The news that Dara Calleary will be Director of Elections for Fianna Fáil in the Galway West by-election is no surprise. Being the Fianna Fáil ‘Minister for Connacht’ means you must do that role for sure.

In 1825, two hundred years ago, St Mary’s Chapel, Liffey Street in Dublin was constituted as the Pro-Cathedral for Dublin diocese.

Blackadder Goes Forth features Rowan Atkinson as Captain Blackadder in this brilliant and darkly comedic TV series about British soldiers trapped in the absurdity and futility of trench warfare during World War I.

Universities can use a lot of strange terms to describe what they do. Instead of classes, they have ‘tutorials’. They award degrees but call them ‘bachelors’. You study your course in bite sizes called ‘modules’.

There's a particular kind of hell reserved for the man who lives too long. Not a theological hell, though the Catholics of Connemara might have had a view on that.

We are at a critical point for our children’s mental and physical health when it comes to technology, social media, smartphones and all that goes with it.

First things first. There was I last week, sounding off about the fun being gone out of football and the enjoyment gone out of sport and along comes Kobe McDonald and in a 20-minute substitute appearance in Clones made me eat my words.

On the morning of November 18, 1890, readers of The Times encountered a revelation that lit a fuse which would quickly explode Irish politics apart. Captain William O’Shea had filed for divorce from his wife Katherine O’Shea.

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.