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.…
Children’s Corner Although Christmas day has passed and we look towards the New Year, there’s sure to be some chocolate leftover from the Christmas festivities than can be used for scientific purposes. Enjoy this simple melting chocolate experiment that will keep anyone’s attention. No doubt everyone has noticed chocolate melting on a hot day, so…
Parental leave to be extended to five weeks The Cabinet has approved Minister for Children Roderick O’Gorman’s plan to extend parental leave from two to five weeks. Mr O’Gorman has also received Cabinet approval to extend the time the leave can be taken from just the first year to the first two years of child’s…
Medical Matters The approval of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine by British authorities early this month truly marks a great triumph for science and not just in the battle against Covid-19. Scarcely could anyone have imagined that at the start of the year the hopes of the world would rest on the approval of a vaccine for…
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…
Laudato Si’ Advent is one of my favourite seasons where we are encouraged to embrace waiting and hope. If 2020 has taught us nothing else, it has certainly shown us what it is like to wait! Perhaps it has also reminded us of what it is like to hope, to hope for an end to…
Minister for Health announces the allocation strategy for COVID-19 vaccines The strategy prioritises those over the age of 65 living in long-term care facilities, frontline healthcare workers who are in direct patient contact and those aged 70 and over. Minister Stephen Donnelly also announced that there should be no barrier to people accessing a vaccine,…
Mindful Living On each Sunday of Advent we light a new candle in the Advent Wreath. The candles represent hope, peace, love and joy reflecting the fruits of the Spirit as described by St Paul in Galatians 5:22. Because meditation helps to awaken us to the spirit within, these fruits, “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness…
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…
Maria Byrne
Chai Brady
Dr Kevin McCarroll
Bairbre Cahill