Editorial

Cork is an expensive city to rent in if you want to be central and don’t want to live with a large number of people. If you want, or need, to live alone, it’s prohibitively so. That hasn’t changed.
Read more…

  A building block for a new Ireland was laid yesterday as Minister for Children Frances Fitzgerald announced the wording for a new referendum on children’s rights. The proposed new Article 42A provised for the natural and imprescriptible rights of all children and means legislation can be brought in to allow for the removal of a child from a family, and the child’s adoption, where it is in their best interests to do so – even where their parents are married.
Read more…

The first in an alternating run of plays by iconic Irish playwright Tom Murphy, 'A Whistle in the Dark', received a standing ovation at the Everyman Palace Theatre on Tuesday night. The play is part of a trio being toured by Galway company Druid around the world, although only this play and 'Conversations on a Homecoming' will be performed in Cork.
Read more…

During the week I heard someone suggest that we forget about competing in the Olympics, because we’re doing so well in the Paralympics we should just stick at it. There’s method in that madness; Irish Paralympians are doing themselves proud in the games this week.
Read more…

After reading – and writing – about it for over three years, I finally had the opportunity to visit Camden Fort Meagher over the weekend. It’s a sight to gladden the heart, and not just for people interested in military history.
Read more…

It hasn’t been a great week for the judiciary. On Monday, 51 year old Anthony Lyons was sentenced to six years for a violent sexual assault on a young woman who was walking home from a family function.
Read more…

The right to die campaigner Tony Nicklinson died this week. Aged 58, he had suffered from locked-in syndrome, a horrific condition in which the sufferer cannot speak, move or communicate aside from flickers of the eyelid, since a stroke seven years ago.
Read more…

News that the oil field off Barryroe could yield 1.6 billion barrels of oil has been welcomed by most of us – we’ll take good news wherever we can get it. The local economy needs whatever it can get at the moment, and if it means jobs for construction workers, engineers, and ancillary staff even in the short-term, that’s a good thing.
Read more…

In tomorrow’s newspapers, I expect to see the usual foaming at the mouth that accompanies the Leaving Certificate results celebrations. This year, at least, we are spared the annual gnashing of teeth at the maths results, even if there are some concerns that the higher pass rate is due to dumbing-down in the marking system.
Read more…

Our health service is something fundamental to us all. As private health insurance has become impossible for some of us to afford, more and more of us are reliant on the public service. That public service is something that the weakest and most vulnerable people in our society rely on.
Read more…

You might remember the spoof ad for Power City from Bull Island. "Dis madness must end, sooooooon!" You might even remember the original ad. Looking around me this week at what's been making headlines, the refrain entered my head, more as a prayer than anything else.
Read more…

Singer Adele recently advised us to set fire to the rain, but for a number of reasons, I can't really concur. For one thing it's just not technically possible - I didn't even see anyone at the Street Performance World Championships last week attempt it.
Read more…

Eamon Gilmore said last week that marriage equality is the civil rights issue of our generation. While I believe wholeheartedly that gay people should be treated equally in every way, I disagree with him; mainly because I think this issue is very close to being resolved.
Read more…

It’s no weather for kite flying. While it might be raining and the sun is far from most of our thoughts, it’s undeniably summer, and any discussion of Budget 2013 at this juncture is simply daft.
Read more…