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Áilín QuinlanEvening Echo |
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...
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?...
OUR world; bright lights, high speed, noise. Aggression. Social media. Bad food. Toxic childhoods where pale children live indoor lives watching...
“WELL,” my friend said diplomatically, “they certainly don’t owe you anything.” We stood in silence looking at the two sets of formerly...
“OI!” my husband said. “What now?” I counted aloud. Fifteen empty plastic bottles, some squashed quite flat. Several had held various kinds of...
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...
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...
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...
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...
IMPATIENCE, aggression, speed, carelessness. It’s the Wild West out there. People breaking red lights. Routinely smashing speed limits. Harassing...
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...
“LOOK,” I protested,“ I can’t write about that stuff. There’s no empirical or statistical evidence for your claims. It’s too general;...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
SO, you know, men and their birthdays. Stressful. Futile. Impossible. “What d’you want for your birthday?” we start asking without hope, at...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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,...
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,...
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...
“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,...