I am reminded at this time every year just how much families are ripped off by the education system in this country because August is the month that we all shell out vast amounts of money on uniforms and books for those returning to school.

Word count: 45

I have been spending quite an amount of time watching the Olympic games from Beijing. Well, what else are ya gonna do if your on holidays in Ireland and the rain keeps bucketing down?

Word count: 34

The fitness of the Kerry footballers has always been marvelled at and I had first hand opportunity to marvel at it myself last Sunday as I returned by train from Dublin to Cork.

Word count: 33

The Beijing Olympics signifying man's endeavour to conquer the odds and win, against the toughest competition in the world. Limerick man Ger McDonnell reached out and grabbed his own Olympic medal by conquering K2.

Word count: 34

What a week for getting my goat up! I have to say I despair at the service Cork people put up with and I have to wonder if bosses and owners actually know how their staff behave behind their back. At a time when value for money is equalled only

Word count: 86

I have just returned from the plastic wannabe capital of Europe, if not the world; Puerto Banus. I was over for a long weekend with RSVP magazine at the annual Marbella Ball, a right posh affair, with all the visiting Irish A listers mingling with

Word count: 87

We had a CoCo's nightclub reunion on Saturday night at the Victoria hotel, it sold out and how great it was to see all the old heads again and play all the old hits. CoCo's was the cool eighties club in Cork where the Cork "A listers" gathered to b

Word count: 52

The 96FM Radiothon was a resounding success, beyond everyone's dreams. There was an unofficial hope that we would reach €100,000 so to treble it was fantastic. As I write we are fast approaching the €300,000 mark, so by the end of July wi

Word count: 61

Comets or the creation of heaven? This is a question I've been asking myself all week. It all manifested itself from two incidents that happened to me recently.

Word count: 28

Management of both the Cork school of music and the CIT should hang their collective heads in shame, to deny even one Cork child a chance to learn a musical instrument is a dereliction of duty, to slash entry for kids by 50% is downright despicable

Word count: 49

We Corkonians take a lot for granted living down here on the south coast. Take Dubliners and non Dubliners living in Dublin for example, by and large they dislike living in the capital. Some of them actually hate it.

Word count: 39

Bertie Ahern was the smart man to get out when he did, just as the deck of cards was about to come tumbling down. He leaves a sorry mess behind him that’s for sure.

Word count: 36

The powers that be conspired against the Munster fans at the weekend, at least those travelling into Cork Airport.

Word count: 19

The Dublin driven national media is telling us that Brian Cowen needs a make over.  They’re used to Bertie with his foundation, powder, lip gloss and mascara.  

Word count: 31

John O’Brien was found not guilty of murdering his wife, Meg Walsh. Someone killed her but 12 of his peers decided on the evidence provided to the central criminal court that it was not he.

Word count: 36

A Cork Judge recently released with a suspended sentence a Corkman found in possession of drugs with the sole purpose of sale and supply. He was a drug dealer, caught by the guards.

Word count: 33

Why did Diarmuid Flood take the lives of his children and wife before killing himself? We'll never know but I'm sure it wasn't a premeditated act, just like I am sure that the Wexford native loved his seven year old Mark and five year old Julie wi

Word count: 50

For too long women as victims have been made feel like criminals in Irish courts of law. There is a shocking statistic that sticks in my head; 10 per cent of all rapes and sexual assaults are reported to the gardai and three per cent of those r

Word count: 51

Ireland is a grand old talking shop all the same, full of empty promises and turning a blind eye to what's really going on in our midst. How can we as a society get serious about tackling underage drinking and smoking when the very establishments t

Word count: 54

Two weeks in Cuba doesn't make me an expert on the country, its people or its system of government but it has left me with a clear understanding of what Ernest Hemmingway and Spencer Tracy found so magnetic about the Caribbean island.

Word count: 42

While many are looking forward to the second long-weekend in a row with anticipation and excitement, many others are already dreading the violence, abuse, carnage and heartache that the weekend will bring with it.

Word count: 34

Last week I took a mock driving test with a fully trained instructor. I failed, miserably, but I knew all along that I would.

