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Áilín Quinlan

Áilín Quinlan

Evening Echo

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Do we know what food we are eating, water we are drinking?

EVEN though I was early, the queue for the removal was long and winding, and, as neither of us seemed to want to spend the time staring into the...

24.04.2024 10

Evening Echo

Áilín Quinlan

Traffic horror stories, scares, close calls... it’s never-ending

WHO wouldn’t jump at the chance to use public transport if, it has to be said, it was safe, peaceable and well-ordered - the way it used to be?...

17.04.2024 10

Evening Echo

Áilín Quinlan

The pulling power of a pack of cards that date back around 1,000

OUR world; bright lights, high speed, noise. Aggression. Social media. Bad food. Toxic childhoods where pale children live indoor lives watching...

03.04.2024 10

Evening Echo

Áilín Quinlan

My fear of sewing started at school... I have fabric phobia!

“WELL,” my friend said diplomatically, “they certainly don’t owe you anything.” We stood in silence looking at the two sets of formerly...

20.03.2024 10

Evening Echo

Áilín Quinlan

60 bottles, 32 cans, 24 cups... litter I found on a country walk in County Cork

“OI!” my husband said. “What now?” I counted aloud. Fifteen empty plastic bottles, some squashed quite flat. Several had held various kinds of...

13.03.2024 7

Evening Echo

Áilín Quinlan

‘Why bother’ mindset lingers ... what’s happened to people?

SO, the supermarket checkout as a reflection of societal attitudes. All the groceries I’d just purchased were on one side of the cash register...

06.03.2024 10

Evening Echo

Áilín Quinlan

You want me to hike, bike, and kayak in West Cork? No thanks

I LAUGHED, bitterly, when I read the first suggestion about How to Enjoy Springtime in the Countryside: Hike or bike through nature’s beauty. I...

21.02.2024 9

Evening Echo

Áilín Quinlan

89c for a single red pepper in a ‘low-cost store’: that’s mad!

HOW much would you think a single red pepper costs in Munich or Berlin? Bizarre as it may sound, this question was relevant to myself and the other...

07.02.2024 10

Evening Echo

Áilín Quinlan

The cost of living in Ireland is really a bitter pill to swallow

VERISIMILITUDE. Or, how things exist in real life. The devil in the details. The nitty gritty. The bottom line. Brass tacks. And when you really see...

01.02.2024 7

Evening Echo

Áilín Quinlan

Stop this insane life-endangering carelessness on Irish roads, now

IMPATIENCE, aggression, speed, carelessness. It’s the Wild West out there. People breaking red lights. Routinely smashing speed limits. Harassing...

24.01.2024 9

Evening Echo

Áilín Quinlan

I’ve found the key to solving life problems: become a Stoic

WHAT’S the link between the following: The amount of hair discarded daily by human beings A robot hoover The Roman emperor Marcus Aurelias Stoicism...

17.01.2024 5

Evening Echo

Áilín Quinlan

Prepare to be shocked: What your mammy REALLY thinks of you!

“LOOK,” I protested,“ I can’t write about that stuff. There’s no empirical or statistical evidence for your claims. It’s too general;...

10.01.2024 10

Evening Echo

Áilín Quinlan

I resolved to teach my husband to cook... it left me steaming

NEW year, new start. 2024 here we come. “You’re getting some lessons in cooking and basic housecraft,” I said. He rolled his eyes. Gritted his...

03.01.2024 8

Evening Echo

Áilín Quinlan

I used to adore festive feast... now the day just wears me out

OK, I said, calmly. I looked at the floor where a piece of salami from the colourful tapas plate, beautifully arranged for my son’s Christmas...

31.12.2023 8

Evening Echo

Áilín Quinlan

You are what you eat: A Cork expert’s warning on your gut

OK, this week’s column is not going to be Christmassy. At all. But as you’ll find, it is a gift, if you’re prepared to listen. This column is...

26.12.2023 7

Evening Echo

Áilín Quinlan

Yes, 800 years of oppression, but Queen and Cromwell are my icons

OK, ok, I know. Eight hundred years of oppression and all of that. But still. Two of my all-time personal icons are the late Queen Elizabeth, who...

02.12.2023 9

Evening Echo

Áilín Quinlan

Dead leaves, dormant trees and wandering souls... it’s November

THANK God November’s nearly over. I hate it. This is not the month of the year when most people die – that honour goes to January for a variety of...

26.11.2023 6

Evening Echo

Áilín Quinlan

‘Do we still even have a Garda Traffic Corps in this country?’

Would somebody please explain to me why we’re having to listen to all this kvetching about the need for greater enforcement of traffic laws and more...

20.11.2023 10

Evening Echo

Áilín Quinlan

What DO you buy a man for his birthday who wants nothing?!

SO, you know, men and their birthdays. Stressful. Futile. Impossible. “What d’you want for your birthday?” we start asking without hope, at...

05.11.2023 10

Evening Echo

Áilín Quinlan

Hours of endless screaming engines and skidding tyres

SO. Around 7.30pm on a Saturday night in the rural West Cork countryside, less than an hour’s drive from Cork city centre. I was in bed early with a...

29.10.2023 10

Evening Echo

Áilín Quinlan

Homemade barmbrack and other recipes for a perfect Halloween

WHEN I was small, my father would select a turnip – as large and perfectly-shaped as he could find, and take it, along with a sharp knife, over to...

21.10.2023 10

Evening Echo

Áilín Quinlan

Cycling on footpaths is so much the norm, people think it’s legal!

IT’S about time we joined forces and bit the bullet here. It’s time we kicked up a really proper stink about what’s going on across our...

15.10.2023 20

Evening Echo

Áilín Quinlan

A few simple clicks was too much for this ‘Man from Mars’

OH, here we go, I thought irritably. “Did you ever hear about this concept that Men are from Mars and women are from Venus?,” he inquired...

08.10.2023 10

Evening Echo

Áilín Quinlan

My Venice break made me see that rude people are universal!

AH, wouldn’t Ireland be perfect if we could only get a handle on the scumbags? It was night-time, and for the first time since before the pandemic,...

01.10.2023 10

Evening Echo

Áilín Quinlan

Ireland 2023: Some uneasy exchanges and conversations

I HAD some interesting conversations this week. I’d just enjoyed a midweek birthday hotel break (cheaper than the weekend) where, I told my friend,...

23.09.2023 20

Evening Echo

Áilín Quinlan

Why can't we debate gender issues in a calm, rational way?

THE kids are back at school. The swallows are lining up on the telephone poles. But the interminable debates around gender have shown no sign of going...

17.09.2023 10

Evening Echo

Áilín Quinlan

‘Real’ and healthy food is fast becoming too expensive to buy

“AW, come off it,” I said plaintively. I had just bought two newspapers and a five-kilogram bag of local potatoes. Very local potatoes. Not even,...

10.09.2023 8

Evening Echo

Áilín Quinlan

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