THE LAST WORD By Pat Coughlan Hope, it’s the lifeblood that keeps us all pushing on. Would you agree? Maybe not but anyway without it, we’d be stuck in the mud, dragging our feet through every rut life throws at us. I’ve always seen hope as the spark that lights up our path, especially when …

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FURTHERMORE By Gerry Moran Autumn – season of mists and mellow fruitfulness –and if you live in this beautiful city of ours a season of marvellous menus, fabulous food, and wonderful presentations about food, of course, by celebrity chefs. Yes, It’s that time of year again, folks, Savour Kilkenny time when the Parade and the …

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BY JOHN ELLIS, FINANCIAL ADVISOR Back in the day I remember my Granda turning a humble turnip into a lantern. The smell of that turnip burning from the inside out with a candle was something else — a smell that still sticks with me. But today, the pumpkin has stolen the show, becoming the very …

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AS I SEE IT BY MARIANNE HERON Apples have quite a juicy reputation ranging from their temptation of Eve in the Garden of Eden to their connection with immortality in Celtic mythology. Before burly pumpkins muscled in on the act, apples had a leading role in Halloween tradition: featuring apple bobbing, toffee apples and the …

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THE FACT OF THE MATTER BY PAUL HOPKINS Mark, the security man at my local supermarket, says: “It won’t be long now.” Mark is an affable gentleman, and sometimes the only human contact I might have in a day – he and the lovely Nichole at checkout. “Long ‘til when?” I say. “Christmas,” he says. …

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Gowran native bids to raise €60,000 for three local & national organisations Kilkenny man, David Carter, will undertake the Ultra 300 Challenge from 4th to 9th November 2024 which will see him run 50km every day with a total of 300km covered across routes in Kilkenny, Carlow, Kildare, Wexford, Waterford & Tipperary. David is undertaking this challenge in …

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Injury to netminder Diarmuid Galway sours ‘Vat demolition BY NIALL SHERRY, SPORTS EDITOR SPORTSEDITOR@KILKENNYOBSERVER.IE St Canice’s Credit Union Kilkenny SHC Semi-Final UPMC Nowlan Park Thomastown 1-27 Mullinavat 0-12 For a second consecutive year, Thomastown will contest a county final, only this time it’s the Tom Walsh Cup that will be up for grabs when they …

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BY JOHN FITZGERALD PART ONE The day started unpromisingly, with black clouds threatening to unleash a deluge, but these gradually gave way to a clear blue sky and the balm of warm sunshine- real pattern weather, as the man on the gate put it. There was excitement among pattern committee men and women. Donnacha O’ Dualin, Radio Eireann’s noted folklorist …

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Soul searching in store for James Stephens as relegation confirmed BY NIALL SHERRY, SPORTS EDITOR SPORTSEDITOR@KILKENNYOBSERVER.IE  St Canice’s Credit Union Kilkenny Senior Hurling Relegation Final Glenmore 3-17 James Stephens 3-12 Venue: Thomastown, Referee: Owen Beehan Glenmore condemned The Village to relegation and intermediate hurling with a stunning 5-point victory at a windswept Thomastown last Saturday. …

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THE LAST WORD By Pat Coughlan It was 1974. I had moved to Dublin where I had a job and got my first flat. I was getting used to Dublin, and particularly its taste for music. Being from the country I regularly got asked “What do you get when you play a country and western …

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