News

Fair days in Callan
By John Fitzgerald PART ONE Callan in the early years of the twentieth century was a thriving market town-thanks mainly to its monthly fair and weekly fowl markets. The fair was on the third Wednesday of each month, and saw the town transformed into a hive of wheeling and dealing. Buyers and sellers of livestock …

Presenting the Oscars and a 12 minute standing ovation!
FURTHERMORE By Gerry Moran It’s not every day of the week that a man gets to present an Oscar, two Oscars even! But that’s exactly what yours truly did this time (ie. Oscar-time) last year. And I did it in Cleere’s pub. I presented the Oscars to two of the co-founders of the Monday night …

COMPETITION WINNER
Congratulations to Phil Hennessy Thank you to all who entered the draw to win a gift voucher for Connolly’s Red Mills Store sponsored by The Kilkenny Observer. Congratulations to Phil Hennessy, Lantern Cottage, Bennettsbridge Road, Kilkenny who was the lucky winner of the €300.00 gift voucher, a great opportunity to shop from the fabulous fashion …

Q&A: the auto-enrolment pension scheme
BY JOHN ELLIS, FINANCIAL ADVISOR There is a growing interest in the new auto-enrolment pension scheme with employers and employees requesting more information. Here are some of the common questions I have received recently. Who is it for? Everyone from 23 to 60, and earning more than €20,000 a year, will automatically be auto enrolled …

Newly opened in Kilkenny City Doppio Café & Restaurant a truly indulgent experience
Doppio Café & Restaurant All photos by Jack Moore

The stress effect on your gut
BY CLAIR WHITTY Stress is part of everyday life and it’s important to keep you alert and aware of your surroundings so that you can avoid danger. But unfortunately, excess stress is not good for your digestive system. It can have a negative effect on your gut because stress affects the production of digestive enzymes …

Making allowance for that time of the month
AS I SEE IT MARIANNE HERON Just as I was musing that social attitudes have reversed between North and South and that the North is now more conservative than we are, comes the news that the Six Counties may be taking a liberal leap. There are calls to do the decent thing there and follow …

Banshees and boyos… and male friendship
THE FACT OF THE MATTER PAUL HOPKINS In the multi-award nominated film The Banshees of Inisherin – the Oscars are this Sunday night – the central thesis of Martin McDonagh’s wonderful piece of cinema comes in the early exchange between the two main characters when Colm (Brendan Gleeson) abruptly ends his lifelong friendship with Pádraic …

Cats go point crazy in Laois drubbing!
REVIEW BY NIALL SHERRY SPORTS EDITOR Dublin up next for Lyng’s men Allianz Hurling League 1B Round 3, Laois Hire O’Moore Park Laois 1-18 Kilkenny 0-34 Kilkenny got back to winning ways in the Allianz National League with a comprehensive 13-point win over Willie Maher’s charges at Laois Hire O’Moore Park last Sunday. The …

Tribeswomen take the points!
REVIEW BY NIALL SHERRY SPORTS EDITOR Stripey women defeated in home clash with Galway Very Camogie League Division 1A UPMC Nowlan Park Kilkenny 1-13 Galway 1-17 It’s back to the drawing board for our senior camog’s after they fell to their second successive defeat in division 1A of the Very Camogie League at UPMC …