Word count: 24

I, phone? Irving’s visit Whoops I did it again . . .

Word count: 11

My Wife arrived home with two small bags of shopping from Tesco during the week, regular small plastic bags that you buy at the till, the ones that are so light they keep ripping.

Word count: 34

The ever increasing amount of teenage disco’s in Cork is in itself a good thing, it gives kids the much needed outlet to enjoy good music and the social vehicle needed to mix with kids of their own age.

Word count: 40

Prison blues Busby babes Let there be love

Word count: 8

They don't call Cork the rebel county for nothing as the strike action taken by the GAA players testifies. It's very hard not to empathise with both sides when you hear their arguments, but I have never been one to sit on the fence and I'm not goi

Word count: 51

Hell, they say has three gates, lust, anger and greed and you need look no further than the Aer Lingus departure gate to Birmingham at Cork Airport for the greed gate, especially on the weekend of April 5.

Word count: 37

There really are no winners in the Robert Houlihan, Wayne O'Donoghue tragedy. I feel very sorry for both families because both of their lives have been irreconcilably shattered, of course the O'Donoghue's still having their son and that's the main

Word count: 41

While January is probably everybody’s least favorite month events about to unfold are not going to augur well for the year, never mind the next thirty days or so.

Word count: 31

For my sins on New Years Eve I had to sit through the last ten minutes of "Celebrity jigs and reels" and for my tuppence worth it was gawd awful. I may be in the minority of one and the whole of the country might love this kind of fodder but I'm no

Word count: 84

Well it’s finally arrived, Christmas with all the trimmings, me I love Christmas, if it wasn’t for the excesses of rich food and booze, too many relatives, too much clutter that lingers for days, especially if like me, you have an 11 and

Word count: 60

Toys for big boys is an exhibition that runs in Dublin and very successfully too because apparently you can’t take the boy out of many of us men.

Word count: 29

God Save The Queen A Kerry Joke Let It Alone! Shock Horror

Word count: 12

It came as no surprise to me this recent screaming match regarding the every dwindling Irish health system. I have thought for a long time that there is a huge voiceless community out there who suffer the indignity of our so called health system.

Word count: 44

Alf Steals SHOW Auntie Kathleen Worried Stingy Business Types Swinging A Cat Silent Night?

Word count: 14

Well here I am in Barcelona, the fourth most visited city in Europe, behind Rome, London and Paris and it’s easy to see why. In my opinion it’s all about the weather because on the whole it ain’t all its cracked up to be.

Word count: 47

Licence To Thrill Time Gentelman! On A Wing And A Prayer You’re Nicked! Manna From Jim

Word count: 17

Bertie has balls I’ll grant you that!  But then wasn’t he apprentice to the most arrogant, covetous master of them all, high-handed Haughey who believed in the “do as I say (not what I do)” school of philosophy. Haughey&r

Word count: 116

Two Years Before the Mast Brits Out Bernard's the Boy Three Cheers Allah be Praised

Word count: 15

None for the Road We have one of the highest legal limits in Europe of blood- alcohol at 80 milligram’s of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood while at the same time we have one of the highest road fatalities in Europe.  Is this me

Word count: 50

SUPERHERO Cllr Red Mick was tickled pink at the Corpo’s endorsement of Cllr Gary O’Flynn’s (who he?) Tour of Ireland after learning that the intrepid traveller had embarked on a dizzying series of junkets in the past two mon

Word count: 83

I met a very irate Fianna Fail man recently. He was clearly seething at Enda Kenny's outburst against his leader. No doubt, the Fine Gael man has opted for the tough approach, presumably that is the advice he is getting from his handlers. It doesn'

Word count: 81

Eamon Gilmore, the Labour Leader, has appointed the young East Cork TD Sean Sherlock as a mockya shadow minister for something or other. He chose well if it's his intention to keep the Cloth Cap Brigade forever in the political wilderness. Becaus

Word count: 93

Cork City Council employees were recognised for their work in a variety of schools across Cork city and county by the Lord Mayor, Councillor Donal Counihan recently.

Word count: 27

A New 50 bed retirement home with 15 associated independent living units for Kanturk has been given the green light.

Word count: 18