News Opinion

MICHAEL WOLSEY: Sad, funny and soulful – but it’s just not Belfast

By Kilkenny Now 12th February 2022 0

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 shortly after. Like Branagh, I was raised in the Protestant community. But my memory of the city in the late 1960s is very different from the one displayed in his […]

News Opinion

MICHAEL WOLSEY: Don’t get your knickers in a twist, it’s just a passing phrase

By Kilkenny Now 5th February 2022 0

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 codswallop? I’m afraid you may be casting your pearls before swine. These phrases are ready for the knacker’s yard and may soon be dead as doornails. If, like me, you […]

Food & Drink News Opinion What's On

MICHAEL WOLSEY: A pint, a coffee, a cinema seat … these are a few of my favourite things

By Kilkenny Now 29th January 2022 Post a comment

As the old Kitty Kellen song told us, little things mean a lot. And so, having done a bit of shopping, I bought a newspaper and wandered into a pub. I ordered a pint at the bar and exchanged some aimless chatter with the barman while he poured it. Then I took my paper and […]

News Opinion

MICHAEL WOLSEY: Turning a blind eye to the elephant in our classrooms

By Kilkenny Now 15th January 2022 0

Is Covid spreading from our schools? Nphet and the Government say it is not, but neither the public health czars, nor our ministers, have visited many schools to test their theory. Teachers, whose job is in the classroom, tell a different story and, in the days since the new term started, three of them have […]

Business Food & Drink News Opinion

MICHAEL WOLSEY: A myth that has pushed up the price of drink

By Kilkenny Now 10th January 2022 2

Average consumption of alcohol in Ireland has fallen over the past decade. It’s not much of a drop, nothing to get excited about, but the trend is down. The World Health Organisation measures consumption of pure alcohol and its figures show that the difference in consumption between most European countries is quite small, about a […]

News Opinion

MICHAEL WOLSEY: I’ll make my New Year move when I find this wonderful land

By Kilkenny Now 25th December 2021 0

Somewhere over the rainbow is a land called Other Jurisdictions. I can’t find it on the map and my satnav is no help, but I intend to keep looking, for it is a wonderful place. Everything in Other Jurisdictions works better than in Ireland, according to some industry representatives, many media commentators and all Sinn […]

News Opinion

MICHAEL WOLSEY: The Tempest or just a storm in an RTÉ cup?

By Kilkenny Now 11th December 2021 0

RTÉ’s newsroom loves a good storm. They have all their regional correspondents out, looking at empty streets or wind-blown beaches and trying, like Dickens’s Fat Boy, to make our flesh creep. The station was derided for its hysterical coverage of Storm Lorenzo, two years ago, when its reporters across the land spent 24 hours warning […]

News Opinion

MICHAEL WOLSEY: Everyone’s a loser in the game of Covid Consequences

By Kilkenny Now 4th December 2021 0

As they do every winter, the ESB has been issuing warnings about not approaching fallen wires and the Road Safety Authority is cautioning against driving through flooded roads. It’s sound advice but you don’t have to take it. If you want to move the cable that is blocking your path, or test your car’s ability […]

News Opinion

MICHAEL WOLSEY: Spare a thought for charity collectors – and a few coins if you can find them

By Kilkenny Now 27th November 2021 0

In the run-up to Christmas the streets of Dublin used to be full of carol singers. They were out in Kilkenny, too, and every city and town, but the numbers in Dublin were really impressive. Groups of singers would dot the entire length of Grafton Street and Henry Street and jostle for space at popular […]

News Opinion

MICHAEL WOLSEY: The ‘most sensational woman ever’ takes her rightful place at last

By Kilkenny Now 20th November 2021 0

The Panthéon, the national mausoleum in Paris, is dedicated to the great men of France.  ‘Aux Grands Hommes,  La Patrie Reconnaise’ (to the great men, the grateful homeland), says the inscription. It houses the remains of Voltaire, Rousseau, Victor Hugo, Emile Zola and some 70 others the nation has chosen to honour over the course […]