Summer has come and gone and we are now into autumn.

All over Mayo, all the kids are back to school by the time you read this. Our youngest started national school yesterday, Monday, September 1. His older two siblings joined him to great excitement.

In the 45 or so years since I started writing a weekly column in the Western People, I think this is the first time I’ve returned to the same subject in successive weeks.

There is no power for change greater than a community discovering what it cares about. - Margaret J. Wheatley I am fortunate to live in a vibrant community.

During college, I spent two wonderful summers working as a tour guide at the Céide Fields Visitor Centre in Belderrig.

So there appears to be some life left in Fianna Fáil.  Following my call here two weeks ago for bland Micheál to be selected to run for the Áras, there has been the stirrings of life among the party’s TDs. Hardly a groundswell but a movement.

When they first came on stream, social media sites like Facebook and Twitter (now X) appeared like magnificent manifestations of the potential of the internet. We first got into Facebook in 2008 when we were travelling in Australia.

It must be unspeakably devastating to learn of your mother's death through a WhatsApp message.

Neil Kinnock, who I wrote about last week, was one of the greatest speakers of his era. His career as leader of the British Labour Party was energised by his speaking ability. Those who hear him speak come away moved and inspired.

As I write, the news headlines on the radio remind me that Amnesty International has accused Israel of "the crime of genocide in Gaza by killing Palestinian civilians and deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about ...