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…
Category: Your Faith
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…
Does my boyfriend’s pal have to be mine too?
I can’t stand my boyfriend’s best friend. For the life of me, I can’t understand why they are friends as they have nothing in common. I love my boyfriend and we are talking about getting married, so his friend could be permanently in my life. What can I do? One challenging element of all relationships…
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…
Spring really begins in the garden during March
It’s generally in mid to late March that the sun and wind start to dry up the ground and spring really begins in the garden. Soon soil temperatures will begin to rise and growth will start. Now is the time to tidy your beds and borders. This will get them back in shape, ready for…
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…

Erin Fox
Dr Kevin McCarroll
Wendy Grace
Bairbre Cahill
Mags Gargan


Paul Gargan