Every year around this time, I start getting the heebie-jeebies. The various media machines starting cranking up their coverage of the Leaving Cert and I shiver at the thought. I’m not admitting how long ago it is since I did it, but I’ll never forget it. It is the most cruel of exams and I [...]
Ireland enjoyed three fantastically warm weeks in April but so far May has been inclement. Let’s hope the warm weather returns because no matter what people say everything tastes better if cooked and eaten outdoors. What do you know about Hungary as a wine producer? Like myself, probably not much. Hungary has a tradition of [...]
Slow Food is an international organisation that was founded in 1989 by Carlo Petrini, an Italian food writer who was walking down the streets of Rome one evening when he saw Italian children coming out of a fast-food restaurant. He wondered if they were aware of the rich food heritage that belongs to Italy just [...]
Approved Retirement Funds (ARFs) were first introduced in 1999 as an alternative to buying an annuity for the self-employed and controlling directors. Initially, ARFs were to be taxed on an internal ‘net’ basis. However, this was found to be far too complex and unworkable. So the taxation system was changed in the Finance Act 2000 [...]
For the last few weeks, I’ve been doing a little bit of personal research about camping. As we approach summer and everyone starts looking forward to their annual break, I find myself becoming more and more nonplussed by it all. It seems to me that “holidays” have become hard work. Planning, paying, packing, plastic-bagging liquids [...]
One of the most important novels of the 20th century is Brideshead Revisited. Ecosse Films (Becoming Jane) is set to begin filming the book for the big screen at Castle Howard in Yorkshire in June. Young actors Ben Whishaw and Matthew Goode are to play Lord Sabastian Flyte and Charles Ryder respectively, with Bobert Bernstein [...]
Oliver Goldsmith ambled through much of his life without achieving any great success until he started writing. Then everything changed for him. He became famous but in many ways remained the irresponsible person he was during his childhood. Oliver was born while his father was an Anglican curate in the parish of Forgney, near Ballymahon [...]
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