Every new year, like every Christmas, measures life out in manageable portions that help us to mark time. Do you remember? as the song goes, Will I ever forget? It’s what we do.

I have previously complained about proving irresistible to mosquitoes, midges and their associated winged cousins - whether bitten on my back by a cavalcade of Ukrainian insects while sleeping in a hotel in Odessa, being attacked through my clothes ...

A brilliant initiative from the Tourism Department of Mayo County Council should get us all out with our cameras this year.

I have a friend, let’s call her Mary, for the sake of anonymity.

The Irish have a keen nose for gratuitous oppression, honed by eight centuries under someone else’s rule. We recognise it, even if camouflaged as self-defence or necessity.

Early on in his novel, That They May See The Rising Sun, John McGahern has the main character, Ruttledge, admit to the playful Jamesie that he’s feeling a bit down. ‘Why don’t you go to Mass, then, if you are that down?’ Jamesie offered.

For a television series that began in the 1960s, Star Trek has had an uncanny habit of staying ahead of its time. Not just technologically, but morally.

The particular way the days fell this Christmas brings its advantages. Many of the visitors to the west for the season will not be heading back to work and life until the 5th January.

The Irish wake is a unique ritual held after a death and before a funeral, sometimes lasting a few days, where family and friends gather to mourn and celebrate the life of the deceased, and support the bereaved family.

Just when we thought the American political saga had reached its maximum absurdity, the Trump administration has managed, with barely concealed sleight of hand and a wry smile, to turn the First Amendment into both a delayed Fourth of July ...