You judge a society by how it treats its most vulnerable citizens, and once again it seems we are failing. We’re one of the richest, happiest and most advanced countries in the world but we can not get care - of our children, our elderly, our sick or our people with disabilities - right. We leave [...]
My childhood memories are filled with holy statues, the smell of incense, the sound of pews squeaking on a tiled floor in an echoey church. Visits to the crib and offkey hymns were Christmas. The somewhat gory sight of the Virgin Mary’s foot crushing a snake fascinated me during primary school assemblies, and the comforting Sunday [...]
We live in an age of unprecedented equality between parents, but, almost three years in, I can confirm that it’s news to many people that men can be parents too. Many of my female friends out-earn their husbands and partners. Sometimes, the early rationale for their career decisions included an expectation that the man would take [...]
We’re living in the age of augmentation, when lips, teeth, and breasts are only the tip of the ‘fake it til you make it’ iceberg. These days reality is augmented in every Instagram picture; perfection is entirely achievable with enough patience to capture the right moment, plus the right filters. And it’s turning us all into [...]
I’ve got some news for you. The zombie apocalypse is happening all around you. But until you’re infected, you don’t even know. Watch out for the signs. Irritability. Mismatched socks, or even shoes. Unbrushed hair. Vomit stained clothing. An inability to concentrate. An urge to seek out caffeine and high calorie food substances. And a vague, [...]
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 [...]
New Zealand’s prime minister Jacinda Ardern gave birth yesterday to a beautiful baby girl. Mother, baby, and soon to be stay-at-home Dad are reportedly all doing well. She will take six weeks’ maternity leave, and her husband will take over childcare duties after that. The overwhelming reaction online was ‘Woman gives birth. So what?’. But it’s [...]
When Gay Byrne spoke to Ray D’Arcy this week about the TV show, ‘Once More With Feeling: The Meaning of Life’, which aired last night, we all perked up a little bit, and listened. Perhaps because of his reticence in expressing his opinions over the years, Gaybo has been conferred, as he ages, with an almost [...]
https://twitter.com/SVCCork/status/980159456045600768 When we glance back at years past there is always a moment that defines them in the public consciousness. A moment that ‘convulsed’ the country, and that was often a catalyst for an epic change of direction. In Ireland, over the past century, many of those moments have been focussed - almost to the [...]
As my son grows from a baby into a toddler I have realised that parenting mainly consists of finding something new to be afraid of at least once a day. While romance is a long way in his future, a study I came across yesterday about how teenagers are now approaching relationships struck fear into my [...]
