Saturday, July 31, 2010 Previous editions
LAST weekend I had, nestling in my hand, one of prettiest birds I’ve ever seen, a storm petrel.
She went off to Australia. Back then, emigration was just fun. Now, as part-owner of a house worth nothing, a massive mortgage, three children and parents whose health deteriorates by the day, emigration not only doesn’t look like fun, it doesn’t look possible.
YOU should have seen Carrick-on-Shannon at the weekend.
A FACEBOOK friend messaged last week to ask: “Have you not read The Spirit Level?” Did he mean Seamus Heaney’s poetry collection or the acclaimed book published last year arguing that income inequality is the cause of most social problems?
THIS weekend marks the official holiday exodus of our public policy makers.
WE HUMANS are a lot closer to nature, and nature a lot closer to us, than we generally realise. And therein lies our last best hope for patching up our suicidal quarrel with our own planet.
THE State is getting into the retail shopkeeping business, selling bras and knickers, shoes and shirts, beds, chairs and tables, pots and pans, televisions and games consoles, luggage and lots else too.
IF Michael O’Leary of Ryanair could make money selling toilet paper on his planes, he would do it, and he has been quite candid about it.
ANY thoughts that having the Democrats in control in the US would favour Europe in the Doha WTO negotiations have been quickly shattered.
IN RECENT weeks my bird feeders have been dominated by juvenile birds, either being fed by their parents or learning the skills needed to extract the seeds and nuts themselves.
EVEN in a drenching summer in Ireland, there’s no shortage of things to do if you wish to enjoy our natural heritage.
ACCORDING to ornithologist Eric Dempsey, three red-necked phalaropes visited a site in the midlands this summer.
WE LOVE our cuppa in Ireland and are still drinking more tea per head than any other country in the world. Sadly nowadays most cups of tea are made from teabags rather than good loose tea which I am totally convinced makes a far superior brew.
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