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Sean Counihan
 
You are > Home > Slattery's World
 
Just like old times at July Killarney Races
Thursday, July 22, 2010
DESPITE a week of inclement weather, Killarney staged a very fine four-day race meeting that seemed to be enjoyed by one and all of those present.  more >

Rimet’s cup is still cheering
Thursday, July 15, 2010
THE World Cup seems to have given this world we live in one of the biggest boosts it has ever received.  more >

Byrd made a mark on history
Friday, July 09, 2010
A LEGENDARY figure on the US political scene passed away last week with many records under his belt.  more >

Let’s hail this sporting life
Thursday, July 01, 2010
WE have almost reached the half time whistle on the two greatest sporting months of the year, June and July, and I must say that we missed Ireland’s participation in the World Cup.  more >

The day they said sorry
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Truth is established by investigation and delay; falsehood prospers by precipitancy. - Tacitus  more >

Cruel carnage in Cumbria
Thursday, June 17, 2010
NO case can be made for shooting dead any person but for such a wrongdoing to make any sense whatsoever there must be a motive for the killing – shooting innocent people for no apparent reason is another matter and that’s what happened in the county of Cumbria on the first day of June.  more >

Precious coastline is engulfed
Thursday, June 10, 2010
EURONEWS put it well in just 14 words when it announced, in its early morning news on May 30, that BP’s attempt to stop the oil flow in the Gulf of Mexico by pumping barrels of mud into the opening had failed.  more >

No brotherly love for Hitler
Thursday, June 03, 2010
WHILE Adolf Hitler ruled the roost in Germany he was held in mighty esteem by the German people.  more >

Death and pure terror visit top holiday spot
Thursday, May 27, 2010
THAILAND, known as the Land of Smiles, has been featuring in the news for quite some time so this week I intend to have a look at the country and what’s happening there.  more >

Miliband odds-on to succeed Brown
Thursday, May 20, 2010
LAST week Gordon Brown stepped down as Prime Minister of the UK, a post he held for just under three years during which he was the leader of the Labour Party.  more >

UK opts for a new shade over Brown
Thursday, May 13, 2010
THE 2010 general election held last Thursday in the UK ended up in a stalemate with no party securing an overall majority.  more >

Brown to get back in power
Thursday, May 06, 2010
THE nearest country to Ireland to hold an election for members of parliament is, of course, Great Britain, which comprises England, Scotland, Wales and those six Irish counties in the northern part of this island we live in which are under British rule.  more >

Volcano chaos the story of the year
Thursday, April 29, 2010
THERE is no doubt but that the biggest news story of the year to date must be the disruption caused to air traffic by volcanic dust spouted into the air by a volcano in Iceland – a country that is rarely in the news.  more >

Prayers for Poland in the hour of need
Thursday, April 22, 2010
WHILE I was looking at Euronews on Saturday, April 10, breaking news flashed on the screen stating that there was a plane crash in Russia with the Polish President and his wife on board.  more >

115 pulled alive in China crisis
Thursday, April 15, 2010
IT isn’t often that you hear good news from China but last week the world heard some positive news from there for a change.  more >

Sarkozy’s father in kiss and tell
Thursday, April 08, 2010
RIDING on the crest of a wave is always dangerous and that’s just what Nicolas Sarkozy has been doing ever since he was elected President of France in 2006.  more >

Obama is in a healthy position
Thursday, April 01, 2010
BARACK Obama got over the first major hurdle of his presidency last week with the passing of the Healthcare Bill.  more >

Gorbachev changed the world we live in
Thursday, March 25, 2010
JUST a quarter of a century ago this month a new star appeared on the horizon in Russia who did more to change the face of the world we live in than anybody else since World War II.  more >

Middle East can learn from Ireland
Thursday, March 18, 2010
SIGNS of life in the peace process - so read the heading on a recent editorial in The Independent, the English paper owned by Tony O’Reilly which is in the process of falling into Russian hands.  more >

Counting the cost of earthquake hell
Thursday, March 11, 2010
WILL 2010 be remembered as the year of the earthquake?  more >

Sarah Palin has not gone away you know
Thursday, March 04, 2010
IT frequently amazes me what can happen in US politics. Two vice presidential candidates come to mind, one a success story and the other with a lot of ground to cover and make an impact.  more >

Francis was more than a fall guy
Thursday, February 25, 2010
IF ever a person did just one thing for which he will forever be remembered it was the steeplechase jockey Dick Francis who died on St Valentine’s Day while notching up his 90th year of life on earth.  more >

Bye George, it wasn’t to be
Thursday, February 18, 2010
THERE is no place in the political scene for a person in a hurry.  more >

Rapid changes in a very mobile world
Thursday, February 11, 2010
THE first inkling I got that there was such a thing as a mobile phone happened one day around 20 years ago when I was walking across O’Connell Bridge in Dublin.  more >

Horror in Haiti offers no hope
Thursday, January 28, 2010
THE year 2010 had just reached its 11th day when calamity struck one of the smallest and poorest nations on earth.  more >

Hate is the heart’s madness
Thursday, January 21, 2010
IN a world where death is – there is no room for hate.  more >

Marlon Brando was the greatest star ever
Thursday, January 14, 2010
SO far I don’t think there has been any poll conducted to find out who peoples see as the most famous film star of them all.  more >

Chaplin made the world laugh
Thursday, January 07, 2010
WHEN a family returns to the same venue year after year for their holidays, it is a sure sign that they have had a happy and enjoyable holidays at that place and back they come. It is nice when that happens.  more >

William Gladstone lived a very full life
Thursday, December 31, 2009
TODAY is the 200th anniversary of the birth of William Edward Gladstone, an Englishman who had the right idea about Ireland becoming independent of England.  more >

Dubai will weather debt crisis
Thursday, December 17, 2009
IT’S amazing how a person of vision can transform a place. The sticking out example in the world today must be Dubai, one of the United Arab Emirates (UAE).  more >

Van Rompuy crowned King of Europe
Thursday, December 10, 2009
THE acceptance of the Lisbon Treaty on which depended the future of the European Union (EU) was left to the Irish people to decide.  more >

Racing certainty to be a bestseller
Thursday, December 03, 2009
THE smiling face of Ruby Walsh on the front and back of the book jacket on the Irish At Cheltenham, which has just been published, is a big enticement to purchase the book and you’ll have no regrets if you do.  more >

Leave the world as you found it
Thursday, November 26, 2009
NEXT month there is a United Nations (UN) summit dealing with climate change taking place in Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark.  more >

Karadzic trial must see justice
Thursday, November 05, 2009
YUGOLAVIA was a European country famous for its commander, Marshal Tito, who ruled the place with an iron hand for around two score years.  more >

Weld is a racing wonder
Thursday, October 29, 2009
DERMOT Weld is a trainer of renown who would surely make the top ten of all-time greats for the training of racehorses, if that list is ever complied.  more >

Omaba wins Nobel with Clinton still in the rough
Thursday, October 22, 2009
THERE were 205 contenders for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize and President Brack Obama was among them. Looking at a preview of the event on Euronews, it stated that the winner would be announced later in the day and about half a dozen contenders were shown on the screen.  more >

Still shooting for the Stars
Thursday, October 15, 2009
WHAT a sight it was to watch Sea The Stars winding his way through a field of 19 runner and go on to win the Prix de L’Arc de Triomphe, Europe’s greatest race worth £2,219,029 stg. was like a dream come through for sportsmen and women the world over.  more >

A fitting tribute for Killarney heroes
Thursday, October 08, 2009
IT is always nice to see services rendered recognised and honoured. And this happened in Killarney on September 25 when the President of Ireland, Mary McAleese, was on hand to unveil a memorial to the people of Killarney and surrounding areas who fought - and many perished - in World War I.  more >

The person who fed the world
Thursday, October 01, 2009
IT always amazes me when I come across a person who seems to have been born to do a specific job during his or her lifetime.  more >

Major surge for power in Germany
Thursday, September 24, 2009
IT was interesting to watch the body language in media coverage and examine photographs of German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, leader of Germany’s Christian Democratic Union, and foreign minister FrankWalter Steinmeler of the Social Democratic Party, taken before their recent televised debate.  more >

Words came easy to the great Dr Johnson
Thursday, September 17, 2009
ONE of the great anniversaries of the year 2009 must be that of Dr Samuel Johnson who was born 300 years ago, on 18 September 1709. He was the first person to write a dictionary of the English language which took him eight years to do.  more >

Gaddafi must go by the law
Thursday, September 10, 2009
ONE of the most enigmatic rulers in the world must be Colonel Muammar Gaddafi who is celebrating 40 years at the helm in Libya - the longest rule of any African leader.  more >

Finishing fourth can cause heartbreak
Thursday, September 03, 2009
THERE is a mighty difference between finishing third and fourth in both the World Athletic Championship and the Olympic Games.  more >

A great day at the races in Killarney
Thursday, August 27, 2009
HAVING been at the helm of Killarney Races for about 14 years, I might be a bit prejudiced, but you can rest assured I was a proud man at Killarney Races last Tuesday to see a glowing and well-deserved tribute being paid to Vincent O’Brien.  more >

The men they couldn’t hang
Thursday, August 13, 2009
WE got a stark reminder of what Kerry footballers can do when the county is classed as the underdog in an All-Ireland championship match in the Kerry v Dublin encounter at Croke Park.  more >

How a visit to Killarney inspired Tennyson
Thursday, August 06, 2009
TWO hundred years ago this week Alfred Tennyson was born in Somersby, Lincolnshire, England. He was born on August 6, 1809, and was the fourth son of the Rector of Somersby.  more >

Watson has earned his place in golfing history
Thursday, July 30, 2009
WHAT a fairytale ending it would have been had US golfer Tom Watson won the British Open recently. It was an amazing show by Watson, winner of the Open in the years 1975, 1977, 1980, 1982 and 1983. Playing the last hole he was one shot ahead and all he needed was a par to win.  more >

Obamas make history on Ghana visit
Thursday, July 23, 2009
THE visit of President Barack Obama, along with his wife Michelle and their two children, paid to the African country, Ghana, last week was very nostalgic for them.  more >

Governor Sarah will be Palin into political past
Thursday, July 16, 2009
TWO state governors in the USA were in the news recently and made the headlines around the world in the process. What did they do to command world attention you may well ask? Here’s a short briefing on what happened.  more >

Lemass was our greatest leader
Thursday, July 09, 2009
HERE are a few words about two programmes I watched on RTÉ that I considered to be well worth watching. The first on was the last programme in the Questions and Answers series and I must say at the outset that after over a score of years watching it, I was saddened to see its end.  more >

Backing Yates as a real great
Thursday, July 02, 2009
AT this year’s Royal Ascot meeting we saw a great race horse become an all-time great race horse which is a rare experience in the equine world.  more >

