One of the things I like about England is the 50p pieces. There is a pleasant continuity to using coins with shapes and sizes similar to those in circulation when I was a boy growing up in Cork. There is something reassuring about such small things in life remaining constant, and in seeing my kids stash…
Mags Gargan visits the Living Water young adult Charismatic prayer group Every Wednesday night as the shops on Dublin’s nearby Grafton Street begin to close their shutters and office workers met up for after work drinks or dinner, a group of young people are gathering at St Teresa’s church, Clarendon Street for praise and worship.…
Easter is early this year which means Lent begins in just two weeks and it will be time to give up our luxuries until Easter. An Advent calendar prepares us for the birth of Jesus and makes the countdown to Christmas all the more exciting. The time between the beginning of Lent and Easter is…
The car is going in for a service on Thursday. It is just as well. It has been sounding a bit rough lately and could do with a tune up and an oil change. I’m much the same myself actually. I need a bit of a tune up too. Perhaps that is why I am…
While the cold winter days keep much of the garden in a state of suspended animation, there are still plenty of seasonal delights to get out and enjoy. Snowdrops pushing up through frozen soil signal that spring is on its way. The snowdrop manages this seemingly impossible feat by keeping the air temperature inside its…
Mags Gargan talks to a founding member of the Anam Cara parental and sibling bereavement support organisation The loss of a child is every parent’s worst nightmare. The pain goes deep and the grief can be overwhelming. Family and friends are a wonderful source of support, but sometimes only someone who has been through the…
My 14-year-old daughter wants to learn to cook. Being obsessed with all things Japanese, she ambitiously picked an exotic recipe for her first attempt at producing a family dinner. Onigiri consists of rice balls filled with tuna or salmon but my daughter decided that beef was a better option. I was impressed with her efforts…
Members of Tullamore Junior Parish Pastoral Council explain their work In 2006 the Junior Parish Pastoral Council (JPPC) was founded in Tullamore parish, Co. Offaly as a way of giving young people a voice in the Church. The JPPC is made up exclusively of secondary school students. Pupils first hear about it in sixth class…
So the ‘silly season’ is well and truly over and many readers will have settled into their New Year resolutions by now. December is a notoriously difficult month for keeping healthy eating regimes on track and an even more precarious period for alcohol intake. Between work parties and meeting up with old friends, not to…
We are deep in winter now. Yet there is something brightening the grey. The New Year still shines fresh and full of possibility. The Earth is, by welcome degrees, tipping us back towards the sun – an astronomical fact quietly celebrated by the crocuses and snowdrops that emerge from the frosty ground. It is wonderfully…
Mags Gargan
Erin Fox
Bairbre Cahill
Paul Gargan
Maria Byrne
Cathal Barry