Category: Your Faith

Dad’s Diary

Last weekend, we had royalty in the house. A gaggle of six-year-old princesses, to be precise. Our eldest girl turned six and she insisted on having a girls-only princess party. We’ve never encouraged our girls to play only with traditionally girlie toys or to wear pink, but from an early age Rose’s favourite colour has…

A floral display for Mother’s Day

When St Patrick’s Day is past, you will be getting ready for Mother’s Day next weekend (March 25). While you are making your card and planning a breakfast in bed menu, brainstorm some original ways for presenting a bunch of flowers to your mum. You can cut stems short and fashion a brooch out of…

Don’t put off eye checks

Decline in vision is common from our midlife onwards and may prompt us to go and get our eyes checked out. Overall, it is estimated that 70% of sight loss in older adults is due to cataracts and refractive errors can that be corrected relatively easily. Indeed, the first sign of visual change can occur…

Faith in the Family

A group of 35 young adults. Three are given tickets to sit at a table where there are cans of lemonade and chocolate muffins. Five are given tickets to a table where there is orange squash and digestive biscuits. The other 29 get no tickets and are left at tables with dry crackers and a…

More than man’s best friend

Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind are celebrating 40 years of helping the blind, vision impaired and families of children with autism, writes Mags Gargan Imagine a boy who never plays. A boy who never talks. Who never laughs. Who has no friends. A boy who never hugs anyone, or shows any expression of love.…

Sacred music is a window to the divine

Mags Gargan speaks to the Director of the Palestrina Choir “He who sings prays twice,” is the often quoted line from St Augustine, and this would be the experience of Blanaid Murphy, after nearly 15 years at the helm of the Palestrina Choir. “Sacred music gives you a glimpse of something beyond yourself, a window…

A rainbow wreath for St Patrick’s Day

St Patrick’s Day is next week and you’ll no doubt be getting ready to collect your shamrocks after Mass, before attending your local parade. While the shamrock is the most popular symbol associated with St Patrick’s Day, there are lots more symbols that mark the occasion, such as rainbows, leprechauns and pots of gold. Make…

Dad’s Diary

This morning, our toddler woke me at 3am. While she drifted off again at about 6am, I’ve been awake ever since. Yesterday, I had a relative lie-in as she only woke me at 5am. That’s two nights in a row of around four hours sleep. At two-and-a-half years of age, most toddlers have started sleeping…