Written by 
The Imperial Hotel in Cork, decked out in all its Christmas finery, is the perfect setting for my meeting with Vanessa Feltz. The radio host, broadcaster, journalist and author is sparkly, effervescent, and colourful — literally and figuratively. Feltz has just written her autobiography, Vanessa Bares All, and is on a whistle-stop tour promoting it. […]
Our more sedentary lifestyles are affecting our balance and there are health consequences. Falls are the second-biggest cause of accidental deaths, after road-traffic incidents, the World Health Organisation reports. Falls, which are a failure of balance, are also the leading cause of death in the over-65s. The length of time we can stand on one […]
Modern life can be relentlessly busy, and most of us know what it feels like to be tired, stressed, and even out of breath. So, when Karen Berry, a mother of two, began experiencing fatigue and breathlessness in her mid-40s, she assumed she just needed to improve her fitness. This feeling of exhaustion also saw […]
I’ve always had lower back pain – I had surgery on a prolapsed disc at a young age. But in summer 2020 back pain was grinding me down. It was during covid so by the time I got an MRI the pain had subsided. The scan showed a shadow. I told myself this happens all the […]
We’re in our 60s, we are financially comfortable and have a very good social life, but after steadily losing her libido my wife unilaterally imposed a sex ban three years ago and refuses to talk about it. We are often kind, thoughtful and caring to one another, but is a complete lack of sex a […]
James Vincent McMorrow, 41, grew up in Malahide, Co. Dublin. In 2010, he released his debut, award-winning album, Early in the Morning. In 2016, his cover of Chris Isaak’s song ‘Wicked Game’ was used in the trailer for the sixth season of Game of Thrones. He released his seventh album, Wide Open, Horses earlier this […]
Once upon a time, an Irish Christmas was years old tinsel strewn across a decades old artificial tree. There was a department store visit to Santy, if you were lucky. Today the Irish festive experience is unrecognisable. We are home to Europe’s Christmas capital, courtesy of Waterford’s Winterval which sees the city transformed into a […]
There is something admirably edgy about Galway’s TULCA Festival of Visual Arts running at this time of year, so close to the usual round of Christmas exhibitions. TULCA 2024 is curated by Michele Horrigan under the title The Salvage Agency, and features contemporary art of all kinds at various venues all over the city, including […]
I don’t agree with how my daughter is raising her children, and I’ve tried softly to intervene and make suggestions, but I’m ignored. My daughter and her husband do work full time, I know it is different than in my day, but I feel they are outsourcing their parenting to robots, and I know they […]
Bucolic by both name and nature, the four star Fitzgerald Woodlands House Hotel & Spa, is nestled on the site of the family’s original farm on the outskirts of the postcard village of Adare. That means guests are a short skip to one of Ireland’s prettiest streetscapes with its thatched cottages, boutiques, restaurants and castle. […]