Life falling from the sky
Thursday, June 25, 2009
EARLY this month the world was stunned by the news that an Air France jet had disappeared over the Atlantic Ocean in a flight from Brazil to Paris with 228 people on board.  more >

Oil can cushion Norway’s fall
Friday, June 05, 2009
I HAVE often wondered what would have happened if the Celtic Tiger did a bit of saving instead of spending so much?  more >

John Murphy was a true business giant
Thursday, May 28, 2009
ONE of the greatest men involved in the construction business in England passed away in London on May 7.  more >

Killarney track deaths just a freak
Thursday, May 21, 2009
KERRY’S first race meeting of 2009 got underway in brilliant sunshine at Killarney race-course on Sunday, May 10. The going - the racing ground condition - was classed as yielding to soft - soft in places on day one, good on day two and just yielding to soft on day three.  more >

Bloody legacy of street deaths
Thursday, May 14, 2009
MY Britannica Concise Encyclopaedia lists three events under the heading ‘Bloody Sunday’. They are listed in chronological order as follows:  more >

Ghandi comes to the fore as India decides
Thursday, May 07, 2009
THE world’s biggest democracy is in the process of voting.  more >

There is a very big price to be paid for death row
Thursday, April 30, 2009
THERE is a very strong move afoot to end the death penalty in the USA and the main reason seems to be money.  more >

Heaney is very worthy of Clinton praise
Thursday, April 23, 2009
SEAMUS Heaney was 70 years old on 13 April last. The occasion got great coverage in the media and it was certainly well looked after by press, radio and TV. The Irish Times brought out a fine supplement to mark the occasion.  more >

The day the heavens fell in
Thursday, April 16, 2009
WE should be counting our blessings and thanking God for them when you see what happened in Italy last week.  more >

Obama and Medvedev to the fore
Thursday, April 09, 2009
THE United States of America is a vast country comprising 50 different states, varying in size from Rhode Island - a little smaller than Kerry - to Alaska which is approximately 18 times the size of Ireland.  more >

Pride gives Irish the edge
Thursday, April 02, 2009
BETWEEN love and hate there is a line as sharp as a razor’s edge. Somerset Maugham’s words which supplied the title to both a book and a film, The Razor’s Edge, have been haunting me ever since I witnessed Ireland beating Wales to win the Six Nations Grand Slam.  more >

Synge out in praise of John
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
THIS Tuesday marks the centenary of the death of John Millington Synge whose Playboy of the Western World was one of the most enjoyable plays that I ever attended.  more >

When sport is a sheer terror
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
THE saddest acts of terrorism usually take place in the sporting arena where people are gathered to enjoy themselves following the exploits of their sporting heroes.  more >

Chavez is the talk of the world
Thursday, March 12, 2009
A PERSON very much in the news of late is Hugo Chavez, President of Venezuela, a country in South America that is just over 10 times the size of Ireland with a population of approximately 24 million.  more >

Six Irish wins is a good bet
Thursday, March 05, 2009
FOR the jumping enthusiast the best race meeting of the year in this world we live in gets underway next Tuesday at Cheltenham. And thousands of Irish racegoers will make their annual pilgrimage to the place.  more >

Lincoln paved the way for Obama’s presidency
Thursday, February 26, 2009
JUST 12 days ago the 200th anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln was marked by many tributes including one from President Barack Obama, speaking to members of the the House of Representatives and the Senate.  more >

The life and times of Doctor Death
Thursday, February 19, 2009
ONE of the most infamous of the Nazi criminals was Aribert Ferdinand Heim who committed atrocities against hundreds of Jews and so many others that he was given the nickname Doctor Death.  more >

Garden of Africa back in bloom
Thursday, February 12, 2009
IT angers me how an 84-years-old despot is allowed to hang on to power in Zimbabwe. I speak, of course, of President Robert Mugabe.  more >

Pope John XXIII proved them all wrong
Thursday, February 05, 2009
JUST 50 years ago last month - on 25 January 1959 - Pope John XXIII summoned a Roman Catholic Ecumenical Council to foster several objectives, including a possible reunion of divided Christianity.  more >

How does Obama compare to the great JFK?
Thursday, January 29, 2009
IT is quite a milestone in anybody’s life journey to see a fairytale come true and those of us on planet Earth are just after witnessing such an event.  more >

Barack can follow Abe’s example
Thursday, January 22, 2009
THERE can be little doubt as to who the main man will be for much of the year 2009. It must be Barack Obama who will be inaugurated as the 44th President of the USA this Tuesday.  more >

Gregory was the people’s champion
Thursday, January 15, 2009
THERE are two types of TDs in Dáil Éireann, the late Timothy (Chubb) O’Connor, TD for many years for the constituency of South Kerry, often remarked.  more >

Castro’s Cuba could lure the Irish
Thursday, January 08, 2009
FIFTY years ago this month, Fidel Castro took over the reins of power in Cuba and when he retired early last year he had become the longest-serving ruler in this world we live in.  more >

‘Old International’ had a great way with words
Monday, December 22, 2008
THIS December I received my 56th copy of the Bedside Guardian, which consists of pieces of interest from The Guardian newspaper for 12 months. Every year I have purchased a copy.  more >

Keane’s bubble bursts
Thursday, December 18, 2008
SAD to see Roy Keane throw in the towel as manager of Sunderland. I wonder did he throw it in a game too soon?  more >

Obama is following in O’Connell’s footsteps
Thursday, December 11, 2008
THE heading of a review on a new book on Daniel O’ Connell caught my eye in a recent issue of the Sunday Times Culture magazine.  more >

Playing it safer in the hour of global turmoil
Thursday, December 04, 2008
THE presidency of George W Bush has just 56 days to go and I think it is fair to say that his tenure in office has come in for harsh criticism at home and abroad.  more >

A centenary of memories in Letters from America
Thursday, November 27, 2008
THURSDAY last marked the 100th anniversary of the birth of Alistair Cooke who was born is Salford, England on 20 November 1908. He died in New York at midnight on March 29/30 2004 aged 95.  more >

Livni the woman in the Middle
Thursday, November 20, 2008
ANY election taking place after the marathon US contest will be seen as a kind of anticlimax.  more >

All things are possible as Obama has shown
Thursday, November 13, 2008
WHEN the Labour Party held its conference in Killarney in 1991, the late Senator Michael Moynihan asked me to write a piece for the programme and here is an extract from my opening salvo for that piece:  more >

John L was king of the ring
Thursday, November 06, 2008
JUST 150 years ago the son of a Kerry-man, was born in Boston and was destined to become one of the greatest boxers of all time.  more >

A victory fit for a princess
Thursday, October 30, 2008
NEW Approach’s victory in the Champion Stakes on October 18 sees that horse join a select band of three who have won the Dewhurst Stakes as a two-year-old and went on to win the Derby and the Champion Stakes as three-year-old. It had been 98 years since it last happened.  more >

I’m still backing Barack
Thursday, October 23, 2008
THIS year’s Presidential Election in the USA is a baffling contest no matter how you look at it. It has been the subject of thousands of cartoons the world over and many eye-catching headlines in the papers as well.  more >

A full century of living brings it all back home
Thursday, October 16, 2008
JUST 14 days from today the citizens of the USA go to the polls to vote in their next president .  more >

The day I backed a Derby winner
Thursday, October 09, 2008
SEVENTY-FIVE years ago this month, a record was made in the world of horse racing that still stands and could well be still standing when Gabriel blows that final trumpet blast.  more >

Money talks no matter what language you speak
Thursday, October 02, 2008
GREED and money are certainly playing a major role in today’s world. Greed, my dictionary states, is "extreme or excessive desire, especially for money".  more >

Pontiff makes the French connection
Thursday, September 25, 2008
POPE Benedict XVI’s visit to France got great coverage on the box and it made excellent viewing on TV.  more >

Oxford’s literary ommission
Thursday, September 18, 2008
I WAS recently given a present of a book entitled The Oxford Guide to Literary Britain and Ireland. It was nice to see Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales under the one roof so to speak and see how we fared among all those literary people.  more >

There’s something about Sarah
Thursday, September 11, 2008
A TRUE leader always keeps an element of surprise up his sleeve, which others cannot grasp but which keeps his public excited and breathless.  more >

Success was no Bolt from the blue
Thursday, September 04, 2008
"After the ball was over,
after the break of day,
I just had that wonderful feeling,
that everything was going my way."  more >

Bringing Russia in from the cold
Thursday, August 28, 2008
GEORGIA, one of the states in the former Union of Soviet Social-ist Republics (USSR), will forever be remembered as the birthplace of Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili.  more >

Success was written all over Brendan Bracken
Thursday, August 14, 2008
JUST 50 years ago last Friday the death occurred of an Irishman who made a big name for himself in the UK and must be well in the running to be acclaimed the greatest Irish Englishman of them all.  more >

Harrington set for sportsman of the year
Thursday, July 31, 2008
IT IS great to be right there at the battlefront of a world sport event. Ireland is a small country and despite always having great expectations it isn’t often we are right there fighting it out in the final.  more >

Bruni’s journey from Turin to Paris
Thursday, July 24, 2008
ONE of the most intriguing Europeans on the world stage presently must be Carla BruniSarkozy, the wife of the President of France.  more >

Dramatic end to Betancourt saga
Thursday, July 17, 2008
ONE thing the month of July 2008 brought forth for all the world to see was the daring rescue of the person who could well be regarded as this world’s most famous captive, namely Ingrid Betancourt.  more >

Success through the Gates
Thursday, July 10, 2008
FROM time to time a person is born who has been given a special assignment to perform during his or her lifetime.  more >

Super Yeats steals the show at Ascot
Thursday, July 03, 2008
THE annual Royal Ascot race meeting in mid-June is generally regarded as the best five-day flat race meeting in this world we live in.  more >

Hard to fathom treaty outcome
Thursday, June 26, 2008
IRELAND was very much to the forefront in the world during the month of June.  more >

Bush slated between covers of pal’s book
Thursday, June 19, 2008
LAST week George W Bush paid his last trip to Europe as President of the USA. It was a kind of low-key last hurrah.  more >

White House keys in the handbag
Thursday, June 12, 2008
THE time is ripe to do a spot check on the next First Lady of the USA.  more >

Kennedy is a true giant
Thursday, June 05, 2008
THE recent news that Teddy Kennedy had a malignant brain tumour was received with shock and sadness the world over, especially here in Ireland as his interest in the land of his forefathers has never waned.  more >

Fergie has delivered the goods
Thursday, May 29, 2008
THE joy and the torture between victory and defeat was never more forcefully seen on a sporting occasion than what happened on a playing field in Moscow at 1.50am – Moscow time – last Thursday morning.  more >

