If in Dowd

"Over the coming years, your bodies will be changing." It was 2012, in an uncomfortable primary school classroom. This was it: the day that everyone had been anticipating for years. We heard whispers of what to expect from siblings over the weeks prior. We were nervous, anxious and very giddy. We were getting 'The Talk' . For those not from Ireland, 'The Talk' is the colloquial expression for the introduction sexual education class that primary school students receive at around the age of 12. It's an afternoon in which the girls go red as beetroots at the mention of menstruation and the lads hide their smirks and giggles with their jumpers when shown diagrams of the male anatomy. Unfortunately in my case and in the case of my classmates our introduction to sex education was the practically the extent of our sexual education. There's a reason that it's labelled 'the' talk, in the singular, I suppose. Over the 6 years following, we had p...

T enacious,  R esolute,  U nder-estimated, M essianic, P ersuader It has been a surprise. Yes, I was shocked when I woke up on Wednesday morning. My dad who had been following the polls quite closely - mostly through Nate Silver's podcast - had been under the impression that Clinton would win. He was wrong. Likewise, I was sceptical about Trump's prevalence in the media and believed that all the hype and attention wouldn't necessarily correlate with the share of votes he would receive. I was wrong. In the year of Brexit, little is beyond the bounds of possibility. The anti-establishment mentality that I touched on in a previous post following the British referendum has become ever more widespread. A lot of the things Trump had said were music to the ears of those living in the so-called 'rust belt'. He'd bring life back into their towns, which have been economic vacuums for many years. There aren't just economic and social chasms between the citie...

In a book I'm currently reading called 'Flight Behaviour' by American novelist Barbara Kingsolver, the narrator describes one of the characters as being a "911 Christian: In the event of an emergency call the lord." This quote, to me, represents the context of organised religion in modern society. Religious practice in Ireland has decreased in recent times, with vast swathes of people abandoning the Catholic Church following scandals, becoming disenfranchised with certain rules, or others simply finding purpose and meaning in material goods as opposed to spiritual ideals. Juxtaposing this decline in religious action is the ever prominent level of religious belief in our societies. In my humble opinion, religion has, for many people, developed into a coping mechanism. For non-practising Catholics who don't step foot in a church at all, it still seems to be the 'go to' utility in times of need and suffering. When times are tough, religion provides a ...

"YOU support murdering children?"   It was a simple exchange. We were talking about faith in the modern world, and I foolishly dropped the 'A Word'. Hinting my feelings in relation to this controversial topic, I was immediately stopped in my tracks. My words had led to a judgement being made about my character and my personality. This headline from Waterford Whispers News summarises what has happened to the debate in Ireland: It's ironic, because since the debate has come into general public consideration in Ireland, it has almost become more of a taboo. A highly emotionally-charged debate, both sides will shoot the other down with provocative statements. People are afraid to open their mouths about it in case they are ridiculed for their views. This is exacerbated by the far-left and far-right musings on social media, suggesting that there is little or no middle-ground in this debate. Whatever side of the tracks you are on, or whether you have made ...

What the frogurt is frogurt, you ask? It's not the latest Game of Thrones character to be murdered, alas it is the latest abbreviation from the world of gastronomy. ' Frogurt ' is a term used to describe frozen yogurt, an ice-cream equivalent that is the latest food phenomenon. What irritates me about frogurt is not the stupid name, but moreso the way the treat has been marketed as a healthy option. Yes I'm sure it is the 'low-fat', healthier alternative to ice cream. I'm not here to argue the science of this trend, but I just feel that people are somehow under the illusion that because what they are eating is 'yogurt', it is magically good for them. Please don't tell me that you think chocolate flavoured frozen yogurt is healthy - it's a desert, plain and simple. On any given weekend in Dundrum shopping centre, swarms of teens are to be seen Instagramming* their mountains of frogurt, scattered with a wide variety of unhealthy confectione...

Cherrywood is a suburb in Dublin 18 - wait: do we even use those postcodes anymore? Nevermind. It's an area that sprung up in the late 90s/early 00s centered around a business park which is home to Dell and a number of other large corporations. There is currently a vast swathe of green land next to the office park all reared and ready for development. In fact, the media have reported this as the creation of a new Dublin suburb. Sounds great, eh? Roughly the location of the proposed suburb. And I stress the word 'roughly'! Here's the site outlining the plans:  http://www.cherrywooddublin.com/ Some of the lines from the site are quite poetic, to say the least: "This will be modern urban living at its best, a positive synergy of work, rest and play, " "Cherrywood will redefine quality of life in Dublin, integrating homes and shops, work and transport, schools and parks in a positive, sustainable society like nowhere else in the capital....

DISCLAIMER: This article has absolutely nothing to do with the 90s rap one hit wonder Coolio. He probably Googles himself from time to time and might come across this. There we were, about 10 minutes into a 3 hour journey on the Italian autostrada .. air conditioning was at full blast, we were slowly but surely getting the hang of driving on the right hand side and learning the local drivers idiosyncratic inability to indicate when changing lanes. I was sitting in the back and remembered a question posed to me by someone before I jetted off: “Do you have any Italian?” - a fair question, to which I responded: “Does the word pizza count?” . I asked the same question to my fellow travellers, hoping that when we reached our destination at least one of us would actually be able to converse in the vernacular. They admitted that they only had a few words. "How do you say ‘hello’ in Italian?” I piped up, alarmed by my own ignorance. There was an awkward silence as nobody could g...