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.

Anyone who knows Dara Calleary realised straight away that attending the infamous ‘Golf-gate’ dinner in Clifden in August 2020 was a grave lapse of judgment rather than arrogance or contempt for the Covid-19 regulations.

I always find it strange that rural Ireland has such a strong tradition of amateur drama. I could mention several groups in places such as Castleconor, Cloonacool and Dromard, all with a strong tradition of producing great plays.

I have been taking photographs all my adult life. I think of photography as a mixture of maths and art – a bit like creating a painting with a mechanically configured device.

From my perch in Castlebar, contemplating the ravaged trees and fences of our home's perimeter post an epic storm, I am considering that most bourgeois of life's transitions: retirement.

It is now well over two weeks since the fearsome Storm Éowyn came to our shores and left a trail of destruction behind. Incredibly, some people are still without power and tens of thousands more only had their power restored inside the last week.

The door slammed, causing our earthquake-proof apartment to shake on its timbered frame. In her damp coat, she stood dripping in the hallway, having caught the first rain of February as she walked up the exposed stairwell.