Articles: Irish Independent %

“Hi our FHC on this Sunday. Silly me assumed hairdresser open at 9, and thought the two of us cud go up then. I know very stupid to assume anything about communions. Would anyone know a hairdresser who works on Sundays?? We r in S county Dublin?Thax - Shnoggi” More

A friend of mine, a small business owner, is typical of many thousands of cash-strapped entrepreneurs in Ireland at the moment. More

It is hay fever season again. I know it is because my eyes are streaming. I look at my son and see that I have passed on the nasty hay-fever gene to him too as he struggles with puffy eyes, itchy throat and constant sneezing and wheezing. For the next while, we’ll be watching the pollen count like hawks, but the hay-fever season will pass. It always does. More

Last night we saw not just a football match between two great teams, but two very different cultural, social and economic models battling for supremacy. On one hand we had the frugal but brilliant Germans of Borussia Dortmund, on the other was the free-spending (and also brilliant) Real Madrid. This was a battle between the local, academy-based Dortmund, and the international, chequebook-driven, Real. More

The forces of austerity are in retreat all around Europe and the world. Let’s make no mistake about what this means. The word ‘austerity’ has come to mean many things, but austerity is shorthand for the European policy of lumbering citizens with the debts of the financial markets and contending that the resulting increase in the national debts is the cause of the problem, rather than the consequence. More

Did you know that divorce is contagious? A recent US study found that divorce can spread through social networks, like a virus, passing among friends, siblings, even people you work with. More

The Bell Tower dominates the skyline of the beautiful town of Bruges. It featured in a scene in ‘In Bruges’ when unlikely hero Brendan Gleeson fell to his death. In 1988 I spent a year there, studying at the College of Europe. I have vivid memories of the Bell Tower: being woken up at ungodly hours of the morning by its incessant chimes; feasting on that great Belgian delicacy of mayonnaise and chips flogged from the van under the tower; and Mrs Thatcher’s Bruges speech in the hall underneath the tower. More

Over the past few years an extraordinary development has occurred in Ireland, which has gone broadly unnoticed. Tens of thousands of people have left the labour force due to disability. This has occurred despite the fact that the workforce, in general, has become younger and healthier on most measures and despite the fact that there have been significant positive steps towards reducing discrimination against disabled people in the workforce. More

Last week the “glossy brigade” was out in force. Papers were full of bright, impossibly blue skies, over “imposing” homes many of which “boasted” this feature or that attribute. Yes, the glossy brigade, Ireland’s property pornographers, who pedal lifestyle fetishes to the middle classes are back at a newspaper close to you. More

The Cypriot parliament has now thrown the ball back to the EU with its rejection of the bailout. It has also opened up the door to the Russians to get involved in the EU’s internal problems by sending a delegation to Moscow. The Russians may still come out of this with a charge over Cypriot gas reserves in return for a taking equity in the bust Cypriot banks. More