Whataboutery

What about the homeless? I’ve always had an issue with whataboutery. Urbandictionary.com defines “whataboutism”, or whataboutery, as “when you deflect criticism by pointing out flaws in your opponent, specifically using the phrase "what about x?" This is an attempt to excuse you from changing your behavior by painting your opponent as a hypocrite.” It’s annoying, a [...]

2019-11-01T12:01:42+00:00 November 8th, 2019|Categories: Opinion, Print|Tags: , , , |

Two’s company

They say two’s company, and when I was in the throes of SPD with my second pregnancy, that thought went around and around in my head. While some people love being pregnant, I wasn’t one of them, but I knew it would be worth it. As an only child, I consoled myself with the knowledge that [...]

2019-02-27T11:12:08+00:00 February 28th, 2019|Categories: Personal, Print|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , |

Return from maternity leave: The new normal

Me on my first day back at work after maternity leave. There was a LOT of concealer involved.  Thousands of us do it every year and thousands more  have been here before us. We trudge, skip or sail back  into the office after between six and ten months at  home, learning how to cope [...]

A trip through time and memory to the Somme

For years my Dad and I have been promising ourselves we’d go to see where my grandfather, Leo, fought at the Somme. Having enlisted to the East Kents in Fermoy in 1914, Leo Lyons O’Shaughnessy somehow survived four years on the Western Front. Although he rarely spoke about it after his return, and died in the [...]

Cork to Cambodia: Changing lives forever

A Corkman walked into a Cambodian bar, and twenty children’s lives changed forever. When Cork-based builder Martin McHenry walked into Momo’s Bar in Sihanoukville, Cambodia in search of a shisha pipe, little did he know that this would be the start of a friendship that would see up to twenty Cambodian street children educated and fed [...]

2018-12-01T09:54:19+00:00 March 30th, 2016|Categories: Opinion|Tags: , , , , , , , , |