Classifieds Advertise Archive Subscriptions Family Announcements Photos Digital Editions/Apps
Connect with us

Country Living

The word that should never be mentioned in November

Published

on

Earlier and earlier seems to be the theme for the start of the Christmas season. In Galway city, the lights were switched on and the seasonal market opened in mid-November. JOE O’SHAUGHNESSY took this enchanting shot of Eyre Square just as the first quarter of the Beaver Moon began to emerge.

Country Living with Francis Farragher

If the truth be known, I don’t really mind Christmas that much at all, once it arrives, but it’s the pre-December build-up that often sets off a little tingle of trepidation in my inner-consciousness. Christmas does have its real consolations especially when loved ones are returning from abroad and I suppose that the notion of doing little to nothing for a couple of days – apart that is from eating, drinking and being merry – does give a break to the grind of the normal work regime.

Alas, that doesn’t apply to everyone, with staff required to keep our emergency services and hospitals ticking over, but for the vast majority of the proletariat, there’s at least the little consolation of taking some downtime on the 25th and 26th days of December and on New Year’s Day.

Long gone are my days of making New Year resolutions, but I’ve tended to replace that habit with a list of dos and don’ts that click into place from the early hours of December’s first day.

With the passing of years, the first and golden rule of the festive season is that any post-party hangovers are limited to just one in number.

The zero tolerance approach has been tried in the past with a very poor success rate so at least if a concession is made to have one day of self-inflicted suffering over the Christmas, it can become that tad more bearable, but festive hangovers are truly awful animals.

It probably is an age thing, but it is one of the great feelings of the festive period to wake up in the morning without that little wrecker with a lump hammer belting away persistently at both your temples, and not stopping until the evening sunset arrives.

Then there’s tiredness, both mental and physical, that makes even the most trivial of tasks like emptying the ashes or throwing a few cups into the dishwasher, seem like at attempt at climbing Kilimanjaro. The only modest consolation to be taken from such personal disasters is that they are self-inflicted and that they will eventually go away.

My second great Christmas resolution is not to over-eat on more than four occasions, with the notable exceptions being a couple of party dinners, the inevitable feast of the 25th, and one ‘pigging out’ with a greasy take-away followed by the best part of a box of Quality Street.

For more,  read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and  county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.

Country Living with Francis Farragher

If the truth be known, I don’t really mind Christmas that much at all, once it arrives, but it’s the pre-December build-up that often sets off a little tingle of trepidation in my inner-consciousness. Christmas does have its real consolations especially when loved ones are returning from abroad and I suppose that the notion of doing little to nothing for a couple of days – apart that is from eating, drinking and being merry – does give a break to the grind of the normal work regime.

Alas, that doesn’t apply to everyone, with staff required to keep our emergency services and hospitals ticking over, but for the vast majority of the proletariat, there’s at least the little consolation of taking some downtime on the 25th and 26th days of December and on New Year’s Day.

Long gone are my days of making New Year resolutions, but I’ve tended to replace that habit with a list of dos and don’ts that click into place from the early hours of December’s first day.

With the passing of years, the first and golden rule of the festive season is that any post-party hangovers are limited to just one in number.

The zero tolerance approach has been tried in the past with a very poor success rate so at least if a concession is made to have one day of self-inflicted suffering over the Christmas, it can become that tad more bearable, but festive hangovers are truly awful animals.

It probably is an age thing, but it is one of the great feelings of the festive period to wake up in the morning without that little wrecker with a lump hammer belting away persistently at both your temples, and not stopping until the evening sunset arrives.

Then there’s tiredness, both mental and physical, that makes even the most trivial of tasks like emptying the ashes or throwing a few cups into the dishwasher, seem like at attempt at climbing Kilimanjaro. The only modest consolation to be taken from such personal disasters is that they are self-inflicted and that they will eventually go away.

My second great Christmas resolution is not to over-eat on more than four occasions, with the notable exceptions being a couple of party dinners, the inevitable feast of the 25th, and one ‘pigging out’ with a greasy take-away followed by the best part of a box of Quality Street.

For more,  read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and  county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.

Country Living

From pagan to Christian and all brought about by a young ‘Brit’

Published

on

Country Living with Francis Farragher

The wheel of time continues to spin at a frantic pace with St. Patrick’s Day coming hot on the heels of our Christmas festival as we prepare to celebrate the life and times of our patron saint.

