Travel Thursday: Florence, August 2014

I started this on Instagram a few weeks ago and I'm really enjoying sharing little vignettes from various places I've been over the years for work or pleasure. Whenever I've travelled somewhere for work I've travelled with a story in mind, but often the stories I share afterwards with friends and family are never written down [...]

From St Luke's to Sihannoukville – communities connecting #scmf

Ever since I moved to the Cork neighbourhood of St Luke's, I've been intrigued by Henchy's bar. You'd be wrong to describe it as an "old man pub" because they're not the kind of old men you'd normally expect in a city pub. Henchy's is full of arty looking old men wearing hats. They each have [...]

Rwanda's women working together (or, everyone's got a Bono story)

Women's empowerment in Rwanda is crossing the boundaries of ethnicity, class, education, geography and even wellness. Yesterday, we met Yvonne Mutakwasuku, the mayor of a district called Muhanga just west of Kigali. A softly spoken Francophone, Yvonne has worked as a health and social worker with local authorities, NGOs and women's groups for her entire career, [...]