Opinion

Part two BY JOHN FITZGERALD Miss Butler’s Team Spirit A woman who certainly made her mark in Callan was Miss Butler, who started the Minauns hurling and football teams in 1906. She was a sister of Colonel William Butler, who was also a great benefactor to the town. His granduncle, John Dunphy of Minauns, donated …

BY CLAIR WHITTY The mock exams are just around the corner, doesn’t time fly! This can be stressful and worrying for some of you. There are some things that you can do to help you feel more prepared. Having a study plan is important; start today if you haven’t already got one in place. Building …

A chartered physiotherapist’s view By Paul Bolger. Chartered Physiotherapist.  The Oxford Dictionary describes misinformation as “the dissemination of false information, either knowing it to be false (see disinformation), or unknowingly.” The EU and other bodies are scrambling to reduce its harmful effects via social media and messaging platforms. While many of us are aware of this issue in relation to our society …

BY JOHN ELLIS, FINANCIAL ADVISOR Ever hear of Industroyer? – one of the biggest malware threats to critical infrastructure of countries, or Stuxnet, a computer worm, discovered in June 2010, that was specifically written to take over certain programmable industrial control systems? Neither had I until I was doing some research and read a press …

FURTHERMORE By Gerry Moran I received the following ‘Ten Commandments for Seniors’ on my phone last week. Not sure I want to be receiving notifications like this but I guess ‘if the cap fits, wear it’. Also I’m not so sure they’re ‘commandments’ per se but, for what it’s worth, here they are:   Talk …

AS I SEE IT MARIANNE HERON Who would have thought a couple of years ago that our reputation as a friendly nation would be torched not on a bonfire of the vanities but on one of xenophobia and racism? The burning of the former Torchlight pub in Ringsend and the disused Ross Lakehouse Hotel, Co. …

THE FACT OF THE MATTER BY PAUL HOPKINS My eldest child, my only daughter, has the uncanny knack of second-guessing me. She recently asked me could I pick her up and drop her to the train station for the city. Her youngest girl would be napping at said time, under the watchful eye of her …

BY CLAIR WHITTY I can’t believe that we are half way through January already. Have you any plans for changes this year? I know that reducing meat consumption in January has become a popular thing to do. This can be for ethical reasons or simply because you are feeling stodgy after all the festive eating. …

Part One BY JOHN FITZGERALD In the opening decades of the twentieth century, Callan people, young and old, had to make their own sports and amusements. In an age devoid of TV, radio, computers, and all the other mod cons we now take for granted, open-air fun was all the rage. That was in the …

AS I SEE IT MARIANNE HERON We don’t know what gifts Enoch Burke received in his now familiar surroundings of Mountjoy prison but one metaphorical present arrived in Christmas week. It was news about the UK’s advice to schools on how to handle pupils questioning their gender identity. The document, described as calm and moderate …