Opinion
Our wastefulness gives us food for thought
Hands up those who remember real fried bread? Not the limp, half-hearted specimen that shuffles unashamedly these days around the plate of a Full Irish but the genuine article fried in the fat left over from the Sunday roast. In those days real men (and women) knew their fried bread and that it would put …
The Civil War in Kilkenny 25th April to May 3rd 1922
In early May 1922, nearly two months prior to the official beginning of the Civil War, Kilkenny anti-Treaty IRA units took over 15 buildings in Kilkenny City, most notably St Canice’s Cathedral and Kilkenny Castle. Over the next three weeks,The Kilkenny Observer in conjunction with Cois Céim take a closer look at events of the …
What latest report of rents crisis is saying
BY JOHN ELLIS, FINANCIAL ADVISOR The Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) report has been published. The RTB is a public body set up to support and develop “a well-functioning rental housing sector”. They oversee the private rental market, the Approved Housing Body and accommodation specific to students Their role is to regulate the rental sector, inform …
The more we share, the less the Border will matter
AS I SEE IT MARIANNE HERON Little things sometimes say a lot. Like the way someone mentioned the other day that they were going on holiday to Ireland. Good plan, yes, but the odd thing about it was that the person involved comes from the North of Ireland. To this individual the 26 counties are …
What will climate change mean for allergies?
BY CLAIR WHITTY Many people get hayfever every year. It’s frustrating. It affects your eyes, nose, and mouth. It’s caused by pollens from grass, flowers, trees, and weeds. You cannot escape these pollens that arrive every year. But what would you say if I told you that you can expect to see longer hayfever seasons? …
Where are you, Walter Lally …
By Ned Egan Part 2 Nearly seventy years ago, and I remember that kind woman. May her God be extremely good to her, and may she sit forever in His Innermost Sanctum. A Roscommon woman – bless the county and parents who produced her. Now, I get to Walter Lally. From the very first day …
A mindful workplace is a successful workplace
BY ANDREW MCDONALD HYPNOTHERAPIST Mindfulness makes the workplace a more productive environment for both employees and employers. Once simply a Buddhist practice firmly rooted in the East, mindfulness has seen a popularity boom in the Western world. Yet, it is something which is still frequently misunderstood. Neither weird nor wonderful, mindfulness is beautiful in its …
Women with their rifles under their ruffles
THE FACT OF THE MATTER PAUL HOPKINS Three months into the pandemic I interviewed the globally-renowned photographer Kim Haughton for the Sunday Independent. During a wide-ranging interview from Washington DC, where — masked up and sturdy Nikon to hand — she was covering the #blacklivesmatter protests, the Dublin native told me she would wish to …
Where are you, Walter Lally …
By Ned Egan Part 1 Well, Peamount TB Sanatorium, back in the 1940’s. For those of us who were ‘inmates’, it was – as Dickens would say – ‘the best of times, the worst of times’. Two of my sisters had been swept away by the tide of consumption – as TB was so delicately …
The whys and wherefores of Gift Tax
BY JOHN ELLIS, FINANCIAL ADVISOR Did you know that you can receive a gift up to €3,000 from any person in any calendar year without having to pay Gift Tax? You may even receive a gift from several people in the same calendar year and the first €3,000 from each person is exempt from Gift Tax as they …
