Charitable resolutions for a new you in 2012

Thu, Jan 05, 2012

A New Year’s resolution can help you to make a profound, lasting, and positive change in your life. Yet sticking to resolutions can be notoriously difficult. Barnardos, Ireland’s leading children’s charity, has some suggestions to help you keep your resolution and also make a difference to the lives of children living in Ireland.

Gadget insurance on the increase

Thu, Jan 05, 2012

Irish consumers are saying ‘no’ to expensive mobile phone insurance and are switching to standalone gadget insurance.

Rethink your drinking for 2012

Thu, Jan 05, 2012

Making a resolution to reassess your drinking habits on January first can seem like an easy decision after a hectic party season. However making this resolution last past those January blues is the tough part.

Coffee is king

Thu, Jan 05, 2012

It seems that we simply cannot get enough of that brown liquid and I predict that there will be even more new coffee houses opening during 2012. Despite all the doom and gloom, sales of coffee do not appear to have been damaged and in some cases are on the increase. As consumers we are, however, becoming much more demanding, and that is great news as it will lead to a much better range of coffees and properly trained baristas (coffee making professionals). Until quite recently it was deemed acceptable to install machines that, while using whole beans, only required an operator to press a button and, hey presto, real coffee. Not any more, and while I accept that they have a place in the market, the cost of a cup from these should not be any more than €1.

Tasty treats

Thu, Jan 05, 2012

Some appetising delicacies from bordbia.ie

Local restaurants receive prestigious Bridgestone awards

Thu, Jan 05, 2012

After just eight months in business Kai Cafe and Restaurant on Sea Road has earned its place among the culinary elite, and been named as the best restaurant in Ireland.

Treat your skin

Thu, Jan 05, 2012

Olive has been used in skincare for thousands of years because of its ability to increase moisture levels and improve skin elasticity.

Going for gold

Thu, Jan 05, 2012

You may be facing into January exhausted with empty pockets and broken resolutions but there is no need to look deathly pale.

Saving face

Thu, Jan 05, 2012

A “superfood” for skin and hair which is famous for its anti-ageing properties is now available from a local company.

Making eyes

Thu, Jan 05, 2012

Puffiness, fine lines and wrinkles - all skin problems we want to eliminate or at least disguise.

Now a new product from Kiehl’s chemists, which has been established since 1851, claims to help achieve fresher, younger looking eyes.

Frost and Fire, Fathers and Sons

Thu, Dec 29, 2011

Most people who care about poetry, hearing the name Samuel Taylor Coleridge, will think immediately of that wonderfully strange masterpiece, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Christabel, a ‘Gothic’ tale of a vampire-like woman, or, perhaps, Kubla Khan, that “vision in a dream”, possibly induced by the poet’s growing addiction to opium, but which is, nonetheless, a perfectly finished work of art.

St Mary’s College, almost one hundred years old

Thu, Dec 29, 2011

Our photograph today shows the St Mary’s College hurling team which won the competition played between their school, Garbally, and St Flannan’s in 1924. The diocesan magazine The Mantle published this image and provided an update on the players in 1959, so the notes after their names describe their status in 1959.

The Legend of the Christmas Robin

Thu, Dec 29, 2011

A chara,- The robin has excellent credentials for inclusion in religiously-themed Christmas stamps. In Irish tradition, the robin (spideog) was beannaithe, that is, blessed or holy, and had a sacred character. Various religious legends illustrated why.

My daughter

Thu, Dec 29, 2011

Not often one gets a chance
To produce a beautiful piece of art

To produce a beautiful piece of art

A blind poet’s love for Mary Hynes

Thu, Dec 29, 2011

South Galway still echoes with stories of Antoine O Raifteiri , and 18th century blind poet and fiddle player in the ancient bardic tradition. His best known poems are probably Cill Aodain, and Anach Cuan. He never wrote his poems down, but they were collected by Douglas Hyde, and Lady Gregory, from those whom he taught them to, after his death.

Raftery's Praise of Mary Hynes

Thu, Dec 29, 2011

GOING to Mass by the will of God, the day came wet and the wind rose; I met Mary Hynes at the cross of Kiltartan, and I fell in love with her there and then.

I spoke to her kind and mannerly, as by report was her own way; and she said "Raftery my mind is easy; you may come to-day to Ballylee."

Christmas in the White House, December, 1941 - a meeting that saved Europe

Thu, Dec 29, 2011

On December 7 1941 Japan launched a devastating surprise attack on the US naval base of Pearl Harbour. America declared war on Japan, and Germany declared war on the United States four days later. This was no longer just a war in Europe. It had leapt onto the worldwide stage

Dick Martin’s reputation as a duellist struck terror into his creditor

Thu, Dec 29, 2011

Last February some readers enjoyed the tales of George Robert Fitzgerald, of Turlough, Co Mayo, known as Fighting Fitzgerald. He was an appalling man who provoked duels by his insulting behaviour, with his cronies conducted a reign of terror through Mayo, and at one time chained his father in a cave to get him to change his will. He ended on the gallows at Castlebar.

Galway enjoyed an unusual breach of promise marriage case

Thu, Dec 29, 2011

It is not often that one reads of a man taking an action for breach of promise of marriage. Such an action was heard in the County Court-house, Galway, at the Lent Assizes of 1817. (I think it was one of the first cases heard after the opening of the building).

Brave little Otto humbly meets his Maker

Thu, Dec 29, 2011

I was very impressed at the dignity and solemnity at the funeral of Otto von Hapsburg who died aged 94 years on July 4. Twelve days later he was entombed in the Imperial crypt of St Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna, with some pomp and ceremony; but his actual ‘ Three Knock’ burial was simplicity itself.

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