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Con Houlihan: Fresh food was the order of the day

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 09:58:01 +0000

All dogs are house guardians, but some more than others. We had a dog one time, a fox terrier, who seemed to think that minding our front door was his chief mission in life.

Con Houlihan: Gambling pride on price of the piglets

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 09:58:02 +0000

The Feast of the Ascension used to be a great occasion in our town: it was the market day and it was a day for going to Mass -- it was a time for buying and selling and the old town had a lovely atmosphere from about nine o'clock.

Con Houlihan: The land of ice has lost a lot of its fire

Wed, 27 Jan 2010 09:58:02 +0000

Some years ago the BBC put out a fascinating film about life in Norway in the ninth century. We saw a community of about 5,000 people preparing for a voyage from which they would not come back.

Con Houlihan: The year that is best left behind us

Wed, 30 Dec 2009 09:58:01 +0000

Brian Cowen and Mary Coughlan and Brian Lenihan have some things in common: they inherited their seats, more or less; they got into the Cabinet with surprising ease; they didn't work their way up from the factory floor -- and, as far as we know, they have no training or experience in finance or economics.

Con Houlihan: Voice from the pulpit that could ruin lives

Wed, 23 Dec 2009 09:58:01 +0000

Some years ago a priest in the West of Ireland launched a crazy attack on Sonia O'Sullivan: her sin was that she was an unmarried mother -- the fact that she was living with the father of the child didn't seem to matter. This kind of union was common in the civilised world but the holy priest didn't seem to know.

Con Houlihan: Dams not drains may prevent more floods

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 09:58:02 +0000

New Orleans used to be deemed the most colourful city in the United States -- colourful in more senses than one. There was a time when all of humanity, good and bad, seemed to congregate in the city that was built on a pestilential swamp.

Memories of exam results are first class

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 09:58:02 +0000

In one of his more famous poems, we were told by TS Eliot that April is the cruellest month: it breeds hopes and dreams and ambitions that are not easily fulfilled.

How can we say we are good citizens?

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 09:58:01 +0100

Philip, the man who is married to England's Elizabeth II has never got "a good press". In simple language, the media do not like him. It was easy to be swayed by their opinion until one day, a few years ago, I saw and heard him on television and was very impressed.

Autumn brings a wealth of treasures

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 09:58:01 +0100

It isn't too hard to know when autumn has really started. That isn't until early September.

Sowing the seeds of a modern revolution

Wed, 19 Aug 2009 09:58:02 +0100

There was an era in France when a succession of monarchs became known as the "Do Nothing Kings". Their idleness led to The Great Revolution that began on the verge of the last decade of the eighteenth century.

Con Houlihan: Brown gold started a rush to the hills

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 09:58:02 +0000

When the Germans invaded Poland in the autumn of 1939, the townspeople of this country suddenly became aware of turf -- and it wasn't the kind we associate with racehorses.

Con Houlihan: Romantic Ireland’s dead and gone. . .

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 09:58:02 +0000

The world is all change. Perhaps the greatest change in this country is that rural Ireland is dying.

Con Houlihan: Ireland’s Own journal of limericks and jokes

Wed, 20 Jan 2010 09:58:02 +0000

IT is a remarkable story: in an age when newspapers and magazines of all kinds are falling like leaves, in a stormy October, Ireland's Own celebrated its centenary a few months ago. In my childhood we looked forward to it every week, for jokes and limericks.

Reading, writing and riding to the bookies

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 09:58:01 +0000

When Abraham Lincoln became US President, it was said that he moved from log cabin to the White House; when I left the nuns' school, I moved from a white house to a mud cabin.

Voting Yes to Lisbon was the right thing

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 09:58:01 +0100

About 60pc of the electorate voted in the recent referendum. This seems to hint that 40pc didn't. This isn't as bad as it sounds. The real electorate is usually somewhere between 80pc and 90pc of the nominal electorate.

Education can’t give you lessons in life

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 09:58:01 +0100

Few were surprised when the heads of our universities refused to take cuts in their pay. Those worthies live above what Scott Fitzgerald called "the hot struggles of the poor". Those great people are back now, after their long soft-earned holiday and about to commence what they call 'work'.

Lessons from our past for the future

Wed, 26 Aug 2009 09:58:02 +0100

The Leaving Certificate results came out recently and, of course, we heard the usual moan -- "Where will they all get jobs?" This is true of those who go on to Third Level; those who don't will have more difficulty in finding jobs.

Heaven help the country’s schools

Wed, 05 Aug 2009 09:58:02 +0100

Whenever I read a book about Ireland or Kerry or wherever, I tend to look first at the comments on the places I know best. When I find that they are accurate and sensible, I read the rest of the book with a favourable eye. Thus I approached Colm McCarthy's plan for survival.

Which woman for the White House?

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 09:58:02 +0100

The United States has its first black president. Within eight years, it may have its first woman president.

Cowen gambles with the new Lisbon vote

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 09:58:02 +0100

In the run-up to the referendum on the Lisbon Treaty I was convinced that the Yes people would win handsomely, but I was wrong. Just hadn't been keeping my ear to the ground: in simple language I hadn't been taking the occasional pint. My friends, who were more in touch with the common people, told me that it would go down to the wire. They were right.