China crisis is hard to watch
Thursday, May 22, 2008
THE main news this week comes from China where an earthquake left a death toll of over 15,000, among them some 800 students buried in the school building in which their classes were being held.  more >

Brutality in Burma must end
Thursday, May 15, 2008
THE worst disaster of the year to date occurred in Myanmar - formerly Burma - when a cyclone disaster of immense proportions struck there leaving 100,000 feared dead.  more >

Stop turning a blind eye
Thursday, May 08, 2008
AUSTRIA, right there in the centre of Europe, is almost exactly the same size as this island of ours - 32,383 square miles as against Ireland’s 32,594 - with a population of just over eight million.  more >

Brian likely to hail Mary
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
BRIAN Cowen will this week be announcing the members of his first cabinet which is the name given to a selected group of ministers.  more >

Patrick Hillery was a very decent man
Thursday, April 24, 2008
I HAVE always regarded Dr Patrick Hillery as being the luckiest politician in Ireland since we gained our independence.  more >

Kaloyev’s bloody revenge
Thursday, April 17, 2008
IN my column of 16 July 2002 I recorded one of the saddest tragedies ever. It occurred in the open sky over Switzerland on 1 July that year when two planes collided, killing all 71 on board both aircraft.  more >

Ahern has a record to be proud of
Thursday, April 10, 2008
WHAT will probably be the biggest news of the year in Ireland was Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern’s announcement that he would be stepping down as Taoiseach on May 6.  more >

Terror in Tibet
Thursday, April 03, 2008
TIBET is very much in the news of late. It is the highest region in the world - situated in a plateau averaging 15,000 feet above sea level - over four times the height of Carrantuohill.  more >

Buffet has tasted the good life
Thursday, March 27, 2008
FORBES magazine has named Warren Buffett to be this world’s rich-est person. He has ousted Bill Gates from the top spot.  more >

Killarney winner’s Cheltenham triumph
Thursday, March 20, 2008
The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men Gang aft a-gley And leave us nought but pain and woe For promised joy  more >

It could be seven-up for the Irish
Thursday, March 13, 2008
CHELTENHAM in all its glory begins this Tuesday. Last year on Thursday March 15, the third day of the great meeting, the course was visited by David Ashforth who has been assessing the atmosphere of all the racecourses in the UK and Ireland for Racing Post.  more >

It could be Gore v Rice
Thursday, March 06, 2008
IT is always important to know, or at least to have a good idea, what is likely to be the most important issue facing the electorate.  more >

Hello Kosovo, welcome to Europe
Thursday, February 28, 2008
SO welcome then to Kosovo, the newest state in both Europe and the world.  more >

Horrors of 9/11 recalled by trial
Thursday, February 21, 2008
THE term 9/11 stands for one of the most infamous days in world history - September 11, 2001.  more >

Real democracy is a joy to watch
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
DEMOCRACY at its almighty best is about the only way you could describe the election of the person with most power in this world we live in – the President of the United States of America.  more >

Killarney priest’s strong link with the Munich air disaster
Thursday, February 07, 2008
FIFTY years ago this week a plane crashed on the snowcovered runway at Munich Airport with the Manchester United football team, led by Matt Busby, on board.  more >

Gandhi achieved his goals in life
Thursday, January 31, 2008
SIXTY years ago this week Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated and this is an appropriate time to have a look at a man who was way before his time. Also, let’s take a look at that Empire he played a leading role in banishing.  more >

Bush sees big players up close
Thursday, January 24, 2008
THE big news at the start of the year 2008 was President George W Bush’s visit to the Middle East -his first to that haven of unrest since he was elected President of the USA in the year 2000.  more >

Backing Barack came at a price
Thursday, January 17, 2008
IT is really baffling to understand how all the polls forecasting the New Hampshire primary election in the USA got it so wrong.  more >

Democracy is the best revenge
Thursday, January 10, 2008
AS the year 2007 drew to a close and the new year got under-way, events in Pakistan captured world attention.  more >

Looking back on the past with an eye to the future
Thursday, January 03, 2008
BACK in the post World War I era, open air dances in specially constructed concrete platforms were held in North Kerry. There was an open air platform built about 200 yards from the village of Asdee on the Ballylongford road.  more >

Obama my frontrunner for the hotseat
Thursday, December 20, 2007
ON the third day of the new year we will get the first inkling from the people of the USA who they want to occupy the White House after the nation goes to the polls on 4 November 2008.  more >

Glimmer of hope for the free world
Thursday, December 13, 2007
THERE were interesting elections held in Russia and Venezuela last week, which demand more than a cursory look.  more >

The agony and ecstasy down under
Thursday, December 06, 2007
THE agony and the ecstasy of life down under was brought home vividly to viewers watching the results of the Australian general election unfold last week.  more >

Sarkozy is my main man
Thursday, November 29, 2007
IT’S Person of the Year time again and earlier this month I sent in my 54th nomination for what is probably the world’s most famous accolade.  more >

Good sport the real winner
Thursday, November 22, 2007
THE biggest thrill of the flat racing season which has just ended was provided not in an actual horse race but in the battle for the jockey championship.  more >

Hillary fails to shine in Democratic debates
Thursday, November 15, 2007
THE marathon US presidential election has just 356 days to go before the public decide who will be their next president.  more >

Russia turns its back on Stalin’s evil past
Thursday, November 08, 2007
WHO was the greatest mass murderer the world has ever known? In anybody’s shortlist a place must be found for one Josef Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili, better known as Joseph Stalin.  more >

Benn there, done that
Friday, October 26, 2007
TONY Benn, or to give him his full name, Anthony Neil Wedgwood Benn, is one of those people who brightened this passing parade during his sojourn in this world.  more >

Che Guevara left his mark on the world
Thursday, October 18, 2007
I NOTE that the 40th anniversary of the death of Ernesto Che Guevara has not been let go by unnoticed. There was something special about this man that captured the imagination. I'll probe it further and see what it is.  more >

Putin still has hunger for power
Thursday, October 11, 2007
THE leader of the largest country in this world is Vladimir Putin. He was born in Leningrad - now St Petersburg - on October 7, 1952. Last week he celebrated his 55th birthday so he is still a young man.  more >

Monks bring the fight to the junta
Thursday, October 04, 2007
MYANMAR, formerly Burma, is very much in the news as I write and not before its time I must say.  more >

Time to stage a Killarney National
Thursday, September 27, 2007
LISTOWEL’S marathon seven-day race meeting was held in the North Kerry capital last week and it is deservedly regarded as the last of festival meetings held in Ireland annually.  more >

Madeleine case is very harrowing
Thursday, September 20, 2007
THERE is no news item that I can recall that got more coverage from the media than the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.  more >

Sarkozy joins the political jet set
Thursday, August 23, 2007
THE brightest shark on the world stage at present seems to be the French President, Nicolas Sarkozy.  more >

America cannot win the war in Iraq
Thursday, August 16, 2007
AFTER reading a mighty article by Michael Ignatieff, a former professor of Harvard and contributory writer for The New York Times Magazine who is now a member of Canada’s Parliament and Deputy leader of the Liberal Party, I have come to the conclusion that there is no way America can win the war in Iraq and the sooner American troops are withdrawn from there the better.  more >

The Tour De France tainted once again
Thursday, August 09, 2007
I HAVE always main- tained that the most gru- elling and toughest sport- ing event in this world is the Tour de France, racing on your bicycle over 2000 miles through the hills and vales of France during the month of July.  more >

Harrington in the lead role as drama unfolds
Thursday, August 02, 2007
THE agony and the ecstasy of life was brought home in full measure to those watching the final round of the Open Golf Championship live on their TV screens from Carnoustie, Scotland.  more >

Clinton scandal put in the shade by Nixon
Friday, July 27, 2007
SINCE Bill Clinton ended his second term as President of the USA he has collected over eight million dollars for talks given to various groups.  more >

The search goes on for Amelia Earhart
Thursday, July 19, 2007
A FEW years back I did an exercise which consisted of listing the most famous person born in each of the 50 states of the USA. The person I selected for the state of Kansas was Amelia Earhart.  more >

Gordon Brown passed his first major test
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
THE major news story in July to date was the attempt to set off the car bombs in Central London and ram a fuel laden jeep into a terminal at Glasgow Airport.  more >

A new outlet for great Blair flair
Wednesday, July 04, 2007
SO Tony Blair has ended his sojourn as Prime Minister of the UK after spending a decade in the top job.  more >

A Royal rupture causes a real storm in France political life
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
IN this column on June 5, I relayed the story that Segolene Royal, who was beaten for the Presidency of France, was prompted to take a frontline in the French political scene after her partner and the father of her four children allegedly showed an interest in another woman.  more >

Here’s to the greatest cowboy
Thursday, June 21, 2007
WHO was the greatest cowboy of them all? Two names come instant-ly to mind mainly because of an unforgettable show both had in one film.  more >

Days of hardship a distant memory
Thursday, June 14, 2007
JOHN Henry (Cardinal) Newman, a convert to the catholic faith, had a big say in getting UCD underway. Newman House, next door to University College Dublin, is called after him.  more >

We all owe so much to the genius Carl Linnaeus
Thursday, May 17, 2007
SOME people seem to have been born to do a specific job on earth and Marconi can be taken as the striking example of this.  more >

Worries over the missing honey bee
Thursday, May 10, 2007
THERE is no more fascinating insect to be seen than the ordinary honey bee whose forays through the air collecting honey are so vividly described by the poet, Matthew Prior below.  more >

History will have its say on Boris
Thursday, May 03, 2007
MOST people in Ireland probably remember Boris Yeltsin as the Russian leader who stayed on board his plane at Shannon Airport and left Taoiseach, Albert Reynolds, waiting in vain to meet him.  more >

Slaughter of the innocents in Virginia
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
HEARING of a massacre of innocent people taking place anywhere in the world is always very sad news. What must it be like for those connected with the massacre, the innocents slaughtered and the friends and relations of those who are killed?  more >

Vincent still going strong at 90
Thursday, April 19, 2007
AN occasion of note last week was Vincent O’Brien celebrating his 90th birthday on April 9.  more >

An evil trade that exposed inhumanity
Thursday, April 05, 2007
TWO hundred years ago this week, an act for the abolition of the slave trade came into force. The end of an inglorious chapter in the history of the human race had got under-way and not before time.  more >

Some feat as Euro pact reaches golden milestone
Thursday, March 29, 2007
FIFTY years ago this week the European Community was launched with the Treaty of Rome.  more >

Always beware of the ides of March
Thursday, March 22, 2007
MARCH has been a notable month on the Irish political scene and it’s worth noting that something of significance occurred during the month of March 75, 50 and 25 years ago.  more >

