Children’s Corner A very popular experiment which always delivers quite spectacular results is the Diet Coke and Mentos geyser. It’s a lot of fun and sure to amaze your friends and family (assuming you do it outside rather than inside your house). Apparatus – Large bottle of Diet Coke – About half a pack of…
What is rare, becomes precious. During an Irish January, sunlight is perhaps the most precious commodity in all of nature. On this icy morning, it shines low and golden across frosty fields. Its light touches the soil, awakening snowdrops from their winter sleep. The sun causes stirs of life within the trees limbs, as furled…
We went walking in Glenveagh yesterday. It is a walk we have done many times but this time we took a notion and walked it backwards, beginning at the end and ending up at the beginning. What has always been a nice walk was transformed. Coming from a height, down now towards the lake, with…
A Parent’s Perspective A quote I saw on Pinterest says: “Dear God, I’m placing 2020 in your hands.” I’m not sure if it was written at the start of 2020 or as the year progressed but, it’s a very good prayer for what was a strange, strange year. As we head into 2021, we have high…
I’ve always loved New Year’s Eve. The clock ticks past a threshold in time, and we are suddenly gifted a new beginning. The old year is gone and a new one is born. Anything seems possible in the dawn of a new year. As 2021 comes into being, we leave a strange year behind us.…
Our childhood Christmases are too few. Before the age of three, children know too little to truly appreciate Christmas. After the age of 11, or so, they know too much, as they veer recklessly towards their teenage years. This means that we have perhaps eight pristinely innocent childhood Christmases. We parents must do what we…
I should actually be on a plane now, rather than sitting at my desk writing. If it were not for Covid-19 I would be on my way back from Kentucky, having attended the wedding of my God-daughter. As it was, we watched the wedding streamed live on Facebook so that friends around America and family…
A Parent’s Perspective Christmas is rapidly approaching, one of the most exciting times of the Church year for Catholics. We already have Christmas adverts competing to achieve that much desired place as the one advertisement that most captures the spirit of what Christmas is all about. Many of the central themes involve the excited anticipation,…
I had never been quite so delighted to be dropping the kids off at one of their clubs. The clever old Brownies had organised an outing to the beach. The government, in their wisdom, permit parents to drive outside the 5km limit during the lockdown, to enable children to attend sports and clubs. The logic was…
Hibernia is in hibernation. Outside the window, torrents of rain gush from grey November skies, while the wind groans through drunken trees. The stream is a torrent of white water cutting a path towards the distant sea, as though trying to escape the onslaught. The summer foliage has been torn violently from all but the…
Chai Brady
Bairbre Cahill
Maria Byrne