Recent columns | Jim O'Brien

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a day ago
3 min

When tomorrow comes now

For the procrastinator tomorrow is a great day, but sometimes it comes too soon. I have been talking about getting the exterior of the...

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Jim O'Brien

Apr 13
3 min

Punctuality - nature or nurture?

Punctuality is much regarded in highly organised societies. There is great admiration for the man or the woman ‘you could set your clock...

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Jim O'Brien

Apr 13
3 min

Our rural future

There is always a lift to the spirits after Easter - daffodils, primroses and buttercups bring a badly needed splash of colour to field,...

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Jim O'Brien

Apr 13
3 min

Pull over, lads!

I’m reading the first instalment of Barack Obama’s memoirs at the moment. Entitled ‘A Promised Land’ the book is over 700 pages long, not...

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Jim O'Brien

Mar 28
3 min

Waiting my turn

I remember being out for a pint with a friend, in the days when such things were possible. We sat at the counter in a local hostelry...

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Jim O'Brien

Mar 28
4 min

Vaccine envy

I am told by those who are or were teachers that the optimum time to get consensus in the staffroom is September. Over the years, many...

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Jim O'Brien

Mar 10
4 min

Rumblings in the gastronomic memory

Every now and again a cry goes up urging us to go back to basics, a move trumpeted as the antidote to everything that ails us. I must...

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Jim O'Brien

Mar 10
4 min

The Human Touch

The current consort and I have become so accustomed to our nightly commute from the dinner table to the television, I’m wondering if we...

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Jim O'Brien

Mar 10
3 min

The winds of change

After the pub, the forge was probably the most popular gathering spot for men in rural Ireland. At the forge you could laze around with...

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Jim O'Brien

Mar 10
4 min

Retail Therapy

I shop for clothes once a year, and only wish my visits to the dentist were as infrequent. An afternoon during the January sales will...

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Jim O'Brien

Mar 10
4 min

Shop around? Be warned!

We are constantly advised by consumer gurus to shop around for goods and services and make a switch when we get a better deal. That’s all...

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Jim O'Brien

Feb 3
4 min

Poitín, a vaccine for the ages

A note from the ESB told us we would be without power for a few hours on Wednesday last. Even though we had time to prepare, when the...

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Jim O'Brien

Jan 27
3 min

The Power of Words

It was a fine autumn afternoon in 1969, the schoolyard was full of whooping children enjoying the two o-clock break. I should have been...

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Jim O'Brien

Jan 18
3 min

One day at a time

There is no such thing as a slow news day anymore, something momentous is always happening. Every day there appears to be a reason to run...

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Jim O'Brien

Jan 18
3 min

The right time will come

It is only the tick of a clock, a blip on a digital screen, the twitch of a second hand that takes us from one year to the next. Every...

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Jim O'Brien

Jan 18
3 min

Missing the communal bits

There was a beautiful yellow flower growing in the lawn during the summer. It bloomed in the morning but disappeared every afternoon at...

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Jim O'Brien

Dec 15, 2020
3 min

The great silence

Over two Monday nights I watched that excellent two-part television programme, The Hunger: The Story of the Irish Famine. Broadcast on...

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Jim O'Brien

Dec 15, 2020
3 min

Haunted by If Only

Apparently many of us wake in the night and obsesses over things we can do nothing about. It’s a common affliction, this descent into a...

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Jim O'Brien

Nov 26, 2020
4 min

From inside the cocoon

From inside the cocoon Paddy Smith, whose work graced these pages, and the pages of a number of national papers over the years, recently...

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Jim O'Brien

Nov 26, 2020
3 min

Even our tractors were Porsches

Growing up in Co Limerick the seasons of the year were marked by the arrival and departure of visitors. These included the swallow, wild...

23 views0 comments

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