De Valera’s last victory
Thursday, March 15, 2007
FIFTY years ago this month Eamon De Valera, at the age of 75, fought his last election as leader of Fianna Fail.  more >

We can be proud to be Irish
Thursday, March 08, 2007
THE opening up of Croke Park for rugby and soccer caused quite a bit of controversy, especially the occasion of England’s visit to the hollowed ground to play Ireland in the six nation rugby Championship.  more >

The debate on Hitler’s rise to power
Thursday, March 01, 2007
JUST 75 years ago thismonth Adolf Hitler became a German citizen when he changed his nationality from Austrian to German.  more >

Abramovich close to the top of the rich list
Thursday, February 22, 2007
RUSSIA was ruled with an iron fist for about 30 years by Joseph Stalin. In this time the state owned everything and it remained that way for almost 30 years after Stalin’s death in 1953 until the collapse of communism some 15 years ago.  more >

The mystery of the deadly bird flu
Thursday, February 15, 2007
TO date there have been two major recordings of widespread deaths in the human race.  more >

Reid between the lines in the UK
Thursday, February 08, 2007
THE man of the moment in the UK is not Tony Blair or Gordon Brown or for that matter David Cameron - it’s John Reid who has got into all sorts of difficulties since he was appointed Home Secretary.  more >

Don’t write off Al Gore
Thursday, February 01, 2007
AFTER the local tussle, which is always intriguing, the next most interesting election for most Irish folk is the American presidential election.  more >

Congregation floating on high
Friday, January 26, 2007
ON Tuesday last Fr Kevin McNamara, CC Killarney, gave all those attending 10.30am Mass in St Mary’s Cathedral, Killarney a lovely reminder that spring is with us, ahead of schedule you could say. He presented all present with a bunch of golden daffodils.  more >

Anniversary of tough guy Bogie’s death
Thursday, January 18, 2007
THIS week marks the 50th anniversary of the death of Humphrey Bogart. He died on January 14, 1957.  more >

No mercy for the Butcher of Baghdad
Thursday, January 11, 2007
THERE was something not right about the hanging of Saddam Hussein. I have no doubt the man deserved to be hanged for his vile deeds but the leaking of images of the actual moment of hanging should not have happened.  more >

Death of a dictator with a love for melons
Thursday, January 04, 2007
THREE deaths of great interest occurred around Christmas that are worthy of mention in my column this week  more >

Chavez is in line to succeed Castro
Thursday, December 21, 2006
THERE was no sign of Fidel Castro at his 80th birthday celebration that also coincided with his 50 years at the helm in Cuba.  more >

Looking hard into the soul to find the truth
Thursday, December 14, 2006
THE murky world of spying has been very much in the news of late - all the way from Moscow to Maynooth with the main drama unfolding in London. There is so much speculation as to what is happening that it is almost impossible to slot the pieces in this mighty jigsaw into place. Here are a few of the pieces to think over.  more >

South Kerry in 1966 had the potential for a big best seller
Thursday, December 07, 2006
FORTY years ago this week one of the most exciting elections ever held in Ireland took place in the constituency of South Kerry. Those of us privileged to have lived through it had a wonderful free show that shortened the winter months.  more >

An awful week of bloodshed
Thursday, November 30, 2006
LAST week was one of those horrendous periods that started off on our own doorstep with a brutal attack on Fr Michael O’Leary, the parish priest of Ballymacelligott.  more >

Saddam could be Time’s Person of the Year
Friday, November 24, 2006
BUSH and Saddam are still in the spotlight this week. Since the expected result of the midterm elections in the USA were confirmed, I have wondered who played the key role in that result and it is Saddam Hussein and not George Bush who keeps cropping up.  more >

Bush and Saddam back in the spotlight
Friday, November 17, 2006
TWO events have dominated the news since the penultimate month of the year got underway. Saddam Hussein has been sentenced to death for crimes against humanity and the midterm elections have taken place in the USA.  more >

Banker of the poor is my choice for Time’s Person of the Year
Thursday, November 09, 2006
I AM under strain this week trying to emulate a feat I successfully accomplished 50 years ago, namely to pick the person whom I think will be TIME’s Person of the Year 2006.  more >

Putin must work at justice for all
Friday, November 03, 2006
THE biggest enigma with a leading role on the world stage right now seems to be the Russian boss, Vladimir Putin.  more >

The world owes Clinton a debt of gratitude
Thursday, October 26, 2006
WHAT has Bill Clinton got that nobody else currently on deck seems to have? Call it charisma or whatever you like, but he seems to have got that special something in abundance.  more >

It’s now all up to Ian Paisley
Friday, October 20, 2006
I AM still awaiting the possibility of a leopard changing its spots and that will happen if Ian Paisley joins in with Sinn Fein to form a government in Northern Ireland.  more >

The race to succeed Kofi Annan
Thursday, October 12, 2006
AFTER World War I, the League of Nations was formed to solve international disputes by arbitration The HQ was Geneva in Switzerland.  more >

A splendid success story at the K Club
Thursday, October 05, 2006
GOOD is the enemy of the best - that was a favourite saying of my mother and it is very true, as was brought home to all and sundry who watched the Ryder Cup from the K Club in Co Kildare.  more >

Sweden remains a role model for the world
Thursday, September 28, 2006
SWEDEN is a country that fascinates me and there is something about it that captures the imagination.  more >

We will never forget the sheer terror of 9/11
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
WE all had time to reflect on the fifth anniversary of 9/11, an event that was probably the greatest showing of man’s inhumanity to man ever recorded because of its spontaneity and the sheer terror and destruction it caused.  more >

The fascinating link between Ford and Hogan
Thursday, September 14, 2006
GLENN Ford featured in approximately 100 films so he must have been seen by a wider audience than most other film stars.  more >

Happy ending to a very bizarre story
Thursday, September 07, 2006
THE most bizarre story I have ever come across unfolded in Austria last month.  more >

Something fishy is going on in Kerry
Thursday, August 24, 2006
JELLYFISH are always a bloody nuisance if you are going for a swim, especially if they are in large numbers on the shore or in the water as you enter it.  more >

Frightful slaughter must come to an end
Thursday, August 17, 2006
THE saddest, maddest and most stupid war is taking place presently in the Middle East. There can be no winners.  more >

Poet Southey was more than a bit player
Wednesday, August 09, 2006
ONE of my favourite quotations from the works of William Shakespeare is the following: “As tedious as a twice told tale vexing the dull ear of a drowsy man”. Could anybody better that description?  more >

Nobel winner shaw deserved a more fitting tribute
Thursday, August 03, 2006
GEORGE Bernard Shaw (GBS) was born at 3 Upper Synge Street, Dublin on July 26 in 1856.  more >

Middle East in crisis once again
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
HAPPENINGS in the Middle East have once again dominated proceedings in this world we live in.The sudden escalation of warfare over there is really frightening.  more >

Zinédine Zidane goes from hero to zero
Thursday, July 20, 2006
IT was sad to see a player nose-diving, in a moment of madness, from being the hero of the World Cup to becoming the villain of the piece.  more >

What would Dylan Thomas say about Kieran Fallon?
Thursday, July 13, 2006
THE Budweiser Irish Derby at The Curragh is always a great day at the races and this year’s version was no exception.  more >

It’s Time to predict who the winner will be
Wednesday, July 05, 2006
WITH the longest half of the year –as far as daylight hours go – finishing last weekend, it is time to give a cursory glance back and do a spot-check on who I think will be the likely contenders for Time magazine’s Person of the Year 2006.  more >

Ballybunion would have been a great Ryder Cup host
Thursday, June 29, 2006
THE toughest examination paper in golf is provided by the US Open annually and this year’s venue at Winged Foot, just outside New York, was no exception.  more >

History will be kind to CJ Haughey
Thursday, June 22, 2006
CHARLES J Haughey must be well in the running to be acclaimed the most controversial Irish born politician of them all.  more >

What a finish. What a sight.
Thursday, June 15, 2006
FOUR horses crossing the finishing line within half a length of each other – what a magnificent sight to behold That was the scene at the finish of the greatest flat race in the world, The Derby, which was run over Epsom Downs on Saturday, June 2.  more >

When a tremor is felt throughout the world
Thursday, June 08, 2006
WHAT must it be like listening to the rumblings of a volcano belching out hot ashes and waiting for the big eruption? It is hard to imagine how a person could feel and behaves in such circumstances.  more >

Red alert as GAA could be put in the shade
Thursday, June 01, 2006
FOR a Kerry person it is hard to believe that a game of rugby football could engender more excitement in Ireland than Gaelic football, hurling or soccer. But that is what it did.  more >

The days we thought would never end
Thursday, May 25, 2006
SOME 30 or 40 years ago, Question Time was a popular programme on Radio …ireann and at local functions as well. There were quite a few question books published and these, of course, included the answers as well.  more >

Walesa’s place in history is assured
Thursday, May 18, 2006
ONE of my great heroes, ever since he came to the forefront in Poland and took on the mighty Soviet Union, has been (and still is) Lech Walesa.  more >

Galbraith was a real legend
Thursday, May 11, 2006
A TOWERING figure of the 20th century passed away on April 29, at the age of 97.  more >

Suicide bombers bring terror to a new level
Thursday, May 04, 2006
COPING with the suicide bomber is always fraught with danger and the tactic has raised terrorism to a frightening new level. How can you cope with a person who is willing to blow himself or herself to eternity?  more >

Se·nwastherightmanintherightplace
Thursday, April 27, 2006
SEÁN Kelly is a man of vision and foresight whose tenure in office as President of the GAA was a notable one on many fronts.  more >

Why the world is very badly divided
Thursday, April 20, 2006
"THE world is in a state of chassis". The immortal words of Joxer Daly in Sean O’Casey’s June and the Peacock readily came to mind when I see all that is happening in this topsy-turvy world we are living in.  more >

McGahern was amongst the greatest
Thursday, April 13, 2006
JOHN McGahern was acclaimed to be the greatest Irish novelist of the generation when he died on March 30, 2006. His output was not great, but what he delivered was top class.  more >

Samuel Beckett and the €64,000 question
Thursday, April 06, 2006
A NICE €64,000 question suitable for the TV series Who wants to be a Millionaire?  more >

A cruel end to a truly great life
Thursday, March 30, 2006
A TWO part series on Harold Wilson, the former British Prime Minister, was shown on UTV recently and it was quite informative.  more >

A wonderful week for the Irish
Thursday, March 23, 2006
WITH ministers scattered far and wide all over the world last week, Cheltenham was certainly missing a few punters from the political arena.  more >

The racing priest takes centre stage
Thursday, March 16, 2006
I WAS bowled over by a racing book that I was forwarded to review by the publishers and with the Cheltenham festival underway, this could be a good week to tell you about it.  more >

