Opinion
The long and the shorts of it, lads …
The Fact Of The Matter PAUL HOPKINS Our seasons are a vagary onto themselves, our reaction to their sudden, often unannounced change even more vagarious: when it’s hot, it’s “too hot”, and when it rains and the winds come, our reaction is: “Sure it’s a grand country altogether, if only we had a roof over …
Kathleen Funchion calls for emergency response to mental health crisis in Kilkenny
Kathleen Funchion Sinn Fein TD for Kilkenny Carlow Sinn Féin TD for Carlow Kilkenny, Kathleen Funchion, has urged cross-party support for Sinn Fein’s emergency response plan to accelerate mental health services. Pre-pandemic mental health waiting lists were already at crisis point, but the avalanche of depression, isolation, loneliness and anxiety since the onset of Covid-19 …
The power of your breath
Andrew McDonald Hypnotherapist Did you know one of the most powerful things you possess is your breath? No, I’m not telling you to stop eating garlic or onions! I’m talking about the fact your breath is quite literally one of the best tools you have for easing symptoms of depression and anxiety. It is also …
Not so much science, as jab concerns and envy
Fact Of The Matter PAUL HOPKINS So, as I write, the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine has been given a second clean bill of health by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), emphasising that the incidence of blood clots is actually much lower than in the general population and that the vaccine is safe. Many nations outside the …
Parents need paid leave
By: Deputy Kathleen Funchion Sinn Fein TD for Kilkenny Carlow Sinn Féin is supportive of extending paid parental leave and has welcomed the Government’s commitment to finally fulfil its promises on Paid Parent’s Leave but warned there can be no further delays. I welcome that Minister O’Gorman has said that the additional Paid Parent’s Leave …
If Jack’s alright, what about the rest of us?
Fact Of The Matter PAUL HOPKINS You know the scenario. You phone someone to check if all is good and they unload for a full 30 minutes and never once ask how you are. Or the moment when you realise someone in your life is mostly take and no give; who constantly asks favours of …
Science and religion and a quest for truth
By PAUL HOPKINS It is perhaps fitting that in the lead up to Holy Week — Christianity’s greatest celebration — Finnish astrophotographer JP Metsavainio has announced that, after 1,250 hours over the course of about 12 years, he has finished creating a single image that reveals the magnificent beauty of the entire Milky Way. Back …
Lessons learnt in the time of coronavirus
Fact Of The Matter PAUL HOPKINS It is a year since the coronavirus came to live among us, wreaking havoc worldwide. In the beginning we believed it was just a temporary glitch, a short pause in the going-around of the world, in the commerce of everyday life. A year on, the temporary hiatus has taken …
When mothers come in many guises
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 was born, the first of three, and work took my Father away a lot, my paternal grandmother came to call for an afternoon of china-cupped tea and cucumber …
Rural broadband in Kilkenny
By: Deputy Kathleen Funchion Sinn Fein TD for Kilkenny Carlow IN May 2019, the Government announced the NBP detailing how rural Ireland would be connected to high-speed broadband over the next six-seven years. In November of that year, it signed a contract with National Broadband Ireland (NBI) to plan, develop and operate a fibre-based broadband …
