Science needs more rock stars like Hawking

Thu, Mar 15, 2018

They say that those who live in the shadow of death are those who live most. Those who have opportunity taken from them are those who see the greater wonder in the things that others just take for granted. And that is so true. It is only when you are faced with losing something that you start to miss it the most. At times like that, it hard to focus on the positive, to reach out and see a light when there is but a dim torch in the distance.

In the last week, I have spoken to a friend who is seriously ill, and we spoke about the journey that lies ahead for him. We tried to get beyond the terror and the regret, the practicalities, and the outcome. A generally positive chap, now he is aiming to look past the illness, to embrace it like an odd companion, like a stranger who sits beside you on an interminable bus journey.

The humanity of the brave

Thu, Mar 08, 2018

Every day, it passes over where I work and where I live.

West feels left out being an onlooker on national weather drama

Thu, Mar 01, 2018

Like fading divas on an operatic stage, it has been a strange, although welcome, feeling this week not be the default centre of attention when it comes to adverse weather in this country. For the best part of two decades now, the west has been the owner of the weather monopoly.

If a rogue tide or a heavy gust of wind was spotted on the map at all, we were sure it was coming our way.

What does the future hold for casinos in Ireland?

Mon, Feb 26, 2018

This is a question that many have been asking in recent times, and particularly in the aftermath of the 2013 Gambling Control Bill and the 2015 Betting Amendment Act, and it is by no means an easy one to answer. But before it is attempted it would be a good idea to take a look at the history of gambling in Ireland in general to put the current role played by casinos into context.

Last thing Michael D wants is a coronation

Thu, Feb 22, 2018

We all think we know Michael D (President Higgins to the rest of ye).

What’s with all the doubling up of dates?

Fri, Feb 16, 2018

As if there aren’t enough days in the year.
Three hundred and sixty-five of them. At least.

Time to enjoy that stretch in the evenings, fuel the saneness

Thu, Feb 08, 2018

Every year, the smell of thick gloss blue and grey paint would fill the evening sky, as the work continued past dusk.

We had three lake boats; solid timber boats, not fibreglass. Every autumn they’d come in off the water and be left in our back garden. Upturned, left to dry for the winter, to drip dry; to get some rest from heavy waders from heavier anglers pounding on them as they navigated the currents of Mask. Now, for four months, they could rest, relax, rejuvenate. Their timbers could stretch and get ready for a new coat, a new season.

A woman who helped shape the place we all love

Thu, Feb 01, 2018

Galway, as we know it, did not just happen by accident. As a signifier of a wider context, what we associate with the city came about because of coincidences of time and place and ability and the juxtaposition of character.

A hero whose visage symbolises his own place

Thu, Jan 25, 2018

There are some artists whose life falls onto the canvas, becomes part of it, whose angst is evident in the brushstrokes; whose empathy shapes the message of the painting. They become part of what they work on, and what they work on becomes the whole of them. They become one with each other until it is impossible to ever see them apart as separate entities. To rob one from the other is to divide it irrevocably.

A glimpse back into an Ireland we deny knowing

Thu, Jan 18, 2018

Sometimes we imagine we are further removed from depravity that we actually are.

New Gaelscoil a boost to the city’s bilingual status

Thu, Jan 11, 2018

There is something wonderful about a new school. It is as if the newness is willing you on to learn things. It is the equivalent of the nice clean blank page in your copy book. It dares you to write on it, to make sure that its journey from tree to page is not lost on something less than meaningful.

New schools have the same effect. Because you can see their purpose more clearly, the facilities provided act as an inspiration.

When the rare becomes the commonplace

Thu, Jan 04, 2018

The thing about Once In A Hundred Years events is that, they self-implode. They are no longer sustainable as news events. Once Once In A Hundred Years events happen and are repeated soon after, they lose their appeal. They don’t carry the awe and wonder anymore.

Look after the little things this Christmas

Thu, Dec 21, 2017

Look after the little things in life.
Because one day the time will come when you realise they are the big things.

A local lad who went away...and came back

Thu, Dec 14, 2017

There is a lot to be said about being able to work in your own place, among your own people. It’s very parochial and comforting to be walking the paths of your childhood, waving good mornings to people you grew up with. There is a familial concept to it that forms your every decision for the day.

Get the perfect present at Hanley & Co.

Thu, Dec 14, 2017

With Christmas just over a week away, it can be a stressful time for people who have not completed their Christmas shopping list. But there is no need to panic as Hanley & Co, a Galway's menswear institution has the perfect present with which the man your in life will be delighted.

Give the gift of empathy — it’s not just for Christmas

Thu, Dec 07, 2017

It’s a sort of a dull pain in the chest.
Akin to a love pang in reverse — a feeling of being overwhelmed financially and emotionally. You are everywhere; on the streets, at home; looking at people with arms full of shopping bags, seeing TV ads for happy families sitting in front of roaring fires, opening exquisitely-wrapped gifts.

Akin to a love pang in reverse — a feeling of being overwhelmed financially and emotionally. You are everywhere; on the streets, at home; looking at people with arms full of shopping bags, seeing TV ads for happy families sitting in front of roaring fires, opening exquisitely-wrapped gifts.

Is honesty too much to ask from politicians and ourselves?

Thu, Nov 30, 2017

Imagine if we had never been taught the concept of lying.

Mladic verdict a reminder of just how close we always are to barbarity

Thu, Nov 23, 2017

Yesterday morning, we got a reminder of just how close we always are to turning on one another.

Let light guide us through the winter

Thu, Nov 16, 2017

There is a strong sense of impending Christmas about Galway this week. Tomorrow, the city lights will be switched on, in a progressive way by a city-hopping Santa who will by the end of his journey have brought the power of illumination to us all. The crews have been working on this and on the Christmas Market stalls and huts for the past seven days. The clang clang of their hammers and drills; the constant beeping of the reversing vehicles; the rattling of the dividing fences that will provide safety, the chatter of men dangling by ropes from the steel structure that forms the big Ferris wheel, almost 100 feet above the ground.

We should never forget the words of Gordon Wilson

Thu, Nov 09, 2017

So recalled the late Gordon Wilson as he watched his daughter lying critically injured under the rubble in Enniskillen, in an era which seems like it was thousands of miles away and hundreds of years ago, but which in reality just happened a few hours up the road 30 years ago this week.

E-paper

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