Recent columns | Jim O'Brien

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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 out...

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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 w...

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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 tw...

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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 a...

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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 RT...

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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 n...

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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 ...

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Jim O'Brien

Nov 13, 2020
4 min

The Ballad of Cobb County

I’m inclined to think there was a lot of male regression last week as the marathon US election count dragged on interminably. Simple dome...

19 views0 comments

Jim O'Brien

Nov 13, 2020
4 min

All will be well

It is November, a month when we, traditionally, remember our dead. Those of us seasoned by length of days find that, with every year, ou...

9 views0 comments

Jim O'Brien

Nov 13, 2020
4 min

Pandemically naked

It’s a pleasant autumn evening, crisp, mild and bright. The main road running alongside us is much quieter than usual, the interminable t...

8 views0 comments

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