We must all be on alert for bird flu
Wednesday, March 01, 2006
AT the moment the world is very much on the alert for bird flu. The European Union has set surveillance requirements for its 25 member countries to test wild fowl for the disease.  more >

Seasoned traveller makes his final journey
Thursday, February 23, 2006
A PHONE call on Monday afternoon last week brought me the sad news that my old and valued friend from my UCD days had passed on.  more >

Time was money for the great Franklin
Thursday, February 16, 2006
WELL in the running to be the most famous American of them all, outside of those who held presidential office, must be Benjamin Franklin who was born 300 years ago this year and the occasion surely merits a mention.  more >

Kavanagh brothers keep genius in the family
Thursday, February 09, 2006
IF ever a man was his brother’s keeper, Peter Kavanagh was that for the poet Patrick Kavanagh.  more >

Kitchener’s strong links with Black Wood Cross
Thursday, February 02, 2006
MY daughter, Sinead, bought me a Christmas present of a book entitled 100 Great Lives which contains a century of obituaries from The Times.  more >

Stampede tragedy can never be repeated
Thursday, January 26, 2006
THE most tragic event of the year 2006 to date must surely be the stampede that killed up to 363 pilgrims in Saudi Arabia.  more >

Edison learned it all in spite of his old teacher
Thursday, January 19, 2006
FR Teddy Lenihan, in his very interesting homily at the first Sunday Vigil Mass of 2006 in St Mary’s Cathedral, Killarney, told the story of young Tom Edison whose teacher requested the boy’s mother to keep her son away from school as he was most annoying, hopelessly stupid and wouldn’t learn a thing.  more >

A special anniversary for a very special genius
Thursday, January 12, 2006
ANNIVERSARIES of famous people are .usually recalled on special occasions. One that is bound not to go unnoticed is that of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart who was born a quarter of a millennium ago.  more >

Death of racing legend Michael Osborne
Thursday, January 05, 2006
JUST before Christmas, the death took place of Michael Osborne who was a key figure in the racing scene in Ireland for four decades and well known throughout the world as well.  more >

By Dickens, Charles was surely the greatest
Tuesday, December 27, 2005
SOME of the great stories of Charles Dickens are currently being shown on our television screens and I expect some readers of The Kingdom are following same with great interest.  more >

It was, my dear friends, a year best forgotten
Wednesday, December 21, 2005
“THE velocity with which time flies is infinite, as is most apparent to those who look back.” So wrote Lucius Annaeus Seneca (4BC- 65AD) around 2000 years ago and he got it right.  more >

Farewell then Georgie, the Best of them all
Thursday, December 15, 2005
NOT since Winston Churchill's funeral has a person's departure from this world been afforded so much publicity as that given to George Best.  more >

A wonderful occasion in the cathedral
Thursday, December 08, 2005
WHAT a magnificent pageant we were privileged to see in St Mary’s Cathedral in Killarney from November 27 to 29!  more >

Bush pedals his way to success in China
Thursday, December 01, 2005
PRESIDENT George W Bush’s visit to China was something special. There he was to be seen cycling around on his bicycle complete with helmet and accompanied by Chinese.  more >

Blair in a real spot of bother
Thursday, November 24, 2005
HAROLD Wilson’s dictum that a week is a long time in politics has been constantly shown to be true in the way that, in a short time, a politician can soar from great heights in the opinion polls right down to the bottom and vice versa.  more >

Best Mate had the right name alright
Thursday, November 17, 2005
SPORTING heroes, be they animal or human, increasingly capture the public’s imagination and become a great drawing card in the process.  more >

A fitting tribute to the master of racing
Thursday, November 10, 2005
IT was a great occasion, that’s for sure, and it was nice to be there for the launch of the official biography of Vincent O’Brien at the K Club, Kildare on October 25.  more >

Take Cameron to be the new Tory leader
Thursday, November 03, 2005
Now the Tory party is looking for a Tory version of Tony Blair and they may have found him in an unknown called David Cameron.  more >

Merkel could well be Time’s Person of the Year
Thursday, October 27, 2005
SHE made it in the end. Angela Merkel has entered the history books by becoming the first lady Chancellor of Germany.  more >

Beware of the modern day black death
Thursday, October 20, 2005
TWO mass killers of human beings have been recorded, namely The Black Death of the 14th century and the great flu that took place at the end of World War I.  more >

Vatican’s great secrets come out in the wash
Thursday, October 13, 2005
OUTSIDE of visiting the Abbey Theatre to see a couple of John B Keane plays, the last play I saw there was The Conclave. It was one person’s idea as to what happened in The Conclave that elected Pope John XXIII.  more >

Pope John Paul II deserves the Nobel Peace Prize
Thursday, October 06, 2005
THIS month the winners of the Nobel prizes will be announced and of these the Nobel Peace Prize arouses most interest.  more >

Gogarty made a monumental impact on life’s journey
Thursday, September 29, 2005
NOW it can be told. Here is an explanation for President Bush’s falling down on the job on the case of hurricane Katrina.  more >

Here’s to two glorious days at the races
Thursday, September 22, 2005
CHAMPION Stakes day at Leopardstown was one of those special days that seemed to have everything.  more >

Schröder likely to make way for Merkel
Thursday, September 15, 2005
PROBABLY the most interesting election in the year 2005 takes place in Germany next Sunday. The election was called a year or so in advance after Chancellor Gerhard Schröder’s Social Democratic party suffered a series of defeats in local elections.  more >

Cathedral celebration was a credit to all involved
Thursday, September 01, 2005
A MAJOR milestone of note in this historic diocese of Ardfert and Aghadoe, now commonly referred to as the Diocese of Kerry took place in St Mary’s Cathedral, Killarney on August 22.  more >

Walesa still a force quarter of a century on
Thursday, August 25, 2005
TWENTY five years ago this month an unknown man came on the scene who was to have a mighty impact in this world we live in. His name? Lech Walesa.  more >

All we are saying is give peace a chance
Thursday, August 11, 2005
IN the modern world where everybody has instant access to what is happening, terrorist tactics should not be resorted to by any organisation.  more >

It’s hard to fathom these topsy turvy times
Thursday, August 04, 2005
THE death of Tara Whelan in a terrorist bomb blast in Turkey gave us a touch of the grief that can befall a family and a nation in such tragic circumstances as readers of this column will have read about last week.  more >

Parents of bomb blast victim show true Christianity
Thursday, July 28, 2005
NEWS on the home front last week was dominated by the death of a lovely Irish girl in far-off Turkey.  more >

Killarney gets big season off to a flying start
Thursday, July 21, 2005
KILLARNEY kicks-off the major horseracing festival each year and it is closely followed by the biggest one of all in Galway which gets underway just two weeks later.  more >

Alcock and Brown were among the world's greatest innovators
Thursday, July 14, 2005
IT was very fitting that the first non-stop flight across the Atlantic Ocean should be commemorated in style. It was fitting recognition for a remarkable achievement, accomplished 86 years ago by John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown.  more >

Keeling alerts the world to lurking dangers
Thursday, July 07, 2005
FROM time to time, a person is born who seems to have been given a specific job to do while on earth. Christopher Columbus sailed over the ocean wide to discover America.  more >

Aung San Sun Kyi deserves her freedom
Thursday, June 30, 2005
IT was certainly a wonderful gesture to see Aung San Sun Kyi, the leader of Burma’s opposition National League for Democracy, being awarded the title of Freeman of Galway City.  more >

Minister fronts a fitting tribute to Kerry’s merry ploughmen
Thursday, June 23, 2005
“THE Curfew Tolls The Knell Of Parting Day, The Lowing Herd Winds Slowly O’er The Lea, The Ploughman Homeward Plods His Weary Way.  more >

Seán Doherty was one of a very rare breed
Thursday, June 16, 2005
COLOURFUL figures in Dáil Éireann are a scarce enough breed. There are generally only one or two there.  more >

Herbert Warren Wind was a great pal to Kerry golf
Thursday, June 09, 2005
THE death occurred last week of Herbert Warren Wind, the greatest golfing scribe in the USA.  more >

Harry played host to the stars of the big screen
Thursday, June 02, 2005
TWO recent deaths caught my attention and are recorded here. Harry Lush was the manager of the Adelphi Cinema in Dublin for many years.  more >

Labour Party weekend gathering brings memories flooding back
Thursday, May 26, 2005
HEARING that close on 2,000 delegates will be in Tralee for the Labour Party’s national conference at the weekend, my mind wandered back to 1991 when the same party held its annual gathering in Killarney.  more >

The time has surely come for a Killarney National
Thursday, May 19, 2005
KILLARNEY’S spring race meeting is generally regarded as the curtain-raiser for the festival season ahead, which ends with Listowel in late September.  more >

Blair’s ambition is now fulfilled
Thursday, May 12, 2005
“ALL day long the noise of battle roll’d”. Well, in this case, it was all night long for Tennyson’s words came constantly to mind as I followed the UK election results live overnight on television.  more >

The big question is how much will Blair win by?
Thursday, May 05, 2005
GENERAL elections are always fascinating and I have a feeling next Thursday’s contest in the UK will not be found wanting for a few thrills and spills as the winners unfold.  more >

Interesting times ahead with Pope Benedict at the helm
Thursday, April 28, 2005
THE big surprise about the selection of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as Pope was the swiftness of selection.  more >

Cardinal Diongi Tettamangi is my tip to be pope
Thursday, April 21, 2005
THE conclave to elect a new pope is underway in the Vatican and I expect there will be no result for a few days at least.  more >

John Paul taught the world how to live and how to die
Thursday, April 14, 2005
WHEN Pope John Paul II visited Ireland just over a quarter of a century ago it was the most momentous event ever to take place on the island.  more >

The last 12 days of Hitler recalled
Wednesday, April 06, 2005
JUST 60 years ago this month, Adolf Hitler, one of the greatest mass murderers in history, bid this world adieu, in a bunker in Berlin.  more >

Pontiff could well emerge with this year’s Nobel Prize
Thursday, March 31, 2005
THE Nobel Prize is probably the finest accolade you can get in this world giving, as it does, recognition for services rendered in the field of literature, physics, chemistry, medicine and peace.  more >

Irish invaders conquer Cheltenham in style
Thursday, March 24, 2005
CHELTENHAM’S first fourday festival of racing got off to an auspicious start for the Irish invaders with three fine Irish wins on the opening day.  more >

Heartbreak for Culloty as Best Mate comes a cropper
Thursday, March 17, 2005
THE greatest feast of jump racing in the world gets underway this Tuesday at Cheltenham, England. This year for the first time it’s a four-day festival with great action assured until Friday.  more >

