A bouquet of roses and champagne with strawberries make the perfect treat for St Valentine’s Day. You can hit three birds with one stone by baking this strawberry and champagne sponge decorated with royal icing roses. For an alcohol free version, just omit the champagne from the buttercream. 275g self-raising flour 275g unsalted butter 275g…
Chloe Mangan Chloe Mangan describes what it means to have a Catholic ethos in her school I feel really lucky to be a student in a Catholic school managed by the CEIST Trust. Our prayer room is a wonderful facility. It is a room of escapism, tranquillity and silence. Moments of appreciation, forgiveness, or sorrow…
Pancake Tuesday is next week and it’s time to start practicing your best flipping methods. While thin, crepe-like pancakes seem to be the most popular type to make on the occasion, a thicker batter can make a nice change. This thick pancake batter recipe is similar to that of a drop scone. Because it holds…
Science of life Happiness is that state in which one experiences joy, pleasure and contentment. Considerable research has been carried out on how to achieve happiness and many conclusions have been reached. One important conclusion is that wealth will not, in itself, produce happiness. Other things that do not, in themselves, correlate highly with happiness…
One of the things I like about England is the 50p pieces. There is a pleasant continuity to using coins with shapes and sizes similar to those in circulation when I was a boy growing up in Cork. There is something reassuring about such small things in life remaining constant, and in seeing my kids stash…
This columnist was feeling particularly run down this week. Perhaps it was the cumulative effect of the ‘January blues’ or the shock of my body having finally readjusted to a regular diet after all the Christmas excess. Having ascertained that it was probably a combination of both, I decided to take action. Let me explain.…
Mags Gargan visits the Living Water young adult Charismatic prayer group Every Wednesday night as the shops on Dublin’s nearby Grafton Street begin to close their shutters and office workers met up for after work drinks or dinner, a group of young people are gathering at St Teresa’s church, Clarendon Street for praise and worship.…
Easter is early this year which means Lent begins in just two weeks and it will be time to give up our luxuries until Easter. An Advent calendar prepares us for the birth of Jesus and makes the countdown to Christmas all the more exciting. The time between the beginning of Lent and Easter is…
My 14-year-old daughter wants to learn to cook. Being obsessed with all things Japanese, she ambitiously picked an exotic recipe for her first attempt at producing a family dinner. Onigiri consists of rice balls filled with tuna or salmon but my daughter decided that beef was a better option. I was impressed with her efforts…
The car is going in for a service on Thursday. It is just as well. It has been sounding a bit rough lately and could do with a tune up and an oil change. I’m much the same myself actually. I need a bit of a tune up too. Perhaps that is why I am…
Erin Fox
William Reville
Cathal Barry
Mags Gargan
Maria Byrne
Bairbre Cahill