Opinion

BY NED EGAN Part 9 And in a flash – it was in her hands! ‘This’ she thought grimly, ‘changes things. I’ll have control, I’ll have the edge, no matter who shows up or what happens.’ With no telephones, and roads going in all directions from the Five-Crossroads a few miles away, they were in …

By John Fitzgerald PART TWO Jack Gardiner (Callan War of Independence hero and later publican) vividly remembered some of the drovers who brought livestock to the fair, and why wouldn’t he, when they met in his pub from 1933 onwards, along with the multitude of wheelers and dealers that converged on Callan for decades on …

FURTHERMORE  By Gerry Moran I asked a florist once which was the busiest day – Mother’s Day or Valentine’s Day? He looked at me somewhat incredulously and said: “Gerry, everyone has a mother but not everyone has a lover.” And so Sunday,Mother’s Day, a florist’s busiest day, is upon us but before I write about …

BY JOHN ELLIS, FINANCIAL ADVISOR When we come to pension provision we concentrate on the growth of a fund to prove an income after retirement for the rest of your life.  This in itself is a challenge as you are required to navigate the vagaries of the pension realm; investment strategies, fund choice, risk analysis, …

BY CLAIR WHITTY I recently talked about how stress can have a negative impact on your digestive system. I mentioned that stress can affect your hair simply because it affects how you absorb the nutrients from your food. Stress also depletes the important B vitamins which can help the body deal with the effects of …

AS I SEE IT MARIANNE HERON There’s a breath of fresh air blowing through the tired old political corridors of the Dial brought by Holly Cairns. In a masterstroke, Social Democrat co-leaders Roisin Shortall and Catherine Murphy stepped aside and gave voters the things they have been looking for — change and choice. For those who …

THE 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 came into this world, the first of three, and work took my Father away a lot, my paternal grandmother came to call for an afternoon of china-cupped …

BY NED EGAN Part 8 At the bedroom door now, and looking down the gloomy stairs, Molly felt a small terror grip her, about the strange and dangerous situation she was in. All the nights in her young life had finished up with her waking in the morning in this little room, drowsy, and fairly …