What possessed me to wear a canary-yellow shirt to the Fianna Fáil meeting in Ballina? I was glowing in a sea of monochrome jackets, jumpers and tops, only matched by my throbbing red face.

I remember the makeshift roadside camps of the Travelling People seasonally situated at crossroads and bridges at various points along the Moy or in the Ox Mountains.

In the unfathomable mystery of gender, few habits perplex the average male, such as a woman's fervent devotion to a handbag.

Denise McDonagh has achieved more in her life so far than many of us can only imagine and you get the impression that she is not finished yet.

At some stage of our evolution, we humans came out of the water. And the signs are on us. As soon as we get back into it, we become animated, playful, and our minds are at ease. Our skins even take on a glow from the water.

It’s a tough time to be a farmer in Ireland. Maybe it always was but this year’s exceptional rainfall sees farmers feeding silage to cattle indoors in August – after doing so in the springtime too when the animals should be out grazing the land.

As I crossed the pedestrian walkway, a flatbed truck driver leaned out his window and unleashed a barrage of angry words at me.

Dear reader, Life is good. Once we accept that death, the final arbiter, is part of life, then we can, with more clarity, accept that we are pretty fortunate.

Patsy McGarry, a proud native of Ballaghaderreen, has followed his recent retirement as the Religious Affairs Correspondent of The Irish Times with a compelling retrospective account of his eventful life in journalism.

The rosary was a nightly ritual in our house as I grew up. My father was ever-faithful to it, my mother somewhat less so.  Saying the rosary in the company of my father was sometimes an unpredictable affair.