Mourning a dog
News of the death of Millie who had been our family dog in my final years in Ireland, brought memories of Bella, who died four years ago. Becoming ill in the morning, Bella had died in the afternoon, having reached the grand old age of sixteen or so (we were never certain of her age, she had been abandoned at … [continue reading …]
A final farewell to William Trevor
William Trevor died in 2016. A year ago, on 15th May 2018, his final collection of short stories was published. Aptly named Last Stories, the collection is an expression of Trevor’s sharp insights into human existence, his capacity to create characters so real that it is hard to imagine their only existence is on the pages of a book. I bought … [continue reading …]
History lessons
Were it not for the “Horrible Histories” series of books and the BBC television series inspired by the books that was broadcast on CBBC, it is hard to imagine that any of the class would know anything about the Tudors. Some joined in the song, “Divorced, beheaded, died. Divorced, beheaded, survived,” as the actor representing Henry VIII sang about the … [continue reading …]
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Iris time
It is white. If it looks mauve, that’s because the picture was taken in the evening light. It is forty years old and looks as it does at the moment for only a brief time each May. It is white, but it and its companions might have been any colour. They were gathered from the rubbish heap, rhizomes discarded because … [continue reading …]
Sermon for the Fifth Sunday of Easter, 19th May 2019
“By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” John 13:35 The letters of the word “glory” provide a useful acrostic to help us think about the Gospel reading: “G” for “God;” “L” for “little children;” “O” for “one another;” “R” from the middle of the word “are;” and “Y” for “you.” … [continue reading …]
Who cares about those with nothing to offer?
The final question of this afternoon’s lesson was, “who should have protected the Jews?” It was a lesson on the anti-Jewish laws enacted by the Nazis between 1933 and 1942, challenging material for Year 8 students. There was no real answer to the question, who was there who would have protected powerless people? I remember 1991 when the Coalition forces … [continue reading …]
Edward Thomas would understand musicians’ blues
BBC Radio 6’s Steve Lamacq this evening featured the work of Help Musicians UK on his programme. A study for the charity had revealed that whilst mental health problems might affect 20-25 per cent of the general population, among musicians it is 69%. Reasons cited for a level of incidence that was three times higher than that among the general … [continue reading …]
Settling the account
This story was expanded from a piece of flash fiction. It was entered for this year’s RTÉ Francis McManus Short Story Competition. The evening classes at the college gave her the opportunity. It was a computing class that had taught her to use the Internet, something of which she had been frightened. It had been the stories in the papers … [continue reading …]