Children’s Corner Ireland has been using the euro currency for almost 20 years so it’s no wonder that some of our coins have become so dirty they’re almost unrecognisable from their former shiny splendour. If you have lost hope in them, never fear, there’s a fun way of giving them a good polish without the…
The world is a poorer place. My beautiful mother Anne has died. She had been in hospital for an operation and sadly contracted coronavirus in there. For the first week of the illness, we held out hope, since she remained cheerful and vibrant as ever. Yet we knew that a grim moment of truth was…
Scientists sequence million-year-old mammoth DNA An international team of geneticists has managed to recover and sequence the oldest DNA to date. The researchers extracted severely degraded DNA from the teeth of three ancient mammoths that are believed to have roamed Siberia between 700,000 and 1.2 million years ago. They pieced the DNA together to reveal…
Lent has begun and yet it all feels somehow out of kilter. I usually look forward to Lent, to the sense of pause, of a change in rhythm, a re-tuning of life. This year I have felt differently. I mentioned this to a friend recently and her comment was, “Sure haven’t we been living Lent…
Everyday Philosophy Imagine two firefighters. Lynda regularly puts herself in danger, entering burning buildings to perform difficult rescues that others are too afraid to. Lynda isn’t reckless: she’s extremely competent and only tries rescues that she thinks have a good chance of success. But she is fearless, or close to it: fear for her is…
This third lockdown has been particularly challenging for our relationship, not only does every day feel like Groundhog Day but our relationship is beginning to feel like that too. So you’re at the stage now like so many other couples where perhaps doing the weekly date night at home just isn’t cutting it any more.…
Coronavirus: Bat scientists find new evidence The BBC reported that coronaviruses related to Sars-CoV-2 may be circulating in bats across many parts of Asia. Scientists have discovered a virus that is a close match to the virus that causes Covid-19 in bats at a sanctuary in Thailand. They predict that similar coronaviruses may be present…
Living Laudato Si’ Our New Year resolutions this year may simply have been to get through lockdown as best we can. And that’s ok! Pope Francis does gives us a nudge however, in the address he gave on the World Day of Peace, January 1. He asks us to focus on one thing, to create…
Medical Matters The year of 2021 has already been marked by more than 100,000 new Covid cases and tragically over 1000 deaths, just at a time when we looked forward in hope after the arrival of new vaccines. The emergence of new viral strains which are up to 70% more transmissible coupled with increased social…
Parents often protect their children from worry, through the simple expedient of not telling them about worrying things. There’s certainly no need to worry small children about crimes such as murder, for example. Yet we do tell them about dangers of traffic, as the worrying knowledge that cars can hurt of kill you encourages them…
Chai Brady
Bairbre Cahill
Ben Conroy
Wendy Grace
Dr Kevin McCarroll