Salute Kim Peek, the smartest man in the world
Thursday, March 10, 2005
JUST what is it like being the cleverest person in the world? That distinction falls on Kim Peek, a 53years-old, living with his father in Salt Lake City, USA.  more >

A Blooming great story from the day I spoke with Joyce
Thursday, March 03, 2005
BLOOMSDAY – the most famous day is literature when Leopald Bloom stepped out of Eccles Street and walked through his native city, all recorded in James Joyce’s novel Ulysses – was June 16, 1904.  more >

Miller penned his way into the history books
Thursday, February 24, 2005
AS recorded in my column of October 19, 2004, the last time I visited a theatre was on October 9, last year. I went to the Gaiety Theatre in Dublin to have a second look at Arthur Miller’s play Death of a Salesman.  more >

They didn’t come any better than Raymond Smith, the supreme journalist
Thursday, February 17, 2005
THERE was no better person than Raymond Smith to capture the spirit of a sporting event.  more >

A great day for Iraq as citizens find their voice
Thursday, February 10, 2005
THE most interesting election for us Irish folk this year will undoubtedly be the one in the UK next May. Even though it looks a foregone conclusion that Tony Blair will get the nod once more.  more >

Punters’ binoculars turn to Cheltenham
Thursday, February 03, 2005
READERS of that top racing and sporting daily, Racing Post, are currently engaged in selecting the top 100 races in British and Irish racing history.  more >

The Healy clan branches have spread very far and very wide
Thursday, January 27, 2005
A FEW years ago I was given the loan of a book called The Healy Story as the lender expected that I would find suitable material in it for this column.  more >

A disaster that shook the earth to its core
Thursday, January 20, 2005
THE aftermath of the tsunami has dominated the news since 2005 got underway. The Mail on Sunday had a very interesting piece by Caroline Graham who told readers that geophysicist, Dr Stuart Weinstein was the first man in the world to know that the tsunami was coming.  more >

Light arrives after the darkest hour
Thursday, January 13, 2005
AFTER one of the world’s darkest hours, it was heartening to see the wonderful response for help from human beings everywhere.  more >

One of the greatest human tragedies ever seen
Thursday, January 06, 2005
THE end of the year, 2004, provided those living on earth with horrific images of one of the greatest human tragedies ever known.  more >

The year that was carried a huge minus factor for the human race
Thursday, December 23, 2004
For close on quarter of a century, Finbarr Slattery has penned an annual end-of-year letter to his friends and it is published annually in The Kingdom just prior to the festive season.  more >

The Guardians of a great end of year tradition
Thursday, December 16, 2004
ICOLLECTED my 53rd Guardian Yearbook at the Killarney Bookshop earlier this month. This edition consists of 324 pages and costs €21.90 (£14.99) and has contributions from no less than 105 of The Guardian’s best writers.  more >

'I don t know you,' said Kavanagh, as he turned away
Thursday, December 09, 2004
A POET is not just a person who is able to fit words in the right place, so to speak.  more >

Hitler's henchmen were a contrasting bunch
Thursday, December 09, 2004
ADOLF Hitler's henchmen were a strange lot. What a contrasting bunch they were, to say the least!  more >

A disaster that nobody wants and nobody needs
Thursday, December 09, 2004
THERE must be a strong similarity between Ireland at the time of the treaty in the early 20s and Ukraine today.  more >

Will Bill mention Lisselton in his library of dreams?
Thursday, December 02, 2004
I WONDER if Bill Clinton’s unscheduled stop in Lisselton features in the Clinton Library of Little Rock, Arkansas, USA? I forgot to ask him when I interviewed the great man in my dreams a couple of nights ago.  more >

Margaret’s slaying was the most shocking image of the year
Thursday, November 25, 2004
THE appalling killing of Margaret Hassan must be the most shocking murder of the year 2004 to date. Who killed her and why are there baffling questions?  more >

Arafat failed to follow Mandela’s example
Wednesday, November 17, 2004
PALESTINE got its name from the Arabic word Falastin – the English equivalent is Philistine. One of the best known stories in the Bible is the story of David and Goliath.  more >

Without contempt, the US voters have made their choice
Thursday, November 11, 2004
JOHN Kerry may have been best suited for the task ahead but the American people thought otherwise and, as I predicted last week, George W Bush was given “the nod to stay in office for another four years”.  more >

Bush seeks God’s blessing in election race
Thursday, November 04, 2004
THE candidate perceived to be "a holy person" always seems to do well in American elections.  more >

Time to salute Killarney’s pioneers of days gone by
Thursday, October 28, 2004
JUST 50 years ago this month an event took place in Killarney that deserves honourable mention in this column - the World Ploughing Championships.  more >

The salesman lives on many years after his birth
Thursday, October 21, 2004
THERE is only one William Shakespeare and, undoubtedly, he was the greatest of them all.  more >

Too early to call as Kerry and Bush go head to head
Thursday, October 14, 2004
ELECTIONS are always fascinating and the marathon US presidential election is no exception.  more >

The September pageant followed the script
Thursday, October 07, 2004
ALL the pundits got it right when they forecast an easy Kerry victory over Mayo and so it was.  more >

Nostalgia as my class of ’54 reunites 50 years on
Thursday, September 30, 2004
THE jubilee of my graduation from UCD’s Faculty of Agricultural Science, a very nostalgic occasion, was held in the O’Reilly Hall UCD on Friday, September 17.  more >

There’s no escaping evil in this world of horrors
Thursday, September 23, 2004
THE staple diet in the media, week in week out, has been the brutal attacks by terrorists all over the world. The worst of all was the terrorist attack in the school at Beslan which was the main item dealt with in my column last week.  more >

Pity the innocent caught up in slaughter
Thursday, September 16, 2004
MAN’S inhumanity to man was never more shockingly witnessed than the happenings in Beslan so vividly portrayed on our television screens during the first week of the month of September.  more >

The lad from Brosna showed the Dubs how to do it
Thursday, September 09, 2004
ALADY born in Co Limerick died in Dublin on August 23, aged 103. She had strong Kerry connections through her marriage to Kerry man, Denis Guiney, who truly was a legend in his own lifetime.  more >

Historians can settle my dispute with Hugh Leonard
Thursday, August 26, 2004
ONE of the dominant figures in world history during the 20th century was Adolf Hitler.  more >

Why I'm captivated by the Olympic Games
Thursday, August 26, 2004
THE big event on the world stage right now is the Olympic Games. I was really captivated by the opening ceremony.  more >

Passionate Sven will be canonised in due course
Thursday, August 19, 2004
THE man of the moment on the world stage since the month of August began must surely be Sven Goran Eriksson, the centre of a very British scandal that we hadn’t seen the likes of since the days of John Profumo and Christine Keeler back in the early sixties.  more >

The great Bob Tisdall blazed a captivating trail
Thursday, August 12, 2004
ONLY three Irish persons have won gold medals in track and field events in the Olympic Games - Bob Tisdall, Pat O’Callaghan and Ronnie Delaney.  more >

Peter the great shoots straight from the hip
Thursday, August 05, 2004
DR Peter Kavanagh was his brother’s keeper. He made that clear in his interview with John Waters at an occasion to celebrate the centenary of the poet,  more >

Stories of appalling tragedy and great power in India
Thursday, July 29, 2004
THE saddest event of the year to date must surely be the school blaze in Kumbakonam, India, during which 86 children - 46 girls and 40 boys, all under 10 years of age - were burned to death.  more >

Killarney Races another job well done
Wednesday, July 21, 2004
KILLARNEY got the festival racing season in Ireland off to an auspicious start last week - a nice aperitif for Galway Races which get underway next week and many winners there will have raced in Killarney.  more >

Final curtain for the greatest of the them all
Thursday, July 15, 2004
WAS he the greatest movie star of them all? The general consensus seems to be that Marlon Brando who died on July 1, 2004 was just that – "second to none" to quote one obituary writer.  more >

Tributes flow in for a job well done
Thursday, July 08, 2004
I'D BE making a serious omission in this column if I didn't pay tribute to an Irishman who was the leading European for the past six months.  more >

Crime and punishment around the world
Thursday, July 08, 2004
COUNTRIES differ in their punishment of crime. Here are two items that caught my eye last week.  more >

60 years later, my class of 1944 reunites
Thursday, July 01, 2004
MEETING old friends three score years after we had shared a classroom was a wonderful experience. I had that privilege on Sunday, June 20 when the sixth year class of 1943/44 in Blackrock College met to celebrate a nostalgic reunion.  more >

Harry’s Game is following the great pioneers of the sky
Thursday, June 24, 2004
WHAT must it have been like 85 years ago for a sevenyear- old to hear a loud noise overhead and look up and see an aeroplane in the sky for the first time?  more >

The day I nearly met Ronald Reagan
Thursday, June 17, 2004
IMISSED out on meeting Ronald Wilson Reagan back in those good old days when the world was at my feet. One night in the late 1940’s he visited the Adelphi Cinema in Dublin boosting up a film he was in called “King’s Row”.  more >

Let’s see how my Euro tips will measure up
Wednesday, June 09, 2004
I HAVE been forecasting elections results now for well over half a century and the forecasts are there for all to see, if they can be unearthed in the various publications in which they were made.  more >

Sexual violence is nothing new in war
Wednesday, June 09, 2004
A LOT of mileage in the news media during the month of May was given to the published photographs of Iraqi prisoners being tortured at the hands of that country’s supposed liberators.  more >

The sport of kings still proves a big Attraction
Thursday, June 03, 2004
GUINEAS weekend at the Curragh was a mighty occasion, particularly on the Sunday with Attraction winning the Boyle Sports Irish 1,000 Guineas in the manner of one of racing’s greats.  more >

Two real life stories make great fairytales
Thursday, May 27, 2004
TWO happenings have occurred that must be the nearest to fairytales we will ever get in the modern world.  more >

The shocking reality of man’s inhumanity to man
Thursday, May 20, 2004
THE biggest news story so far this month has been the disgraceful treatment of Iraqi prisoners by American and British forces.  more >

A salute to Sir Gordon to mark his centenary year
Thursday, May 13, 2004
GORDON Richards was born 100 years ago this month and it would be a shame to let the centenary of his birth pass by unnoticed.  more >

The day the great Stanley Kubrick earned me a rhyme award
Thursday, May 06, 2004
ARECENT article in The Guardian caught my eye. It was about Stanley Kubrick, a man who I have always held in high esteem ever since I saw The Killing – one of the first films he directed.  more >

End of an era as Park Place is demolished
Thursday, April 29, 2004
PART of Killarney disappeared last week with the demolition of the Park Place Hotel on Wednesday. What nostalgic memories flooded back?  more >

