One of the most cheerful developments over the course of my lifetime has been the advent of cheap clothes. In my mother’s generation, elegant garments were beyond the reach of most people, and especially most women, who often yearned for pretty things. Look at the photographs of yesteryear: people of means did have decent clothes,…

It is often said that the bias against ‘mixed marriages’ – between partners of different religions – was cruel, and that the Ne Temere decree of 1908 was destructive of community and familial relationships. Yet it would be illusionary to pretend that no conflicts arise when a couple have different religious backgrounds or convictions, and…

Since I dwell, in a sense, in both England and Ireland – now here, now there – I am sometimes held to account in both countries for what the other is doing. Most recently, in Ireland, I have been charged with allegations that the British (or the English) have become nastily anti-Irish, with the rise…

‘Bad companions’ – how often did I hear that expression in my schooldays. Warnings came from many quarters, including our catechism text, that ‘bad companions’ could lead us astray. Parents and guardians were often on the lookout for ‘bad companions’. I was discouraged from a friendship with a girl a couple of years older because…

I had my first hip replacement surgery when I was in my 40s – the youngest person in the hospital to have had that particular operation. It arose from a congenital joint defect I’d been born with, but had gone undetected, except for an increasing limp through my adult years. I was warned that a second…

RTÉ claims it needs it to find a new way to fund broadcasting, because it seems that increasing numbers of people are dodging the licence fee. Thus their plan to incorporate the levy into utility taxation. The present system for collection the licence fee is not efficacious: my own impression is that it is a…

I hear the words “Marie Antoinette” increasingly used about Meghan, Duchess of Sussex – invoking the late (largely naïve) Queen of France as a symbol of privilege without responsibility. “Doing a Marie Antoinette” is shorthand for availing of every entitlement possible while play-acting at being just a simple milkmaid or shepherdess. Duchess Meghan’s latest caper…

Anna is a long-time friend of mine. She is a devout Anglican, English, and also a member of the Conservative Party. Thus, she had a vote in deciding whether Jeremy Hunt or Boris Johnson should become the next Conservative leader, and next Prime Minister of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. She’s a conscientious person and…

Two funerals of Irishmen distinguished in their fields took place over the last week: one was a large popular gathering to mark the passing of the comedian Brendan Grace, who died aged 68. His funeral Mass was held in the heart of Dublin’s Liberties area, at the Church of Nicholas Myra in Francis Street. The…