News
My festival flirting with infamy and fame
FURTHERMORE By Gerry Moran Being a newspaper man has its advantages. This Arts Week (as it was known and always will be known to folks of my vintage), thanks to my association with the Fourth Estate, I was able to get the autograph of a very famous person. Very, very famous person. Now straightway let …
Mind-shift needed on tackling our money woes
BY JOHN ELLIS, FINANCIAL ADVISOR The economy is thriving this year with tech giants and exports fuelling growth. At the end of January this year, Irish households held over €163 billion in deposits in financial institutions, marking the highest level on record. Yet, more than 40% of adults have less than €5,000 in savings, and …
Safety in ready-meals is food for thought
AS I SEE IT BY MARIANNE HERON You hardly need statistics to tell you that there is a growth industry happening wherever you do the food shopping. The refrigerated shelves of lasagne, chicken curry or cottage pie are stretching exponentially in supermarkets and convenience stores. Ready meals are moving more and more of the culinary …
How August can be the wicked month
THE FACT OF THE MATTER BY PAUL HOPKINS And so August has come around, and, being the month of my birthday, I am again reminded of how quickly life goes in — I mean where have the last 20 rears gone? What happened to yesterday? Oh, for those August days of my wild, abandoned youth, …
Healing hands
BY JOHN FITZGERALD (Part three) (Continuing the story of the doctors who attended to people in Callan and district in times past…parts one and two can be read on the Observer website) Dr. Patrick J. Phelan was grandson of the famous Callan historian Tom Shelly. He graduated from UCD and assumed his post at Callan …
Economic plan: penny wise or pound foolish?
AS I SEE IT BY MARIANNE HERON The Government’s Summer Economic Statement puts me in mind of a couple who have mismatched ideas about money. You know the kind, one half is the big spender, money no object character, and the other is a cautious watch-the-cents- sort. That statement – a kind of run up …
Those heady days of the hell-raisers
THE FACT OF THE MATTER BY PAUL HOPKINS It seems like yesterday when Oliver Reed appeared on The Late, Late and was obviously three sheets to the wind but Gay Byrne, with great aplomb, carried on interviewing an incoherent Reed who kept nodding off. As he told Byrne, he and his cohorts “didn’t live in …
Passion, energy, beauty and rhythm
By Ger Cody Well that’s it for another year. The Liam McCarthy cup rests in Tipperary. An All-Ireland that saw the Premier county come out on top with a score of 3-27 to Cork’s 1-18. To be fair, you couldn’t deny Liam Cahill’s charges’ victory. They were mighty in their approach and execution, especially in …
Kilkenny’s Black Abbey – where history meets mystery
By Pat Griffin For a moment, just picture this: Firstly, an iconic building steeped in 800 years of history, which has lived through turbulent times. Secondly, imagine the presentation of a story which has resonated through the ages – a story which itself has emerged from some of history’s most dramatic events. Merge both together …
The ‘Bridge Collective 2025
On Friday night 8th August, Bennettsbridge Art Group members will gather in the Community Centre for the launch of their 2025 exhibition. Senator Malcolm Noonan will do the honours this year. Artists have been working hard for the past few months and are delighted to present the fruits of their labour to the public. The …
