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...

Kids? You really do have to love them!

SO, there we all were, having a jolly old time of it over lunch on a Saturday afternoon. There was...

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
THERE are huge advantages to having a clatter of sisters and brothers. Not least the fact that you can go...
Friday, 06/03/15 - 12:15pm Read More
Scene: The sofa on Saturday night with my teenage daughter and I watching The Grammy music awards Teenage daughter: My...
Friday, 27/02/15 - 12:24pm Read More
“I’M so stressed. My life is so stressful. This is so stressful.” I gathered that my daughter was under some...
Friday, 20/02/15 - 11:22am Read More
ST VALENTINE’S night in any restaurant is different to every other night of the year. An air of expectation hangs...
Friday, 13/02/15 - 3:37pm Read More
MY daughter’s singing segued effortlessly from ‘shake it off’ to ‘let it go, let it go’” as she walked up...
Friday, 06/02/15 - 12:42pm Read More
“SERIOUSLY? You’re not wearing that, are you? You’re never going to find a man in that get-up,” my youngest sister...
Friday, 30/01/15 - 12:31pm Read More
“HOW are you, hon?” “Shi.” “Sorry?” “Shi.” “Come again … what do you mean ‘shi’?” “When I say shi, I...
Friday, 23/01/15 - 3:10pm Read More
A NEW year, a new you. 2015 has already got its feet under the table and people are detoxing left,...
Friday, 16/01/15 - 10:15am Read More
“SO, pet, what do you want for Christmas?” I nonchalantly asked my 15-year-old daughter a week before the big day....
Friday, 09/01/15 - 11:58am Read More
HE’S the type of chap that you could bring home to your mammy. He’s kind, funny, talented, loves women and...
Friday, 12/12/14 - 12:05pm Read More