Almost 60 years ago when, with 83 classmates, I entered Maynooth College to study for the priesthood, we were given a number of books to guide us (as it were) on our way. One was Philips Meditations, another an introduction to meditation.

When people left the Ox Mountain region in the late 1800s, they left for reasons of poverty and lack of opportunity. Some left out of fear; fear of failing, fear of the authorities and in some cases, fear of death itself.

Dr Lisa Cunningham’s energy is infectious. You can’t help but be impacted by it when in her company.

In the twilight of a Parisian summer, an unexpected beacon shone through the growing dusk as the City of Light prepared to light the Olympic torch.

Vice-presidential nominees have “virtually no impact”, according to Donald Trump, when recently asked if JD Vance would be ready to take over "on day one if he has to be".

Who doesn’t want to beside the sea for at least part of the summer? In this, the last of three articles exploring some of the sites of Mayo that illuminate our history, we start at the seaside and the end of the 18th century.

I’m not a Facebook fan so I seldom get to see what goes up there. However, I hear that the column in which I adverted to my recent brush with medical fame elicited responses from a bunch of readers who wished me well and a speedy recovery.

Despite many perils, the fox survives in the Ox Mountains. It seems at times that the tougher it gets for the fox, the better he is able to cope with the changes and hardships that are hurled at him.

Every bit of the Irish landscape has seen a lot of history: as Seamus Heaney put it in one of his poems, ‘every layer seems camped on before'.

Not so long ago, a dinner plate in Ireland was considered incomplete without a generous helping of potatoes. A savoury dish, stewed, boiled, baked, or grilled, was inevitably accompanied by a mound of chopped or mashed spuds.