Christmas time I was in Tesco, Gorey on Thursday 12 th  December to listen to Loreto Primary school pupils singing Christmas carols. This heralded the start of the Christmas season for me. They sang Jingle Bells, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, the 12 days of Christmas and many more. They sang them all beautifully with cheery smiles on their faces while collecting for the Jack and Jill charity. We sang along with them. It was most enjoyable and a fitting start to the Yuletide

CHRISTMAS                       AN NOLLAIG At this time of year in the pre-Christmas season I think about my early childhood memories. I think about my grandparents coming into town on the pony and trap to buy the Christmas fare, the sack of flour, the whiskey and tobacco and the big red candle to be lit at 6 o clock on Christmas Eve by the youngest person in the house. A sizeable turkey or goose was dropped off at our house which was the standard Xmas present. They did all t

Wakes  I was recently proofreading an academic essay for a university student, and the theme was Caoineadh Airt Uí Laoghaire. I have read about this before both in school and in adult life. I was fascinated with the topic and its historical context in Cork. The mná caointe or keeners were professional mourners who wailed and screamed at wakes and funerals in Ireland. This ritual was a throwback to pagan Ireland when women at wakes wailed in mournful tones for the dead, often

Radio Times We were setting up an Amazon Echo  recently so that we can have ready access to our super intelligent house guest Alexa. When the system was operational, I asked her to play The Wests Awake for me and she duly obliged. At the end of the song, I wanted to find out when Marconi invented the first radio signal and immediately, she informed me that Guglielmo Marconi invented it in 1895 and patented it. When I heard this bit of news I thought about the development of r