Killarney memories of the late Robert Sangster
Thursday, April 22, 2004
ROBERT Sangster, racehorse owner, died of cancer on April 7, 2004. Had he lived another 46 days he would have been 68 – just two years short of the allotted Biblical span of three score and ten.  more >

Good night and good bye Alistair
Thursday, April 08, 2004
VERY few people get a full page obituary in the four quality newspapers published daily in England. Last week two made it in successive days, Sir Peter Ustinov and Alistair Cooke.  more >

One down, three to go as spotlight is on the top men
Thursday, April 01, 2004
FOUR people from three different continents featured on the front cover of last week’s edition of The Economist.  more >

Reasons to cheer after Cheltenham
Thursday, March 25, 2004
THE biggest cheers in Killarney and Tralee on St Patrick’s Day occurred in the betting offices in both towns around 5.50 that afternoon when Jim Culloty emerged victorious on the Tom Cooper trained Total Enjoyment in the Weatherby’s Champion Bumper - the last race run at the Cheltenham festival that afternoon.  more >

Take Culloty and eight Irish winners to steal the limelight at Cheltenham
Thursday, March 18, 2004
Take Culloty and eight Irish winners to steal the limelight at Cheltenham THE highlight of the racing year in Ireland doesn’t take place at Listowel, Galway or even the Curragh on Derby day.  more >

He who puffs in boyhood is risking not making manhood
Thursday, March 11, 2004
THERE is no way that I would be writing this column in the year 2004 AD if I hadn’t stopped smoking 27 years ago. I knew they were getting me down and the time had come to call it a day as far as smoking was concerned.  more >

Eight wives on, Mickey is still hale and hearty
Thursday, March 04, 2004
MICKEY Rooney (83) and his eight wives were recent guests on the Late Late Show.  more >

Going without for Lent is not asking for too much
Thursday, March 04, 2004
WALKING through the Killarney Demesne on Ash Wednesday, the thought crossed my mind that I should write about the old practice of doing without something you like during Lent.  more >

Remembering Christy 25 years after his death
Thursday, March 04, 2004
ON this day 25 years ago, I was in Cork. That afternoon the news spread like wildfire over the city that Christy Ring was dead and there was a sudden gloom all over the place.  more >

Tragedy all over the world including on Dublin's streets
Thursday, March 04, 2004
THE sad bus accident on Dublin's Wellington Quay on February 21 came as a bolt out of the blue and numbed us all.  more >

Revealed: why the Tralee train always reverses into Killarney Railway Station
Thursday, February 26, 2004
THIS month marks the 200th anniversary of the first successful journey on rails by a steam locomotive. In February 1804 Richard Trevithick built the first steam engine to run on  more >

Blair and Bush come under the spotlight and both have must work hard to survive
Thursday, February 19, 2004
THE Hutton report has me baffled. Lord Hutton was given the task of reporting on the death of Dr David Kelly, the weapons scientist, who committed suicide.  more >

Haiti is a tough spot for life's big exam
Thursday, February 12, 2004
THE Republic of Haiti achieved independence 200 years ago. In 1804, after an uprising against French colonial rule led by the former slave, Toussaint L Ouverture - who died in prison in 1803 - and Jean-Jacques Dessalines, independence was achieved.  more >

John Kerry seems to have the vital ingredient
Thursday, February 12, 2004
EVEN though the New Hampshire Primary is approximately 10 months in advance of the actual polling day in the American Presidential election, after it has taken place it is always a good time to size up the situation in that intriguing contest for the White House.  more >

Carson’s colour orange was a divisive shade
Wednesday, February 04, 2004
SO Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has lost out on the Bertie Bowl and misses out on the €50 million promised by JP McManus.  more >

The value of education is underlined by the incoming President of UCD
Thursday, January 29, 2004
DR Hugh Brady, incoming president of UCD, gave his inaugural lecture in the O'Reilly hall, UCD, last Tuesday.  more >

History should judge Bush favourably
Thursday, January 22, 2004
THE deaths of US soldiers in Iraq is always very harrowing with young men killed in the back of beyond trying to bring peace and harmony to the natives of the very country in which they were killed. It is good to see that the casualties have lessened since Saddam Hussein was captured on 14 December 2003.  more >

Yes Nick, it always happens to the nice guys
Thursday, January 15, 2004
THE sad story of Tom Watson’s caddie has just been written by golfing journalist John Feinstein.  more >

Time soldiers on as the Yanks make their mark
Thursday, January 08, 2004
TIME magazine’s Person of the Year 2003 was the American Soldier and it would be difficult to disagree with the choice.  more >

Taking the X out of Christmas with many wonderful memories
Wednesday, December 31, 2003
KING'S History of County Kerry is always an interesting book to browse over and doing so recently I fount out that the most common surname in the county, around 1912, when the history was compiled, was O'Sullivan.  more >

Aga Khan's gift is in good Kerry hands
Thursday, December 18, 2003
THE Aga Khan has been a great lover of Irish racing all through his life. He showed that love is no uncertain fashion with his amazing multimillion euro gift to Irish racing this month.  more >

Remember, if you re not in...
Thursday, December 11, 2003
TWO programmes on the box last week interested me. The first was the film, Primary Colours.  more >

The power to forgive must be there
Thursday, December 11, 2003
To have the power to forgive, Is empire and prerogative, And 'tis is crowns a nobler gem, to grant a paradon than condemn.  more >

Best Mate provides a best read for Christmas
Thursday, December 04, 2003
IN this column last week I recommended “The Legend of Mick the Miller” as the ideal book for the lovers of greyhound racing.  more >

New book tells the story of famous wonder dog Mick the Miller
Thursday, November 27, 2003
EVERY sport has its heroes and most sports have their champion supreme - the greatest exponent of the sport in other words.  more >

Media oxygen keeps Charles story alive
Thursday, November 20, 2003
"NOTHING loses in the telling" is a saying that has been doing the rounds for many a day.  more >

Bush should learn from mistakes
Thursday, November 13, 2003
PRESIDENT George W. Bush is certainly not getting an easy passage at the helm of the world’s greatest nation.  more >

Recent atrocity shows nowhere is safe from terrosists vile deeds
Thursday, November 06, 2003
LAST week we had the worst day in Iraq since victory was declared over the regime of Saddam Hussein last May. 36 dead and over 230 injured in a spate of car bombings that left Baghdad reeling.  more >

Dylan Thomas was a wordsmith that was way ahead of his time
Thursday, October 30, 2003
A HEADLNE in the Daily Telegraph caught my eye and brought back a share of memories.  more >

The late great Frank Roe was a legend in his own lifetime
Thursday, October 23, 2003
FRANK Roe was part of the racing scene in Ireland for over three score years and you could not meet a nicer person at the races - I'll vouch for that.  more >

Revenge should never be in the name of God
Thursday, October 16, 2003
WHAT drives a beautiful 27-year-old trainee lawyer to blow herself up in a crowded café, killing nineteen people in the process?  more >

Politics is all about victory at the polls
Thursday, October 09, 2003
“IN politics, as in war, we meet with certain ardent minds which never understand the utility of marches, counter marches, ambuscades, and affairs of outposts, but are always, and under all circumstances, for pitched battles.  more >

Odds stacking up against Bush
Thursday, October 02, 2003
JIMMY Carter, against all the odds, won the Democratic Nomination for the 1976 American presidential election. He defeated Gerald Ford in the race proper, becoming the first President from the Deep South since before the Civil War.  more >

Robert Emmet certainly combined his pure oral worth with real intellectual power
Thursday, September 18, 2003
TWO hundred years ago this month, Robert Emmet was beheaded on Thomas Street, Dublin.  more >

Hillary is unlikely to tackle Bush head-on
Thursday, September 11, 2003
AMERICA has the distinction of having the longest campaign for electing a President than any other country in this world.  more >

A modest end for the evil butcher of Uganda
Thursday, September 11, 2003
DURING the month of August, the most notable person to die was Idi Amin who was known as The Butcher Of Africa responsible for the deaths of over half a million of his own people.  more >

Go by the book for words of wisdom
Thursday, September 11, 2003
WJ COURTNEY has got together a first class book of old sayings and proverbs in Irish which was published in 2001.  more >

The Duchess and her links with the greatest of them all
Thursday, September 11, 2003
ANNE, Duchess of Westminster and owner of the mighty Arkle, died on August 31, 2003.  more >

Blair plays a real blinder
Thursday, September 04, 2003
LAST Thursday the Hutton Inquiry turned out to be the best show in town when hundreds queued up all night to see Tony Blair in action.  more >

Proof that August is a wicked month
Thursday, September 04, 2003
AUGUST is one of the two months called after famous Romans. Several of the fortunate events in the life of the Emperor Augustin happened to occur during the month of August so it was named in his honour.  more >

US blackout was nothing more than an inconvenience
Thursday, September 04, 2003
IN this day and age the one thing nobody wants is a power cut. Even the occasional small one at night leaves us in quandary.  more >

Brilliant Gillian thrills the nation
Thursday, September 04, 2003
NICKY Barry, this newspaper's golf correspondent, hit the nail squarely on the head when we met in The Kingdom office on the morning of the Kerry clash with Tyrone. "This could be a great day for Tyrone," he declared. And sure enough it was.  more >

Death of young jockey puts it all in perspective
Thursday, August 28, 2003
"ANY man’s death diminishes me because I am involved in Mankind." So wrote John Donne around four centuries ago.  more >

Evil Bali bomber faces firing squad execution
Wednesday, August 20, 2003
PROBABLY the worst atrocity last year was the Bali bombings that killed 202 people last October - the event was reported in this column on October 22.  more >

Bring back the birch to punish the vandals
Thursday, August 14, 2003
VANDALISM is one thing that has always galled me. How a person could wantonly destroy anything is beyond me.  more >

Death of the master of the wisecracks
Thursday, August 07, 2003
BOB Hope got approximately 50 days bonus along with his 100 years of life. On June 10, 2003 I recorded his 100th birthday with five of his sayings. This week I’m recording his passing from this life on July 28.  more >

Ben swings out for stardom
Thursday, July 31, 2003
THE biggest sporting shock of all time was most likely Ben Curtis’s victory in the British Open.  more >

Killarney saddled up for successful meeting
Thursday, July 24, 2003
WHAT a fascinating eight days of sport those of us presently on deck were privileged to live through.  more >

Tears shed for brave twins
Thursday, July 17, 2003
THE world waited on tenterhooks before being plunged into despair last week when the Iranian twins who had been joined together at the head for 29 years passed away after surgery to separate them last Tuesday.  more >

Why Harry is driving me Potty
Thursday, July 10, 2003
THE hype about the latest Harry Potter book has me dumbfounded – to say the least. What has this fella got that he can encourage thousands of customers to buy the book, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" which is the fifth volume in JK Rowling’s winning series.  more >

