Anyone who knows Dara Calleary realised straight away that attending the infamous ‘Golf-gate’ dinner in Clifden in August 2020 was a grave lapse of judgment rather than arrogance or contempt for the Covid-19 regulations.

I always find it strange that rural Ireland has such a strong tradition of amateur drama. I could mention several groups in places such as Castleconor, Cloonacool and Dromard, all with a strong tradition of producing great plays.

I have been taking photographs all my adult life. I think of photography as a mixture of maths and art – a bit like creating a painting with a mechanically configured device.

From my perch in Castlebar, contemplating the ravaged trees and fences of our home's perimeter post an epic storm, I am considering that most bourgeois of life's transitions: retirement.

It is now well over two weeks since the fearsome Storm Éowyn came to our shores and left a trail of destruction behind. Incredibly, some people are still without power and tens of thousands more only had their power restored inside the last week.

The door slammed, causing our earthquake-proof apartment to shake on its timbered frame. In her damp coat, she stood dripping in the hallway, having caught the first rain of February as she walked up the exposed stairwell.

Fifty years ago, in the summer of 1975, in the bicentenary year of the United States of America, I spent six glorious weeks in sunny California. It was my introduction to the west coast of America.

The people who go back to education later in life are heroes. They really are admirable. They reach a fork in the road and they take a brave decision.

I made my First Communion in 1968. There wasn’t as much fuss at that time about special outfits, bouncy castles and caterers being engaged to provide lunch.

You know you are getting on when you can recall the day that you could buy eight pints for a pound, or was it a punt (for younger readers, the punt was old Irish currency, pre-euro) and could, after a hard game of handball, drink those pints before ...