Opinion
In deep water, when the water dries up
AS I SEE IT MARIANNE HERON Last month we were without water for a day and a half together with a swathe of north Wicklow due to work on a filtration plant. On day one it meant no showers, no loo flushing, dish or other washing. By day two we were buying bottled water and …
Magnificent obsession with the weather
THE FACT OF THE MATTER PAUL HOPKINS What is it, this obsession of ours with the weather? When it’s hot, it’s ‘very hot, isn’t it?’ And when it floods it’s a great excuse to close schools or hospitals and take a day off work. We’re obsessed with climate, though sadly not with climate change and …
Remembering Dermot Morgan
By Fred Tuite This week, The Kilkenny Observer Newspaper caught up with Kilkenny resident Fred Tuite as he reminisced about the late writer and actor Dermot Morgan. In October 1972, I returned for my second year to UCD to find the Belfield Arts Block filled with new first year students trying to find their way …
And the band played on…
By John Fitzgerald For more than a century, the men and women of St. Patrick’s Brass Band promoted all that was best in Kilkenny’s musical traditions. From the day it was founded in May 1882, it won its way into the hearts of young and old in Cat County. The band’s motto, inscribed on a …
The Worshipping of Helena
BY NED EGAN Part 1 It was springtime, back in the far days when you noticed such things. When every dawn gave the hope that the savage frost of the night before might be the last one of a hard pitiless winter. And maybe this day would see the snow start its long slow retreat …
A month’s reprieve for those have to change banks
BY JOHN ELLIS, FINANCIAL ADVISOR Having recently written about the closure of Ulster Bank and KBC I think another review and reminder is in order. This is because Ulster Bank is putting back its proposed closure deadline to help those on social welfare not lose the higher payments announced in the Budget, like the double …
Inheritance: a tax worth knowing about
AS I SEE IT MARIANNE HERON Any close encounters with the taxman reduce me to an apprehensive state akin to skating on thin ice. Not knowing what is lurking underneath the ice increases the fear. Ridiculous I know, taxation is an instrument of monetary policy that’s meant to be fair, nevertheless I am not alone …
Winter remedies for kids with coughs and colds
BY CLAIR WHITTY There’s nothing worse than listening to your child coughing and sneezing, it makes you feel so helpless. Thankfully, there are natural remedies that can help relieve their symptoms. It can be that when you collect them from creche or school they are coughing or sneezing, especially at the start of the school …
The common cold, and winters of discontent
When I was but knee-high to a grasshopper and succumbed to bouts of childhood ailments, my mother would summon the local GP. After he had pressed the cold stethoscope to my chest and back and had me cough and cough, my mother, fearing the worst, would say: “Well, Dr Dolan, what is it?” He would …
The white haired boy
BY NED EGAN Part 3 The moon helped the bombers, and they had no fear of RAF fighters: well the Luftwaffe knew that these scarce machines were still being held rigidly in wait for planes trying to destroy airfields – which would be Hitler’s first step towards an invasion. The weather might be lousy, but …
