A parent’s perspective I attended Mass recently in St Eustace’s Dominican church in Newbridge, Co. Kildare. The homily preached by Fr John Harris OP was one of the best I’ve ever heard. You could hear a pin drop as he painted a vivid description of the Gospel story where the apostle, Peter, jumps out…
Category: Family & Faith
Dad’s Diary
Photographs can pierce your heart. The other day I happened upon a photo of one of the girls taken about two years ago. It transported me back to that balmy summer’s evening, when just she and I had driven her to the top of the cliffs together for some “special time”. A warm, fragrant breeze…
Summer pruning in a flowering garden
Green Fingers June, your garden is starting to peak. Beds and borders are full of colour and life. All the work you put into weeding and hoeing is now paying off. As shrubs and perennials fill out, there will be less and less weeding to do. Annual weeds are no longer a major problem…
Family News and Events
Building imagination with creative kids Childhood is a time to let imagination grow and flow. Building interesting creations and getting involved in fun-filled activities is definitely one way of fostering this in kids. ReCreate invites all the family to Corkagh Park in Clondalkin, Co. Dublin for an afternoon of making and creating on Saturday, June…
Faith in the Family
What could a mother buy as a gift for her daughter’s First Holy Communion? A mum on Facebook commented that she had asked her own daughter what gift she would like. The reply – “You have already bought me my dress and you have organised a party with a bouncy castle but if you want…
Having a blast with volcanoes
Children’s Corner It’s an age-old experiment that most people are somewhat familiar with but many may not know exactly how to recreate the spectacle. Volcanoes are one of nature’s most beautiful, and devastating, phenomenon. They spur on so many questions. An easy way to teach and talk about them – or just have fun…
Family News and Events
Big benefits for baby swimmers Babies have a real affinity with water, and because they’ve spent nine months floating in the womb, being in warm water feels much more familiar to them than being on dry land. However, this early confidence usually diminishes with time, and can even turn to fear. What better way to…
A habit going up in smoke
Medical Matters It’s now just over 50 years ago since it was first announced that smoking causes lung cancer, a moment which spelled the beginning of a decline in tobacco use. Despite all of the negative effects from smoking and restrictions on its use in public places, a considerable number of people still use…
Dad’s Diary
Being perpetually busy is a strange state of being. Like most working parents, there is always an epically long to-do list lurking somewhere at the back of my mind. The etymology of the word busy reveals something about the state of being busy. The word ‘busy’ comes from the Middle English word ‘bisig’, which at…
Putting the spice back into married life
Love Notes Myself and my husband are together 15 years and managed to keep our ‘spark’ alive well beyond the honeymoon stage but in the past few years things have changed without us really realising that our attraction has faded. One of the key issues here is the really distorted reality of attraction…

Maria Byrne

Paul Gargan

Bairbre Cahill
Chai Brady

Dr Kevin McCarroll

Wendy Grace