Whiff of electoral sulphur in the air

Thu, Sep 12, 2024

The increasing likelihood is that nine weeks tomorrow, the country will be going to the polls to vote in a new Government. Despite the denials of An Taoiseach and An Tanaiste who seem insistent that they will run the full course to bring the Government into early Spring, there seems little doubt but that the cold and wet days of February will be eschewed in favour of a pre-Christmas election count.

The theft of innocence

Thu, Sep 05, 2024

If you carry your childhood with you, they say that you never become older. It is that time of life is when the world looks beautiful, when matters should revolve around the simplistic; where wants and needs are then just divided into a few basics. Childhood is measured out by sights and sounds and smells before the dark hour of reason appears.

Or so it should.

A legacy of good health bequeathed to the region

Thu, Aug 22, 2024

As you read this piece this August day,there is someone in this city or county who is awaiting the results of a breast cancer check; someone for whom the watched phone represents both a terror and a salvation. Awaiting that news is the norm for so many every week and every day for so many families. As any family who has been touched by breast cancer will know, the waiting, the diagnosis, the fear are all part of the process. There is the fear of the known and the unknown; the potential that plans carefully honed will have to be shelved. Or not.

A window on a world that has changed utterly

Wed, Aug 14, 2024

Take your average nine-year-old now. Born in 2015. Five years before Covid...years before Ukraine, before Gaza and Israel, they have exprienced a change in the way the world has been.

So much has happened to form the foundations of their memories. Events that have shaken us and will continue to have implications for decades. But that nine-year-old has been born into a world of uniformity and division; of education and ignorance.

Golden feeling lifts all our spirits

Thu, Aug 08, 2024

The first Olympics I recall watching was the 1972 Games in Munich. The Ulster Bank manager in my hometown had a colour TV that threw forth the spirit of that games. The blue pool, the all-American hero that was Mark Spitz; the lithe Olga Korbut.

We watched in awe at the achievements, listened to the tinny commentary sent down a telephone line. We admired the wonderful silvery architecture of the Olympic Stadium. A games that when now viewed backwards are dominated by the attacks that claimed 17 lives.

Trains could breathe fresh life into our towns

Thu, Aug 01, 2024

The railway station in my home town was taken up and closed down about a decade before I was born, so I grew up with the shell of a cut-stone station that represented a possibility long gone. We played basketball and indoor soccer in the empty goods shed for the station. We looked at the shut-down building, the in-filled tracklines and wonder how that closure could be ever considered as progress.

Galway, be emboldened by all who wish you well

Thu, Jul 25, 2024

So here you are, men of Galway; for the second time in a generation, back to a familiar field. And you are here because you have faced down every challenge laid in front of you....and this Sunday, will be just another.

Happiness in a time of plenty

Thu, Jul 18, 2024

We’re never short of things for doing in this neck of the woods at this time of the year.

A magician who brought wonder to the West

Thu, Jul 11, 2024

I have always looked back on the 1970s with a sense of wonder. The summers seemed to be longer, and sunnier. It was a time when we felt less connected to the outside world, although the passing of Elvis impacted us all.

The undeniable lightness of contentment

Thu, Jul 04, 2024

The moments of happiness we enjoy take us by surprise. It is not that we seize them, but that they seize us. And so, has been the case this week as we bask in the glory of a victory that was as thrilling as it was unexpected.

Right, let’s start getting things done

Thu, Jun 13, 2024

And with the last vote counted, that was it. The choices have been made and the composition of the local councils that will oversee our city and county is known. While many of the experienced councillors have retained their seats, there are plenty of new faces too, to create the ideal sporting blend of youth and experience.

Vote for those who propose to shape the society you want

Thu, Jun 06, 2024

It is Friday, June 8, 2029. Five years hence. On that day too, the electorate will be going to the polls in their droves to pass judgement on those of you who were elected in the elections of the summer of 2024.

The cello, you can bring it anywhere

Thu, May 23, 2024

There is a wonderful flow to Galway’s year - from the sounds and smells of the Christmas Market to the last chuckle of the Comedy Festival, each period is marked by a differing attire. From the tweeds of the Races, to the polo necks of Cuirt, to the summery freckled skin of the Arts Festival. Aliens arriving from space to visit would be able to determine what is on by virtue of what people have on.

A woman you don’t meet every day

Thu, May 16, 2024

There are people who do great things for their city by virtue of the position they hold; that an extra element of their public role enables them to do with ease the good things that make a difference to those who need a bit of a lift in life. These people are worthy and deserving of our acclamation for the good they do.

A nostalgia for the concept of good service

Thu, May 09, 2024

It’s a cliche that Ireland would be the best country in the world if the sun just kept shining a bit more, but there’s no denying that there’s nothing like some rays to bring out the best side of us.

The ball has been thrown in — let the banter begin

Thu, May 02, 2024

It has become de rigeur in recent years in GAA circles to not name the proper starting line-up until about an hour before throw in, lest you should be giving away any vital information about the composition of the mark-ups in a game. Indeed, it is often not only until the game has started that you know who is up against who and what strategic role they have been given for the task ahead.

In the same way we have been speculating on the make-up of our local councils and the European Parliament; up to now, we have been surmising what might happen. But with the closing of deadlines for putting your name forward, we too have a clearer idea of who is going and for whom in which area.

Government should never bully its people just because it can

Thu, Apr 25, 2024

“We walked in the cold air
Freezing breath on a window pane, lying and waiting

50 days from the polls — time to do your bit

Thu, Apr 18, 2024

You can smell the election now... not in the way you smell it after four days of counting in a cramped community centre somewhere, but in the air, there’s a real sense of people wanting to be part of our new Councils.

The marketisation of our creativity

Thu, Apr 11, 2024

There is nothing as innocent as the process of passion that drags you on the path to whatever you choose to do in life. The excitement of eking out a wage, of convincing yourself that people will want to consume what you produce is common across all occupations.

A year tinged with heart-numbing sadness

Thu, Mar 28, 2024

When the bells peal on a new year, we enter it with a bucket of fresh hope that the changing of what are just numbers will alter what lies ahead. It is a naive but innocent assumption that does no harm.

E-paper

Read this weeks E-paper. Past editions also available from within this weeks digital copy.