Ireland rises well for a very Special occasion
Thursday, July 03, 2003
IRELAND took on a mammoth task in staging the Special Olympics and in the eyes of the world at large we have done ourselves proud in so doing.  more >

Henry Ford made an enduring mark on this passing life parade
Thursday, June 26, 2003
THE Ford Motor Company was founded 100 years ago in June 1903. I just heard the end of an interview Marian Finucane had with Denis McSweeney of Ford in Ireland.  more >

Hillary Clinton will become the first lady President of the USA
Thursday, June 19, 2003
HILLARY Rodham met Bill Clinton at Yale Law School and must have fallen for him, hook, line and sinker.  more >

Blair batting on a sticky wicket
Thursday, June 12, 2003
THE failure to find weapons of mass destruction (WMD) has dominated world news for the past week and it is causing serious embarrassment to Tony Blair and George Bush.  more >

Pat the artist has a wonderful talent
Thursday, June 12, 2003
THE Poet John Dryden brought home to all and sundry the universal language of painting.  more >

Nichola s brutal murder leaves parents with a big cross to carry
Thursday, June 12, 2003
FROM a glance at some of the headlines from one of our daily papers last week I have selected the following half dozen:  more >

Josef Stalin could and should have been a bishop
Thursday, June 05, 2003
2003 marks the 50th anniversary of the death of the world’s most notorious dictator. This is how Moscow broke the news of Stalin’s death:  more >

The world we live in is not as we knew it
Wednesday, May 28, 2003
WHAT hatred must be engendered in a person to blow himself or herself up for a cause.  more >

Dromhale Lady proves quite a tonic for Killarney chemist Donie Sheahan
Wednesday, May 21, 2003
THE jubilation of a local victory at the races was seen in all its glory at Killarney Races when Donie Sheahan s horse, Dromhale Lady, was victorious in the Catherine House Hotel Handicap chase.  more >

Senator Moynihan committed his whole life to great service
Wednesday, May 14, 2003
AS suspected in my piece on the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan on April 15, the man had Headford connections.  more >

An unforgettable day as Jim rewrites the history books
Wednesday, April 30, 2003
EASTER Monday 2003 was an unforgettable day in the sporting scene here in Kerry.  more >

SARS caused chaos in the world
Wednesday, April 23, 2003
AFTER the Great War, a lethal flu bug came along and kills many many millions - 18 to 20 millions is a figure I have seen on a number of occasions – the death toll from that flu was more than the actual casualties of the war.  more >

The man with possible Headford links left his mark in American political life
Wednesday, April 16, 2003
ALISTAIR Cooke gave the best "send-off" I have heard for a long time to Daniel Patrick Moynihan RIP.  more >

Double Nationals for Monty s Pass
Wednesday, April 09, 2003
BBC s racing correspondent, Cornelius Lysaght, during his early morning preview of the ace on Grand National Day described the day as one with a magic mix of glory and dispair .  more >

Truth remains the first casualty of war
Wednesday, April 09, 2003
TRUTH, they say, is the first casualty of war and seeing the conflicting reports coming from the Iraq war bears this out.  more >

Hello, Mister Johnson: Now mind your manners
Wednesday, April 09, 2003
There was no stopping England s rugby team - they won all before them - the Grand Slam, T iple Crown and, of course, the Six Nations Championships.  more >

Despite horrors of war, credit is due to Bush
Wednesday, April 02, 2003
THE horrors of war are to be seen vividly in our living rooms, live from the battlefront, for 24 hours of every day since the Iraqi conflict got underway.  more >

Why Tony Blair has proven to be a fine war leader
Wednesday, March 26, 2003
THE war in Iraq got underway on Thursday morning last but to all intents and purposes the war there has been in progress for some time.  more >

Best Mate strikes gold and evokes memories of Arkle
Wednesday, March 19, 2003
ANOTHER Cheltenham Festival has come and gone. There is always a lonesome feeling when it is over. Three days of great racing leaves a sort of vacuum for a time.  more >

World still awaits with faint hearts as war looms
Wednesday, March 12, 2003
WAR in Iraq still continues to dominate the world news. The position - whether there will be an invasion of Iraq or not - continues to hold the world on tenterhooks to say the least.  more >

Killarney jockey Jim could take Cheltenham by storm
Wednesday, March 05, 2003
CHELTENHAM is a town in Gloucestershire, England that is on the river Chelt (hence its name) which is a tributary of he Severn. It is strategically placed being 44 miles N.N.E. of Bristol and 47 miles S.S.W. of Birmingham.  more >

Against the odds, William Hill was one of the greatest of them all
Wednesday, February 26, 2003
2003 marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of the greatest bookmaker ever one William Hill who was born in Birmingham on July 16, 1903.  more >

Bush could emerge as the saviour of the world
Wednesday, February 19, 2003
GEORGE W Bush won a disputed and controversial election to become President of the United States of America in the year 2000.  more >

When death fell from the sky
Wednesday, February 12, 2003
THE tragedy of the Space Shuttle, Columbia, falling from the sky as it was just about to enter the earth's atmosphere was as sad an event as anybody could witness.  more >

Michael Murphy had the gift to do a master job
Wednesday, February 05, 2003
IT was the concluding paragraph to Michael Murphy s obituary in The Times (January 28) that aroused my interest.  more >

High noon looms near
Wednesday, January 29, 2003
HIGH noon looks to be very near as far as war against Iraq goes. The massive build-up of troops in The Gulf is frightening to say the least.  more >

Time to celebrate a top-flight century
Tuesday, January 21, 2003
AVERY important event that had a mighty bearing in today’s world took place 100 years ago this year. The Wright brothers’ first flight is bound to get plenty mileage near the date, which is not until the last month of the year.  more >

Big Killarney connection as Fitzgerald pilots Xenophon to victory at Leopardstown
Tuesday, January 14, 2003
FOR quite some time now my first race meeting of the year has generally been The Pierce Hurdle formerly known as The Sweeps and The Ladbroke at Leopardstown. And this year was no exception.  more >

Year’s end leftovers from around the world
Tuesday, January 07, 2003
NOW for a few leftovers from the year just ended. The end of 2002 saw a new era dawning in Kenya. After 24 years in power.  more >

No Kidd-ing, the life of Brian could be about to change
Thursday, January 02, 2003
"IN any event I’ll bet you – Douggie never owes". These were the words in the advertisements of one famous bookmaker, Douglas Stuart, many years ago.  more >

Turning back the pages of history
Tuesday, December 17, 2002
ON this day 80 years ago the last detachments of the British army evacuated Dublin. Just 11 days earlier the Irish Free State was born.  more >

Deal with Bin Laden to make the world a safer place
Thursday, December 12, 2002
TERRORIST attacks continue unabated. Luckily there was nothing to match September 11, 2001 this year and, hopefully, the shocking happenings f that frightful day last year will never be repeated in such magnitude.  more >

Chapter and Verse
Thursday, December 05, 2002
I HAVE a feeling that poet Patrick Kavanagh would be very pleased to come across Father Tom Stack's book No Earthly Estate which is subtitled God And Patrick Kavanagh: An Anthology.   more >

Ken's number one in Irish top ten
Wednesday, November 27, 2002
IT was nice to see the most deserving citizen of this State being recognised for the effort he made over the years to make this country of ours a better place to live in.  more >

Who is the greatest of them all?
Thursday, November 21, 2002
RECENTLY, the BBC showed a three-hour programme on the hundred greatest ritons.  more >

Weld done Dermot: Success Down Under was a magnificent achievement
Thursday, November 14, 2002
DERMOT Weld s feat in landing a second Melbourne Cup is a remarkable achievement.  more >

The Terrorist is my choice for TIME Person of the Year 2002
Thursday, November 07, 2002
I'M just after mailing my 54th annual letter to TIME giving my prediction as to who will be selected as TIME'S Person of the Year 2002.  more >

Dynamic war journalist predicts what comes next
Thursday, October 31, 2002
RECORDING for posterity events on this Passing Parade must be an interesting assignment. It is also quite a hazardous one.  more >

Peanut farmer Jimmy is rewarded for services rendered to mankind
Wednesday, October 23, 2002
SO Jimmy Carter has just been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. From the largest field ever nominated for this award - 150 or so - he has emerged victorious - which was recognition for service rendered to mankind.  more >

Peace must prevail at all costs
Thursday, October 17, 2002
MARTIN Turner s cartoon in The Irish Times (October 8) pinpointed very clearly what is happening in the North of Ireland.  more >

Spotlight on Ahern after Flood revelations
Thursday, October 10, 2002
THE findings of the Flood Tribunal, released on September 26, 2002, has become the main topic of conversation in Ireland presently.  more >

50 years on, the pioneers of the great Kerry Blackface Sheep Breeders are remembered
Thursday, October 03, 2002
THE Kerry Blackface Sheep Breeders Association will celebrate its golden jubilee in some style next year.  more >

Is George Bush today s answer to Churchill?
Thursday, September 26, 2002
I OFTEN ask myself the question "who is the person of the moment right now"? It is always interesting to give the matter a bit of thought and see who you come up with.  more >

Jim and Maurice are two hot tips to become Kerry person of the year
Thursday, September 19, 2002
THE Kerry Person of the Year is a very prestigious award that any Kerry person would be both thrilled and delighted to achieve.  more >

Time will tell if world leaders got it right
Thursday, September 12, 2002
LAST Autumn Johannesburg was very much to the fore because a racehorse of that name crowned a record-breaking year for Aiden O Brien by winning the Breeders Cup at Belmont Park, New York.  more >

Howlin is the man to beat but Rabbitte could be the best bet
Thursday, September 05, 2002
SO who is going to be the next leader of the Irish Labour party after Ruairi Quinn steps down in October?  more >

When time stood still for 11 days on Skellig Rock
Thursday, August 29, 2002
A CALENDAR is simply a system of reckoning time. Now, just a quarter of a millennium ago a significant change took place in the calendar that should not be left pass by unnoticed.  more >

Summit road paved with fine intentions
Thursday, August 22, 2002
JUST imagine a conference with an attendance of 65,000 people. Granted, all that number will not be attending the conference proper there will be experts, and a few hangers-on of course, on hand to brief the delegates.  more >

Cardinal Dionigi Tettamanzi poised to be the next Pope
Thursday, August 08, 2002
1978 is known as the year of the Three Popes. On August 6, Pope Paul V1 died and his successor, John Paul 1 died suddenly in his sleep 33 days after he was elected Pope.  more >

Paying a high price for getting the man
Thursday, August 01, 2002
THIS years greatest crime against humanity was committed by Israel last week. To get their man, which they did, they resorted to the bombing of a Gaza City neighbourhood consisting of family apartments.  more >



 

 

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