Covid, it seems, has shortened life expectancy, or has it shortened the number of years for which our bodies are alive? There is a difference.
If I had a wish to live to a very old age, I would wish to do so like the elves in The Lord of the Rings.
Tolkien’s mythical heroes always seemed an attractive race of beings. Hadn’t the Elven king Thranduil had fought Sauron the Dark Lord some three thousand years prior to the events of The Fellowship of the Ring? Such …
It was a fine, fresh afternoon, a day perfect for the first day of the season of Advent.
Rather than risk the vagaries of the No 18 bus, which might arrive at some time after the scheduled time or might not arrive at all, I decided to walk. Google Maps told me it was four and a half miles to the stadium at Lansdowne Road where the FAI Cup final would kick off at 4 pm.
I strolled along at a leisurely pace, much of the journey was along the …
“Be alert.” Luke 21:36
“Be alert”, says Jesus and “alert” is a word that might be used as an acrostic to think about today’s Gospel reading, A-L-E-R-T standing for, “Advent”, “Look”, “Earth”, “Raise” and “Trap.”
Advent: In the overwhelming commercialism of this time of year, it is easy to forget that the season of Advent that begins today is not focussed on preparing for Christmas, instead it is a time to remember that it was in “the time of this mortal life” that “Jesus Christ came to us in great …
Having a ticket for a rugby match between Leinster and Ulster tomorrow and one for the FAI Cup Final between Saint Patrick’s Athletic and Bohemians on Sunday, I foolishly decided to walk to a match this evening. There was a promotion/relegation play off between University College, Dublin and Waterford FC, being played at Saint Patrick’s ground as a neutral venue.
It was football for the sake of it on a bitterly cold night. Staying for the whole match, my feet were numb and I was shivering by the time of …
It is a couple of years since I last saw him.
Around eighty years of age, he was sitting with his collie dog in the cool shade of a redundant church building on a very warm summer’s day. He had lived in the village as long as I could remember and the thought had never occurred to me that he might have come from anywhere else.
It was a surprise to discover that he had not come from the West Country, but from the west of Co Wicklow.
…“My father
The distinctive sound of the Buena Vista Social Club was played by John Creedon on his RTE radio programme. He recalled Compay Segundo, a leading member of the Cuban musical ensemble who was still playing with the band until shortly before his death at the age of ninety-five.
Segundo’s voice had been shaped by decades of smoking cigar Havana cigars. He had begun work rolling cigars at the age of fourteen, but had helped his grandmother with the work from an early age and had been allowed the odd puff. …
