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Jim O'Brien
Mar 10, 20214 min read
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, 20214 min read
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, 20214 min read
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, 20213 min read
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, 20213 min read
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, 20213 min read
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, 20213 min read
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, 20203 min read
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, 20203 min read
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, 20204 min read
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, 20203 min read
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, 20204 min read
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, 20204 min read
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, 20204 min read
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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