Opinion

AS I SEE IT BY MARIANNE HERON If Ireland was placed on a weighing scale it would be demographically unbalanced enough to tip us off into the Irish Sea. A whopping 40% of the population are on the East Coast, with over 28% in Dublin. A minority live in smaller communities and the rest in …

THE FACT OF THE MATTER BY PAUL HOPKINS One balmy night, in the recession-ridden 1980s, I was coming from a drinks do, walking down Dublin’s Grafton Street to the taxi rank at the then Central Bank. I came upon a man, fortyish, sitting on the ground against a railing by Trinity College, a cap in …

FURTHERMORE By Gerry Moran Monday 4.20pm. I have just received a text: RIP. Davy Holohan. I can’t believe it. I am shocked. I am doubly shocked as Davy’s brother Ned is being buried this coming Wednesday. My thoughts are immediately with all the family at this sad time. I met Davy [pictured]on the town a …

BY JOHN ELLIS, FINANCIAL ADVISOR We have been fascinated by gold for millennia. As far back as ancient Egypt, people saw the metal as the flesh of the gods and used it for jewellery, ornaments, and symbols of power. Today gold continues to remain a universal sign of wealth and security across the world. Over …

“Give sorrow words; the grief that does not speak knits up the o’er -wrought heart and bids it break.” There is so much wisdom in Shakespeare…he is so right about so many things human and grief is a major theme in so many of his plays. We’ve all experienced grief at some time and if …

BY CLAIR WHITTY Are you feeling drained, exhausted, or worn out after a cold, flu, viral infection or an infection that has simply left you depleted of all energy? When you were sick you probably lost your appetite or you went for all the wrong and easy to reach for foods. Now that you are …

By John Fitzgerald (Part two) Kathleen Aylward (nee Murphy) of Mullinavat (and later Kilmacow) had what she believed was a miraculous escape in 1941 when the German airforce bombed the mailboat she was travelling on, the SS St Patrick. She was thrown overboard after the explosions, but was saved from drowning as a result of “divine …

FURTHERMORE By Gerry Moran I read with great interest last week my fellow columnist Paul Hopkin’s column. Paul (also the Editor of this newspaper) had open heart surgery 15 years ago for a congenital defect which, in midlife, had caught up with him. Next month, Paul, because of wear and tear, will go under the …

BY JOHN ELLIS, FINANCIAL ADVISOR Global financial markets are flashing warning signs, and Ireland, one of the world’s most open economies, is particularly exposed, according to the Central Bank of Ireland’s most recent Financial Stability Review. Governor Gabriel Makhlouf highlighted a worrying disconnect. While equity markets, driven largely by US technology and artificial intelligence (AI) …

AS I SEE IT BY MARIANNE HERON A friend was in raptures over the film Hamnet, its cinematography, and portrayal of grief. Did she cry? Yes, everyone did, came the reply. Hamnet is a fictionalised version of the loss of Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway’s son (11) to the plague at a time of high child …