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 [...]
Deirdre O’Shaughnessy has been wondering for a long time just who makes her clothes. She went to Cambodia to find out. As we approached the factory, a steady stream of young women, and some men, flowed out from a side door. Colourfully dressed, a few wearing hijabs, the workers made their way out the front gate, [...]
Emer O'Mahony is a Director of Lockdown Models and founder of Cork Fashion Week. She blogs at Irish Fashaholic. Q When it comes to buying clothes, what's your top priority? When shopping for clothes my biggest priority is quality. I believe in less is more, in buying less quantity of garments (i.e. a new 'trendy top [...]
How much do we consider the origin of our clothes? I decided to ask some well known Cork women. First up, owner of Verso, Lisa Roberts. Q When it comes to buying clothes, what's your top priority? A When it comes to buying clothes it depends on the reason I am purchasing for. If it is [...]
We all like to own nice things, and for many of us clothes come top of the list. They say a lot about who we are, how we see ourselves, and, of course, they dictate how others see us. But what does our choice of clothing mean to the people who make it? Does paying €20 [...]
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 [...]
I don't normally do very personal blog posts here, but quite a bit of my op/ed stuff over the past year related to personal experiences, so I feel I should bring it all together a bit here. It's late January, and I am only now getting into 'January mode', the mode of healthy eating and exercise, [...]
The World Gender Gap Report 2014 has been released today. Here's a very nifty map of the report showing where the biggest disparities exist and also mapping progress over time using the slider. Rwanda (my area of interest in this regard) comes one step ahead of Ireland due to its enormous success in involving women in [...]
Today is UN Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Rwanda Genocide. The country’s President Paul Kagame has just completed a European tour, including a visit to Aras an Uachtarain last week. While in Ireland, he donated €50,000 to help build a robot for Cork’s Joanne O’Riordan. When Kagame’s RPF ended the genocide by invading [...]
As the 20th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide approaches, the country’s President Paul Kagame is on a tour of Europe commemorating what is known as Kwibuka 20. Since 1994, Rwanda has been synonymous with genocide. In a planned action which began 20 years ago this month, approximately 800,000 Rwandan Tutsis and moderate Hutus were massacred [...]
