A Parent’s Perspective Easter is such a lovely time of year. With the darker evenings behind us and the daffodils heralding the new growth, there’s a great feeling of hope and joy. For many families, the lead up to Easter is a bit similar to the pre-Christmas period with concerns about catering for family…
It’s the last stand of the snowmen. As I write, our once-proud snowman, is standing forlorn, misshapen and incongruous, in our green and florid garden. The spring sunshine is blazing down on him like a lethal nuclear blast. I sense that mortality is on his mind. This has been a long winter which, even in…
Children’s Corner Scientific experiments are an excellent way to learn about the world around you and also allow you to create, imagine, and explore. Although in movies scientists are often wearing long white lab coats and are usually surrounded with test-tubes of bubbling liquids, you don’t actually need any of these things to do…
As we enter into Holy Week I find the scriptures of this Lenten season echoing within me. They are words of love and liberation. From the first week of Lent we are urged to love our neighbour as ourselves. Relationship with God is never just a ‘me and you’ affair. It is always lived out…
Toddlers are criminals. At least they would be if they were not below the age of criminal responsibility. If they were held to the same standards as the rest of us, the police would be overwhelmed with reports of toddler-related public disorder, affray, criminal damage, riot and assault. If charged with such crimes, most toddlers…
I’m off the coffee for Lent. I thought I would be struggling. Usually half way through the morning I feel that I simply need to get a cup of coffee. It turns out…I don’t! Now perhaps by the end of Lent I will be walking past coffee shops simply to get a whiff of the…
The first months of any new year often seem to drag a bit. It’s not the most exciting time of year with the country still in the grip of cold weather, the Christmas bills being paid off and summer tantalisingly out of our grasp. I miss that post-December calm now. My husband and I were…
There is nothing less relaxing than a holiday. That is an axiom all parents of small children should bear in mind when gazing naively at travel brochures. This axiom is all the more burning in its bitter truth if your holiday involves – as ours did last week – travelling through four snow-and-ice-covered countries in…
My 17-year-old son announced recently that the timing of Lent is perfect this year. He will arrive at the first match of the senior Gaelic football season without having a crisp, biscuit or sweet in his system for seven weeks! We both know that there is more to Lent than help with the pre-season training…
Children’s Corner Displays of incredible strength have been a form of entertainment for centuries, whereby performers attempt to lift or endure the force of extremely heavy weights. Usually known as ‘strongmen’, these performers would dazzle crowds with their incredible feats, and would compete with one another to show their uniqueness. One strongman was Pierre…
Maria Byrne
Colm Fitzpatrick
Bairbre Cahill