In 2013, today was Palm Sunday.
In a parish with six churches, it was a time that could be frantically busy. Hospital visiting demanded leaving the parish at a time when there would have been a list of things to be done. However, on Tuesday of that week, I was determined to see him.
Walking into the hospital ward, his bed was empty. The man in the next bed said he was in the bathroom. Leaving the ward and going to another to visit someone else, I returned some fifteen …
Only when reading a post online before lunch did I realize that today was World Poetry Day. It is a day that would provide inspiration for a walking tour of Dublin for there can be few cities with so many poetic associations.
The tour might have visited Kavanagh beside the Grand Canal for a spoken or sung rendition of On Raglan Road.
…On Raglan Road on an autumn day I met her first and knew
That her dark hair would weave a snare that I might one day rue;
By five o’clock this afternoon, there were many who were worse for wear. It was hard to discern what was being celebrated, what tribute to a saint or to a nation was being made by those wobbling across the street?
Giving up hope of a bus arriving, I began to walk home. At Kilmainham, I stood outside the gaol, among the fourteen figures that commemorate those executed by the British army after the 1916 Rising.
Being English and growing up in a household where there was always a great respect …
In January, it was confidently asserted by some students that there would be no Leaving Certificate examinations in June because of the high incidence of Coronavirus. As life returned to normal, and restrictions were lifted, such hopes faded.
The next straw at which some grasped was that the prospect of war. If Ireland became involved in a conflict, would they receive predicted grades instead of having to sit examinations? The odd hope that a country that remained neutral in the Second World War would intervene to support Ukraine has faded …
There was a cold and grey Saturday afternoon late last November when there seemed little to do to pass the time. A scan through the sports pages of a website revealed that a football match was being played at the local ground.
I did not support either team, I knew nothing about either team, but I put on my coat and went to watch the match. This was anoraked geekiness of the first order.
It was a play off for a place in the top tier of League of Ireland …
Following a series of lessons on values, the influence of the media on our values was our topic in our lesson today. What was intriguing was not how much power the mass media had in influencing the thought of the students, but how little potential it possessed to affect the attitudes of any of them.
The class were the stuff of nightmares for any advertising agency. A number of them did not engage with any of the mass media whatsoever. They did not watch television or listen to the radio. …
