislike all things English.   […]