Blog List

Holding my first born for the very first time, becoming a mother, and that overwhelming feeling of happiness and love is one that I will remember forever. Despite a challenging journey with many fertility problems and two heartbreaking miscarriages, I was finally a mum. My daughter was born in October 2010 and that Christmas was the best ever; all our dreams had come true and our little girl...

‘Twas the night before Christmas and myself and my best friend were having some wine together (once the children were nestled all snug in their beds, of course). We had moved into our new homes earlier that year and now that we were living just a few doors from each other, we decided to begin a new annual tradition Shortly after midnight, my friend went home, and myself and my husband stayed up...

You shouldn't have. No, really. You could have avoided the parking nightmares and the sweaty crush of shoppers if you had just stayed at home by the fire and put a note in an envelope. Actually, skip the envelope: You could have taken that piece of filthy lucre and shoved it directly into the palm of whichever of my children it was intended for. In fact, much hassle could have been bypassed...

Ah Christmas, that magical time of the year! Time to eat belt-snapping amounts of turkey, mince pies, Roses and the rest, while lounging around with Baileys coffees and mid-afternoon G&Ts... oh wait, I'm a mother. Take 2: we'll have a magical Christmas eve, wrapping presents in bright shiny paper and arranging them beautifully under the tree. Getting up a little earlier than normal on...

I love the tradition of the Christmas tree, and all through December I was carefully constructing and curating this particular image: my smiling family gathered around a majestic fir, placing our treasured collection of decorations on symmetrical branches; carols playing in background; a box of chocolates, wrappers glistening, mulled wine and pine needles scenting the air. This long nurtured...

It was with some trepidation that we went to The Bruiser’s first nativity play on Friday. He came home from playschool a few weeks ago proudly proclaiming that he was playing the role of King Horrid. Seeing the puzzled look on his dad’s face, I explained that his son was playing the role of the maniac King Herod of Judea, who ordered that all boys aged two and under in Bethlehem be put to...

I have to say I love Christmas. To me it’s a magical time filled with fond memories of family, love, laughter and great food. This is what I kept in mind when preparing for the first Christmas without our Mum; while it was tough, we wanted to try and capture some of the wonderful memories she gave us in her honour. Our festivities traditionally began on Christmas Eve with Midnight Mass (at 10pm...

So the icon of daytime TV that is Judy Finnegan is under fire again. She only recently made her return to our screens as a regular on the Loose Women panel after a decade in her study writing novels, and Judy - Oh Judy! –what a return it’s been. On her very first day in the new job she made some rather controversial remarks about footballer and convicted rapist Ched Evans, but undeterred by...

After many years of tripping the light fantastic and living la vida loco, I was thrust into the role of parent or more specifically, the role of Mum. I wish I had paid more attention to other mums to see what and how they did things, watched more parenting programs, read extensively on the subject, but no. I went blind and ignorant into a role I found far more challenging than even my most...

Sitting in a coffee shop on a recent Sunday afternoon, taking advantage of a couple of child-free hours to enjoy the papers, it was brought home to me, not for the first time, how much we as parents shape the adults that our children grow into. The cafe, located in a busy suburban Cork shopping centre, was bustling with Christmas shoppers and the few staff on duty that day were obviously under...