Man I’m tired, aren’t we all says you? Yep, so when you’ve two wee lads scrapping round the house your patience is extra thin. Trying to teach them conflict resolution is tricky however. Especially when you’re poor at it yourself. But one main tenet I try emphasise is ; ‘irregardless of what went on, once you, hit you’re wrong; wrong too or just wrong on your own’, either way I’m trying to get them to understand that there are…
These are fraught times, as we know. As tensions rise, cultural norms splinter and sound bites get nastier and if you’re like me; it may all feel a little tiresome, to say the least. I find myself torn at the minute. Do I try, in vain; due to lack of outlet, to have my voice heard? To rail against what I perceive as the festering injustice of a world dominate by those who shout loudest, whilst risking pastiching what I…
When we went travelling in South-East Asia a few years back it was amazing yet frantic. There were times when it seemed we were constantly heading for an early bus or train or ferry. Throughout our quick jaunt through Thailand/Laos/Vietnam/Cambodia I was astounded by the way the landscape changed area to area. It felt like once through a border the terrain instantly emphasised your new dominion. Maybe we have more of an effect on our landscape than we realise? Maybe…
There I was back in the calm corridor on the second floor of The Coombe. Yet again feeling quite conspicuous in the severely plastic cap and gown that we must wear not only for health and safety but to mark us fathers out. Resplendent in white, as the rabbit in headlights we truly are. Ushered down to the ward where my second son Páidí was about to announce himself to the world and blow me further apart, if at all…
Dystopia is probably my favourite genre. I don’t know what this says about me, but it truly is. Maybe it’s the inherent sense of dread that accompanies being neurotic. Maybe it’s that, these days especially, it feels like our poorer decisions are catching up with us. Who knows?! Of course Orwell springs forth when thinking on dystopia. 1984, for me, is a seminal text in the genre, and certainly for many others to be fair. The ideas put forward in that text…
One morning, early, he awoke for what he thought was the usual day. It was that late January morning where you can’t tell if you’ve woken up too early or too late. Either way darkness and the dull, orange hue of the lamp-posts are all that pierced that particularly dark dawn. He was in the ethereal space being unsure if he was awake, asleep or where reality dwelt at all. ‘Time to go, come on’, was the command from his…
”I run a home in Dublin, Castlebar and Brussels. I wanna tell you something, try it sometime when you have a couple of cars and three houses and three homes and a few housekeepers.” The immortal words of Padraig Flynn. Those of us old enough, or who have sat at home on an August evening, watching Reeling in the Years , as the waning August sun pierces the sitting room for one last time, know this gem. Try it sometime is…
We had limited channels on the auld telly growing up, especially in comparison to the amount now and their accompanying +1s. When we got the cable box, life seemed boundless; the prospect of sport on demand on Eurosport and the likes, seemed fantastic. Who doesn’t want to watch the 1974 World Cup Final commentated on by some bored bloke, tasked with overdubbing the original footage from some storage unit in Woking? Heading into my teens at the time; the real…
That shrill cry was something else, otherworldly. It stirred everything from deep within the recesses of my soul. Oh how I wish I could put that moment and the ensuing emotional deluge into apt words, alas I am no poet! Thankfully, Plath’s words ‘Love set you going like a fat gold watch’, dance twinkle-toed through my mind since then. I got to know him as her belly grew, as the sudden kicks protruded the stomach, and even more as his…
‘People like seeing their friends online’ is a line from The Social Network; one of my favourite Fincher films, which is saying something. I’m old enough to remember the heady days of discovering Bebo. Suddenly I was on the internet, and a whole new form of socialising opened up to me. The novelty of it; what wallpaper would I use, which photos would I use…all became pressing concerns…Getting tagged in a photo was manna for the soul, or so I thought. …