Blog

Paradise Now?                  Word on the Week                     11th March 2023. This week the Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said he is to make Ireland “a world leader on gender equality in all its forms”.   This is a subject in which he has a personal interest and it provides him with some relief from the dreadful housing crisis in […]

War – First Anniversary              Word on the Week          25th February 2023. Nobody thought the Ukrainian War would last 12 long months. Now no one thinks it will be over soon!    It is much easier to start wars than to stop them!   Not that the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, shows any signs of wanting a ceasefire. […]

Anniversaries                   Word on the Week                     18th February 2023. We appear to be living longer these days.   Our neighbour passed the 100 mark a couple of years’ ago and this week celebrated reaching 102. This led me to figure out that my mother would be 123 years old had she lived to this day which is […]

Merkinch                          Word on the Week                     11th February 2023. What has a down-town district in a remote town in the Scottish Highlands got to do with ‘Word on the Week’?   How could such a place ever be newsworthy?                Merkinch was usually referred to as ‘The Ferry’.   The place where the car ferry left Inverness and travelled […]

Brigit’s Day                      Word on the Week                     4th February 2023.      We have a new Public Holiday.   February 1st has been decreed.   This brings us into line with the bulk of the EU with the same number of public holidays. Historically this was St Brigit’s Day. The name Brigit means different things to different people!   She is […]

Snowdrops                  Word on the Week               28th January 2023. They have reappeared, on cue, these harbingers of spring to delight the eye and reassure the heart of warmer days ahead.   God’s promise again fulfilled.   “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease” […]

Talking to Bots                 Word on the Week          21st January 2023. Have you ever wondered, when making a business phone call these days, if the person at the other end of the line is a person at all?  Welcome to the world of ‘bots’. Which brings us to “what on earth is a bot?”   It’s an […]

Exile                              Word on the Week                        14th January 2023. The graphic picture of the exile in the Bible has been captured by the operatic composer, Verdi, in his opera Nabucco.   Few can resist the plaintive cry of the Hebrew slaves in Babylon as their captors taunt them to sing the songs of Zion.    How can […]

In the Year of our Lord        Word on the Week                 7th January 2023. Yes, it is 2023!    And have we indulged in that ego-centred practice of making any New Year’s resolutions?   In our self-focus we can easily lose sight of what we are here for – ‘To glorify God and enjoy Him forever’ – […]