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, 2021
- 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, 2021
- 4 min
PoitÃn, 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, 2021
- 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, 2021
- 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, 2021
- 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, 2021
- 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...
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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...
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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, ...
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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...
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