There was something very symbolic about newly-appointed Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill holding a press conference with local reporters outside the front entrance to Mayo University Hospital (MUH).

If you drive through the Ox Mountain region during the months of winter, you will not see many cattle in the fields. This is because all farms, regardless of their size, now have modern sheds and slatted houses where cattle are housed.

What has happened to remote working? It was once the hero, celebrated by all. When Covid struck, it was the solution to a lot of problems. All the talk was of which platform was best: Zoom; Teams, Google Meet. Everyone scrambled to get an account.

In the beginning was the word, and the word was. . . 'Me at the zoo'.

The Lyft taxi driver urged his car through the late evening Los Angeles traffic, expertly manoeuvring around slower obstacles. His car radio crackled as a L. A.

Recently I chanced on an article I wrote back in 2013 in The Furrow journal – the year Pope Francis was elected pope.

A friend suggested to me recently that what the Catholic Church needed now was a return to the days of religious persecution.

The details announced last week of ministers going around the world for St Patrick’s Day was received with a little less cynicism than usual. The Ministers from round these parts are part of that caravan.

It was Brendan Gleeson’s breakthrough moment as a screen actor. While ‘only’ having a supporting role, Gleeson lit up the screen whenever he appeared in Paddy Breathnach’s classic I Went Down and featured in the film’s most memorable scenes.

All readers will be familiar with the Titanic, that grand vessel of hubris and tragedy. Its wreckage lies in dignified silence, a memorial to human folly and the price of unchecked ambition.