Opinion
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 …
Reduce joint pain and stiffness naturally
BY CLAIR WHITTY Is joint pain and stiffness holding you back from doing the things you love? Daily wear and tear can cause the breakdown of cartilage between the joints reducing the natural cushioning that occurs there. This can happen from natural ageing, being active like walking, running, or cycling. Sometimes doing the same movements …
Reading keeps you (your brain, anyway) young!
BY ANDREW MCDONALD HYPNOTHERAPIST Your mind, like your body, needs exercise. Working it helps it stay fit and healthy. Reading is one activity which stimulates mental activity, keeping your brain young. Don’t want to take my word for it? Health studies have demonstrated how a primary benefit of reading is preventing Alzheimer’s and dementia. Books …
Ukraine: a global approach to give peace a chance?
AS I SEE IT MARIANNE HERON Imagine you are at a rugby match where one side starts beating up spectators. They inflict brutal damage on supporters of the other team while their own supporters cheer them on. The other spectators watch with reactions running the gamut of disbelief, outrage and horror. But they carry on …
Why the Angelus still chimes for most of us
THE FACT OF THE MATTER PAUL HOPKINS Right, let us pause for the Angelus, my father would say, the fork-full of beans on toast suspended midway to my mouth, my younger brother kicking me under the table. And so we paused. Froze. Perfectly still, like the painted picture on the old black-and-white telly in the …
