Opinion
Retirement proves a new set of challenges
BY JOHN ELLIS, FINANCIAL ADVISOR When we come to pension provision we concentrate on the growth of a fund to prove an income after retirement for the rest of your life. This in itself is a challenge as you are required to navigate the vagaries of the pension realm; investment strategies, fund choice, risk analysis, …
Supplements for lack lustre hair
BY CLAIR WHITTY I recently talked about how stress can have a negative impact on your digestive system. I mentioned that stress can affect your hair simply because it affects how you absorb the nutrients from your food. Stress also depletes the important B vitamins which can help the body deal with the effects of …
Holly Cairns: the renaissance we need
AS I SEE IT MARIANNE HERON There’s a breath of fresh air blowing through the tired old political corridors of the Dial brought by Holly Cairns. In a masterstroke, Social Democrat co-leaders Roisin Shortall and Catherine Murphy stepped aside and gave voters the things they have been looking for — change and choice. For those who …
Mothers come in varying guises, including Old Bats
THE FACT OF THE MATTER PAUL HOPKINS My maternal grandmother died when my Mother was just five so she never had a lifetime to know her. When I came into this world, the first of three, and work took my Father away a lot, my paternal grandmother came to call for an afternoon of china-cupped …
It’s time to rethink icing sore and injured muscles
By Eoin Everard Even while you may believe that you are promoting your own healing, you are actually hindering it. You probably pull an ice pack out of the freezer to relieve pain when your knees hurt after a day of intense squats, your elbow hurts after a weekend tennis match, or your daughter knocks …
Cheltenham preview 2023
Kilkenny Sport Focus By Michael O’Leary One of the great Racing and indeed Sporting Highlights of 2023 commences next Tuesday Afternoon March 14th as the Cheltenham Festival gets underway. As is traditional, The Supreme Novices Hurdle gets The Festival underway and it was 28 years ago to the very day – Tuesday March 14th 1995 …
Girl Auction
BY NED EGAN Part 8 At the bedroom door now, and looking down the gloomy stairs, Molly felt a small terror grip her, about the strange and dangerous situation she was in. All the nights in her young life had finished up with her waking in the morning in this little room, drowsy, and fairly …
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 …
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 …
