News Opinion

MICHAEL WOLSEY: ‘Social drinking is no longer fashionable – coffee shops are the new pubs’

By Kilkenny Now 27th February 2019 0

DEARLY beloved, we are gathered here today to mark the passing of an old friend who stood by us through thick and thin, in good times and bad. He was there for all our celebrations, confirmations and graduations; when the boat came in, the lottery ticket came up or the dark horse proved a winner. […]

News Opinion

MICHAEL WOLSEY: ‘There’s not much room for soul in a church that’s busy setting up debit card machines in its vestibule’

By Kilkenny Now 20th February 2019 Post a comment

I AM not a religious person. I hold to no faith and worship no god. But they say the devil can quote scripture for his own ends. So here are two quotes that came to mind when I read of the financial difficulties of the Catholic Church in Ireland. My house shall be called a […]

News Opinion

WINE O’CLOCK: Pop your cork and taste the stars

By Kilkenny Now 15th February 2019 0

LEGEND has it that the first Champagne was made by the monk Dom Perignon in the seventeenth century. That’s probably not true, but I don’t want to spoil a good story by inquiring too closely. Winters are chilly in northern France and, apparently, the monk left his wine to ferment in deep cellars where the […]

News Opinion

MICHAEL WOLSEY: ‘Last chance for the suits to save Irish soccer’

By Kilkenny Now 13th February 2019 0

WHEN Irish soccer split, back in 1921, the League of Ireland and its northern equivalent, the Irish League, both inherited what, in business-speak, would be termed sound franchises. Attendances were in the region of 10,000 to 15,000 and big games could easily attract twice that. Stadium facilities were primitive by today’s standards. Not that anyone […]

News Opinion

WINE O’CLOCK: Some like it cold – and sweet

By Kilkenny Now 8th February 2019 0

WINE is produced in a great many countries but I never thought of Canada as one of them. But there it was, on a supermarket shelf, wine from the Canadian outback. The product in question turned out to be ice wine. It was a new thing to me, but apparently it has been around for […]

News Opinion

MICHAEL WOLSEY: The last thing we need is directly-elected mayors

By Kilkenny Now 6th February 2019 0

IF there is one thing Ireland doesn’t need it is directly-elected mayors for our cities. If there is one thing it needs even less, it is directly-elected mayors for our towns. And if there is one piece of flaithulach nonsense to top those two, it is directly-elected leaders for every local authority in the land. […]

News Opinion

WINE O’CLOCK: Sipping a fine red in the war zone

By Kilkenny Now 1st February 2019 0

THE Middle East has a good climate for grapes, that’s why wine figures in many Bible stories. But anyone producing wine there needs to be extremely brave and slightly mad. Both descriptions could apply to the remarkable Hochar family, Maronite Christians who have been making excellent wines in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley for more than 80 […]

News Opinion

MICHAEL WOLSEY: ‘Disgraceful, wasteful saga of world’s most expensive hospital’

By Kilkenny Now 30th January 2019 0

IN 1995 Albert Reynolds, then Taoiseach, came back from Brussels with €8 billion for regional development. It was the largest single sum Ireland had ever seen and it revolutionised the country. It built roads, improved telecommunications and financed a huge amount of new infrastructure. It paid for the birth of the Celtic Tiger. Albert was […]

News Opinion

WINE O’CLOCK: A wine lover’s guide to a ‘dry’ January

By Kilkenny Now 25th January 2019 0

HAVE you been doing dry January? Me too. I had a nice dry Picpoul from the Languedoc, a beautifully crisp Viognier from the same French region and an unusually dry, aromatic Sauvignon Blanc from the Loire. I went off the rails a bit with a sweetish Chardonnay from Australia but got back on the dry […]

News Opinion

MICHAEL WOLSEY: ‘Google your vice and you will undoubtedly find a survey that makes a virtue of it’

By Kilkenny Now 23rd January 2019 0

HAVE you broken your New Year’s resolution yet? A survey says 75% of resolutions survive the first week of January but only 15% of them are still unbroken by the first week in February. So you only need to hold on for a few more days if you want to join the elite. Too late […]