Columnists

Godfreys Gospel

Not a mask in sight at British Grand Prix

I HATE to say this, but didn’t I talk about the numbers testing positive doubling up. That was when the...

Fly-tipping resumes at Carlow spot just one week after major clean-up

By Michael Godfrey THE late Jim Townsend from Ballybar was a great community activist and a staunch supporter of volunteerism....

Monday, 05/04/21 - 10:53am Read More

Hold fast, we’re not there yet!

By Michael Godfrey THERE was little difficulty shutting down the country. The government spoke and all businesses, except a handful...

Saturday, 23/05/20 - 11:55am Read More
WOULDN’T you know there is a by-election in the offing and a general election on the way? Pledges, pledges and...
Friday, 01/05/15 - 11:53am Read More
THERE are times when there is no question but we are going backwards. In 2003, the country was bursting with...
Friday, 24/04/15 - 12:03pm Read More
I KNOW it is legal, but that doesn’t make it right. What I am talking about is the release of...
Friday, 17/04/15 - 12:04pm Read More
ASK any tourist what their lasting memory of Ireland is and they will probably tell you it is the colour...
Thursday, 19/03/15 - 2:54pm Read More
AN underlying attitude of entitlement and arrogance was how Sinn Féin’s Pierce Doherty described taoiseach Enda Kenny’s claim that he...
Friday, 06/03/15 - 12:11pm Read More
IT SEEMS Pope Francis cannot say anything right these days. He is damned if he does and damned if he...
Friday, 20/02/15 - 1:25pm Read More
I HAVE to admit that it infuriates me when legislation impinges on the simplest of things, such as buying eye...
Friday, 13/02/15 - 10:30am Read More

Looking South

Eleven Irish-born men have served in the US Senate – two of them from Carlow (part 2)

  LAST WEEK we had a look at Carlow-born Pierce Butler’s contribution to the founding of the United States of...

Time to Think

Sadness and anger at the death of Fr Stan Swamy SJ

NEWS of the death in prison of Fr Stan Swamy SJ, an Indian human rights activist, has occasioned great sadness...

After darkness, there always comes light

DESPITE the confinement and lockdown, not to mention the coronavirus, we have enjoyed great weather this spring. Nature and the...

Sunday, 24/05/20 - 11:59am Read More
A YOUNG, academically-excellent person applied for a managerial position in a big company. He passed the first interview. The managing...
Friday, 17/04/15 - 12:05pm Read More
I SAW a strange sight. I stumbled upon a story most strange, like nothing my life had ever prepared me...
Friday, 27/03/15 - 11:05am Read More
EVERYONE has a mother, so it isn’t surprising that throughout the world there are ways of honouring and celebrating mothers....
Friday, 20/03/15 - 2:51pm Read More
I SHOOK my head in disbelief. This couldn’t be the right place. After all, I couldn’t possibly be welcome here....
Friday, 13/03/15 - 11:23am Read More
LAST year, I baptised a tiny 28-week baby. Her name was Angel. She survived and is testimony to the resilient...
Friday, 06/03/15 - 12:14pm Read More
Quit worrying LIFE has dealt you a blow and all you do is sit and worry. Have you forgotten that...
Friday, 27/02/15 - 12:53pm Read More
ASH Wednesday, 18 February, marks the beginning of Lent. Traditionally, Lent brings with it a time of cutting back, which...
Friday, 20/02/15 - 3:24pm Read More
AFTER decades of debate within the church, Pope Francis has formally recognised that Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero was killed “in...
Friday, 13/02/15 - 11:32am Read More

Times Past

The South African politician and the brutal killing of Hazel Mullen in Dublin

AMAZINGLY, the South African Independent Democrats had to find out from the Saturday Star newspaper that one of its parliamentary nominees,...

FOLLOWING the 1916 Easter Rising and the subsequent executions, Ireland was devoid of purpose, with many of her sons serving...
Friday, 13/03/15 - 11:13am Read More
ALTHOUGH fighting started on 28 July 1914, Germany’s declaration of war on Russia on 1 August is noted as the...
Friday, 06/03/15 - 12:09pm Read More
BRITISH prime minister Herbert Asquith’s ultimatum to Germany was to get out of Belgium before midnight. This was ignored. At...
Friday, 27/02/15 - 12:55pm Read More
THIS article will be in four parts, and even that isn’t enough for a comprehensive review of ‘The Great War’....
Friday, 20/02/15 - 3:26pm Read More
AT 9am on 29 July 1974, workmen cutting grass discovered a woman’s body lying in a ditch close to the...
Friday, 13/02/15 - 12:34pm Read More
THERE are many religious who have served Ireland well down through the centuries. Some have received the recognition they deserved,...
Friday, 06/02/15 - 1:44pm Read More
KILMAINHAM is a town and townland in the parish of St James, within the boundaries of Dublin city, although originally...
Friday, 30/01/15 - 10:26am Read More
THE Tudor reign ushered in the most anti-Catholic period ever endured by Irish people under the English crown. But at...
Friday, 23/01/15 - 3:10pm Read More
SOME times, this column includes forgotten heroes or those practically written out of Irish history. This week we are highlighting...
Friday, 09/01/15 - 10:56am Read More

Trials and Tribulations of a Single Parent

My best friend’s wedding

I WAS four, so she must have been five when we first became friends one summer. What attracted me to...

SO, there we all were, having a jolly old time of it over lunch on a Saturday afternoon. There was...
Friday, 22/05/15 - 10:13am Read More
SO there we were watching The assassination of Jesse James by the coward Robert Ford when the definition of the word ‘assassination’...
Friday, 01/05/15 - 10:34am Read More
SHE wanted, she said, to go to Coláiste Fiachra to start a new life. She said that she was “sick...
Friday, 24/04/15 - 11:55am Read More
THE waiting room was busy for that time of the day. It was as busy as a doctor’s surgery on...
Friday, 17/04/15 - 12:07pm Read More
A helicopter parent is a parent who pays extremely close attention to a child’s or children’s experiences and problems, particularly at...
Friday, 10/04/15 - 11:29am Read More
And these children that you spit on As they try to change their worlds Are immune to your consultations They’re...
Friday, 03/04/15 - 11:52am Read More
I OFTEN mistake the word ‘wedding’ for ‘funeral’. I don’t mean to do it and it’s a troubling trait to...
Friday, 27/03/15 - 10:06am Read More
SORCHA and Siobhán and the others are going drinking on Paddy’s Day,” she says, squinting up from her phone. Reader,...
Friday, 20/03/15 - 2:49pm Read More
“AS A woman in this family, you only have to think of a penis and you’ll get pregnant!” My mother...
Friday, 13/03/15 - 11:17am Read More