Blog

The fire last weekend at the temporary halting site took the lives of ten people. Five were adults and five were children. They died when fire totally engulfed the Portacabin and a caravan the families had been occupying for the last eight years. There followed an outpouring of sympathy with tributes led by the President, […]

Deutschland Uber Alles, perhaps, but not last Thursday! Not in the Aviva Stadium in Dublin for sure! It may have been only one goal that the Irish side scored but wasn’t it a beauty. Shay Long’s fresh legs (he had just been substituted) outpaced the opposition to the ball. His shot flew unerringly, past Neuer […]

The death yesterday of Brian Friel, who was Ireland’s greatest living playwright, has brought forth many tributes. His prolific output over many years justly earned him global acclaim. At the core of his writings is the notion that our sense of what happened in the past owes more to our imagination than it does to […]

What happens when the top performer in the class is caught cheating and it is discovered he has been at it for the last 6 years? Germany has been disgraced. Her moral authority dented. All this happened at a time when it was acting as a role model in European affairs. ‘How the mighty have […]

Donald Trump’s trumpet made an uncertain sound, perhaps for the first time in the US Presidential campaign, when his crude remarks to Carly Fiorina about her face were met by a measured response which put Trump in his place. Prior to this incidence he has lampooned and insulted his way into the hearts of the […]

On Thursday this week we had World Suicide Prevention Day. On Friday the UK Parliament threw out the Assisted Dying Bill by a large majority. Meanwhile in California the opposite happened. The State Legislature yesterday joined four other States in approving a bill which would allow terminally ill people end their own lives. Here in […]

The UK Prime Minister called it a swarm others a migration as refugees, attracted by the relative stability and prosperity of Europe, headed west. They form two broad categories; economic migrants and asylum seekers. The plan is to repatriate the former and allow the latter to remain. This plan is contested by some European states […]

The business of adultery took a hit recently when a hacker opened up the Ashley Madison website and revealed the names and account details of the 37,000,000 registered there. These had been attracted by the sites motto “Life is short. Have an affair,” The secrecy, under which it had operated over the last 14 years, […]

“All human conflict is ultimately spiritual”. I cannot remember who said it but it does ring true. What we believe ultimately governs our actions. Sometimes secondary causes get in the way but in the end of the day our lives will show whether the heavens were empty – there is no one there and we […]