Before calling the Second Vatican Council (1962-65), Pope John XXIII warmly welcomed the then Archbishop of Canterbury Michael Ramsey, head of the Anglican Church, on a visit to the Vatican.

There's a particularly American bit of research doing the rounds that suggests we're all in the middle of a family relationship crisis. One in four adults is estranged from close relatives, apparently.

Sixty years ago this year, Mayo football legend Paddy Moclair was worried about the future for Mayo football. Mayo had just won the All-Ireland minor title, 30 years after Moclair had been one of the stars of Mayo’s first senior title.

You may never have heard of a fella called Arthur Zimmermann, but the hacking of a message belonging to him ranks in the top events of this past hundred years or so. It helped shape the fortunes of this country in profound ways.

“You were right!” The older man paused in the cold drizzle on a wet Ballina street and his face lit in recognition of me.

There was a time when sport was played for fun and self-entertainment and for the entertainment of the handful and sometimes more, people who might come to support and enjoy.

Since the awkward amalgamation of Galway and Clonfert dioceses in February 2022, a different strategy has been adopted by the Catholic Church - a ‘merging’ rather than an ‘amalgamation’.

Now I fully appreciate that much of this article is not going to attract sympathy.

I keep thinking about masks. Not the medical kind - though God knows we've had enough of those - but the sort that suggests you've something to hide. The ICE agents currently stalking America's streets wear them constantly.

Listening to Kerry football legend Tomás Ó Sé at the recent Western People Mayo Sports Stars Awards, one memory he shared about childhood really struck home with me and many of those present.