A generation that is denied the opportunity to study literature, or attend opera, is unlikely to learn the lessons of such horrors. And that cannot be good for democracy, even the broken version of it that prevails, now, in England. Continue reading Disdain for Culture and the road to Fascism
Until we are once again able to travel as freely as we did before the advent of Covid 19, we have the joy of books like Viking Voyager to entertain and inform us. Continue reading A Life Dedicated to Improving the Opportunities of Others.
Life at home continued to be more or less idyllic for my sister and I. There were exceptions. I remember, when I was about 6 and my sister a toddler, how I almost blinded her. Continue reading Monday Memories – Beginnings #5: Learning the Hard Way
The Thatcher government was returned with a marginally reduced majority in Parliament Continue reading Monday Memories – Another Election (or three)
we are proud that our Turkish lifestyle has enabled (our children) to grow into socially adaptable, polite teenagers. Continue reading A Date With . . . Ceri Bladen
the risk involved in food retailing is enormous and we just could not compete with the supermarkets who were starting to develop their own deli counters and chilled ready meals. Continue reading Life Changing Events
Portlaoise College is a dual purpose establishment, both a secondary school and a further education college. Back in 2007 I attended evening classes in painting there. At that time it was the newest of Portlaoise’s education campuses, having been constructed the previous year. More recently all of Portlaoise’s secondary schools have been housed in new buildings on a campus on the other side of town. This post is about the activities of a group of students and teachers from Portlaoise college’s secondary school facility and draws on a story from one of the town’s weekly newspapers. Secondary Education in Ireland … Continue reading Irish School Students Helping Their African Counterparts #WATWB
I came across this story via a segment on the BBC’s ‘One Show‘ on Tuesday 23rd. January. Seeking more information I was surprised by an apparent lack of coverage in other UK media. I found this article, from 2015, in an Australian newspaper. That seems to be based around the couple’s ‘Pride of Britain’ award that year. Scroll down the linked page to find them under ‘Special Recognition’ (theirs is the third such award listed). So, what is it all about? Six years ago Vivienne Morgan read about a teenager who had committed suicide after having been bullied at school. … Continue reading #WATWB The retirees who gave up their home to help kids with anxiety
my generation and our children are guilty of taking far too many of the planet’s resources and putting back little of real value. Continue reading Saturday Sound-off: More Generational Theft
In my previous post I postulated that poor diet in expectant mothers and infants had, in the past, a role in preventing the poor in Ireland from improving their conditions. But can it also explain the lack of aspiration evident among the poor in modern developed economies? The British government during World War II was concerned to ensure that expectant and nursing mothers and infants received proper nutrition despite the food shortages and rationing that characterised the war years and those immediately following. They would have been ignorant of the relationship between diet and brain growth. But they were certainly … Continue reading Malnutrition and Indolence – Lessons for Today
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