Post-natal depression can affect any mum, writes Alison Canavan, so don’t be hard on yourself or afraid to ask for help Alison Canavan There is no denying that having a baby is a very special time in a woman’s life. You want everything to be perfect and we all want to be great parents. We…
Are you overweight? It may be a sobering thought, but in fact about 80% of Irish adults aged over 50 are overweight or obese according to the TILDA study of ageing. What’s even more alarming is that approximately 20% of Irish children and adolescents also fall into this category. Overall, the rate of obesity in…
This column regularly deals with the pitfalls of obesity and advises those weight conscious readers on how to avoid gaining weight unnecessarily or how to shed excess pounds in a healthy fashion. I’m conscious, however, that some readers may in fact be struggling to maintain their weight or indeed gain some on doctors’ orders. Weight…
This St Patrick’s Day is our first as emigrants. Since arriving in England last summer, we’ve gone through all the usual things that face families moving overseas: finding schools and a place to live, filling out myriad forms, importing our cars, getting set up in work, registering to pay tax and to vote. All the…
Mags Gargan speaks to the National Director for Catechetics about her first year in the role There is a lot happening in the area of religious education in Ireland at the moment, so when Kate Liffey took the role of National Director for Catechetics early last year, in some ways she didn’t realise the challenge…
Increasing numbers of people in Ireland are developing diabetes, which is linked to our more sedentary lifestyle, writes Mags Gargan Diabetes is “a global pandemic,” according to Dr Aisling O’Leary, Lecturer in Pharmacy Practice at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI), which recently hosted a public health lecture on the ‘Rise and Rise…
Over the Easter holidays, a fun Easter activitiy is visiting a petting farm to see new life being introduced onto the farm including eggs hatching and lambs being delivered. If you can’t wait until then, create your own fuzzy friend with this pom pom Easter chick. A pom pom maker is ideal but if you…
Parenting Matters It almost seems unnecessary to say that a good start in life sets a child up for the journey that follows. We are only beginning to make sense of what mothers and grandmothers instinctively knew but may not have described. I worked at Crumlin Hospital in the 1990’s when there was one psychologist…
I was a speaker at the recent conference by The Irish Catholic/Iona Institute on Pope Francis and the future of the family in Ireland. Afterwards a number of people came up to talk to me. One man spoke of his work with the Society of St Vincent de Paul and how their outreach is to…
These Irish coffee cardamom cupcakes are incredibly rich and just the dessert for St Patrick’s Day. You can use any whiskey of your choice but this recipe has been tried with a Bushmills and Laphroaig. For a non-alcoholic version, omit the whiskey and the syrup from the frosting and instead grind the seeds from five…
Dr Kevin McCarroll
Cathal Barry
Mags Gargan
Erin Fox
Bairbre Cahill