Lá Fhéile Pádraig is of course celebrated in many countries across the globe reflecting the grimmer economic times of Ireland through the 1800s and early part of the 20th century when thousands had to take the emigrant boat or plane to better themselves.

The story of St. Patrick is of course well documented both in history and legend – like most things of Irish hue, the life and times of our patron saint weren’t simple.

Patrick wasn’t Irish, being born into a wealthy enough English family, and as well as that, he’s not even a ‘proper saint’ of the Catholic Church, the latter ‘anomaly’ arising, due to the times he lived in, when there wasn’t a proper canonisation process in place.

Those little matters aside, Patrick continues to hold a special place in our hearts, even if the timing of his feast day can often coincide with spells of dodgy early spring weather while it also occurs before the clocks change into their summertime hours.

For all that, it was still a very welcome break for those of us, who back the years, didn’t have the same grá for school as the pupils of 2023.

We all received the usual history lesson about the life and times of Patrick in the run-up to March 17, as we were reminded of how he transformed our pagan ways into more Christian rituals. And it would be nice to think that we never looked back after that!

There were too the customary searches for shamrock whether it be in fields at the back of the school or on the family farm while the more affluent (everything being relative) pupils tended to wear green badges with harps attached on the big day.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App

Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.

Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.

Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite  HERE.

Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.

 

 

Continue Reading

Country Living

A time in our lives that none of us will ever forget

Published

on

Some very sad times during Covid.

Country Living with Francis Farragher

It is kind of strange how major events of this world act as memory markers for us. From an Irish context, there’s the Great Famine of the 1840s, the 1916 Rising, the World Wars, and of late the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

And of course there’s the ‘big one’ – that time in our lives when the word Covid entered our vocabulary and we found ourselves freewheeling into a world of restrictions that just a few weeks before their introduction would have been unimaginable.

There are also little incidental chats about when something happened or how long such-a-one has been dead which ends with the inevitable question: “Was it before or after the Covid?”

It’s easy too of course with the benefit of hindsight to look back at the raft of restrictions which were piled on top of us ordinary ‘God fearing’ people, such as not being able to travel more than three miles from our homes and having to have paperwork in your car to present at Garda checkpoints on the way to and from work.

We all hated the concept of the €9 meal if you wanted to have a pint in the local or the hassle of having to put on your face mask every time you move from your desk at work . . . but there were a lot worse things going on too.

I remember chatting to friends in the earlier and more draconian phases of the Covid restrictions who had been unable to visit parents in nursing homes as their loved ones entered the final days of their lives.

This was all brought into focus over the past week or so by a former member of NPHET (remember that, the National Public Health Emergency Team), Professor Martin Cormican at the University of Galway.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App

Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.

Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.

Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite  HERE.

Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.

 

Continue Reading

Country Living

A fruitless search for a cure to the common ailment of WAMK

Published

on

Country Living with Francis Farragher

It’s a forlorn wish by now after a half-century of fruitless effort to try and stop losing all those simple things that help to see us through our days like keys, phones, glasses, remote controls, sun glasses, passports and wallets.  One of the few consolations I take from this little malaise is that in the end, I never really lose anything on a permanent basis . . . but I just can’t find things when I want them most.

There are those acquaintance of mine who might say that it’s connected to that grim (but still very welcome) birthday statistic that we’re reminded of once a year, with the receipt of ridiculous presents, cards and good wishes, but at least I have a very reliable alibi on that line of inquiry. Since my days in the short trousers, school bags, messages from the local shop, shoes, books, farming implements that I had handled and even bicycles, seemed to disappear into thin air after I had even the briefest of liaisons with them.

The affliction is of course exacerbated by what I would describe as multiple-option storage locations whether they be jackets, trousers, mechanically propelled vehicles of various ages and dimensions, outdoor sheds and even extra rooms that have been added on to my living space. The threats really do come from everywhere.

A few years back when listening to one of those really serious programmes that you tend to hear on Radio 1, there was a sense of tension between my ears when one of those mind gurus who knew everything about skull interiors, was asked about the reasons for the WAMK (Where Are My Keys) ailment. Sometimes, WAMK (careful with the spelling) contains an F (hint: insert before K). This condition is also known as DASASOK (Did Anyone See a Set of Keys).

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App

Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.

Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.

Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite  HERE.

Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.

 

Continue Reading

Local Ads

Local Ads

Advertisement
Advertisement

Facebook

Advertisement

Trending