Politics-free Zone

One of the worst meals that I ever ate in my life was served up by a fellow, one of whose aliases was “Bob Ridell” . I’m not sure even now if that was his alias or his real name , because he used several monikers  depending on circumstances and location. It was a meal […]

I awoke thinking of bicycles. There’s nothing too extraordinary in that really. It’s how the mind operates isn’t it? In more ancient times people would invariably  read some great  prophesy into this. They’d  call the soothsayer or hoke through the entrails of some dead animal  for an abstract  reason for this glowing  image appearing and […]

Flags and the Fear of Biscuit Theft. “What’s yours is yours. What’s mine’s me own.” This wee poem/song portrays the deep fear and emotion that lies close to our core as individuals around biscuit theft and personal boundaries.   If the biscuit is what we enjoy and hold dear, then it is understandable that people […]

Gardening can be a great meditation and a solace for the mind. I didn’t always think like that of course. Who can find time to meditate when they are young, feckless and roaring or when they are breaking through the clatter and mayhem involved in the   raising of  a young family? Meditation? Thoughtful contemplation? […]

How lucky are we that we live in a place where you are entitled to two nationalities as a birthright? You can get an Irish passport or a British passport .Or if you have more money than sense, maybe even both.There are people out there who would sell their kidneys for that kind of privilege. […]

  Apple Charlotte will always remind me of my mother. “And what exactly is Apple Charlotte?” …he fairly sneered in obvious disbelief. This was my twelve-year-old self being  confronted by Brother Eustace, critiquing an  essay I’d recently submitted  about the joys of Halloween…the Eve of All Hallows.I could feel the  prickling embarrassed reddening spreading up […]

You know what a sceptic I am . If there isn’t a logical explanation that hangs together without its knickers showing , I’m not about to take a leap of faith. God, the Tooth Fairy , Santa Claus …It’s all the same to me . if it doesn’t stack up or make some discernible sense, […]

It looks like Garth Brooks fans and everyone in Brazil should form a Losers’ Club,  or all sign up for Post Traumatic Stress counselling. The cancellation of Garth’s five concerts in Dublin and the host nation Brazil’s inglorious exit from the World cup have happened within mere hours of each other and here we all […]

Thank the stars that none of it is compulsory! You know , they haven’t brought out some daft law making us all do the same things at the same time. What did I say about a month ago about the “flegs” suddenly blossoming overnight as if heralded by some unseen omen or call from  across […]

“What night would suit you for doing your  vigilante duty, mister?”.. This from a wee spavined, rat-faced ,overly earnest but still matter-of-fact,thin- as-a reed, skinny chancer with the worst kind of singsong  Belfast accent . He was dressed in “combat fatigues” .. They were the kind of cheap greeny , khaki ex-army clothes you could […]