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Big changes have just been announced for Ireland’s hospital system. That worries me, for I remember other announcements of big changes. They always cost a
The first personal question on your census form asks your name; the second says ‘what is your sex’. You have a simple choice, male or
What is a modern Irish mammy? Or mam, mum, ma, mom, mommy, mother? Whatever you’re having yourself. She has as many roles as she has
Work was scarce when I was growing up and a lot of men, with nothing better to do, divided their days between the bookmaker and
In 2001, a junior minister, Joe Jacob, talked himself out of his job with advice on how Ireland should handle a nuclear emergency. We should,
Neville Chamberlain was the British prime minister whose appeasement allowed Hitler to dismantle Czechoslovakia, opening the way for World War Two. Defending his agreement with
My granddaughter goes to a primary school where the children call the teachers by their first name. It is, from what I can judge, a
Ireland’s planning system is cumbersome and costly. Local authorities make decisions, Bord Pleanála may overrule them and the dispute can end up in court. Sometimes
Like Kenneth Branagh, Belfast is my native city. Like Branagh, I was living there in 1969 when the Troubles began and, like Branagh, I left
Do you know your onions? And, if so, do you ever have the urge to tell less-informed folk that they are talking a load of
