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Anniversary of 1916 Rising in Enniscorthy

Laughing Boy: the production

My blogs are my own opinion.

This week we have seen the public derision of a few brand names who think of themselves as big brands and therefore above criticism. The face of this catastrophe has been created and it is Alissa Gordon Heinerscheid, (erstwhile?) VP of marketing at Budlight. Let’s unpick some of this without making it personal. She/her has taken to the airwaves to tell us – rather patronisingly it has to be…

So much talk of inclusion. We are barely scratching the surface. I have recently had a couple of interviews – I am not used to them, most of my work comes from conversations, word of mouth and/or head hunting – and it was very clear that in standard interviews anyone with any neurodivergence is immediately disadvantaged. Most roles, even those at this level (CEO/ED/NED) do not often require…

Bird Life part one

Today Ronnie and Reggie ©, our thug life magpies, are demolishing mountains of old cheese and hillocks of stale bread in a Mischiefs version of a pub lunch, seeing off the opposition with an ease formed by long hardman practice. Let me tell you about this pair of gangsters… During the Summer we were woken daily by the clash of seagull squawks and magpie clacks, the gangs,The Gulls and The Pies,…

Love and War in the Apennines. And you.

The above extract is from Love and War in the Apennines by Eric Newby. It describes experiences as a POW after WWII. I idly picked it up, having bumped into the pile in which it was living, and re-read it. As you do. I was reminded by the extract above of all the people like them that I have known, and their clones that now inhabit our government. I could never understand the apparent public…

Optimism? That’s Life!

I was putting my many and glorious pills into my dosset boxes this morning and it occurred to me how optimistic that made me. I put over a weeks supply out so they are easy to remember and locate – assuming, therefore, that I will still be around to take them. Why else would I do it? We all do things like that – we go to bed at night planning the next day, we do our weekly shop with the next few…

At what stage will this challenge get dealt with?

Decisions to make? Make soup.

There are many very good pieces, courses, posts about how to make decisions, especially personal decisions. Make decision trees, think about goals and values, keep a diary, write down the pros and cons….many great ideas. Here is mine. Make soup after a walk. Those thoughts rummaging around in the dark bits of the back of your head need to be unfolded and examined before folding them properly and…

Enniscorthy remembers Bloody Sunday

You know those days, the days when you want to say sorry to everyone you have ever met and print out apologies to people you have yet to meet so you can hand them out before a word is exchanged, those days when every single choice you have ever made looms up and shouts at you what a chump you are?  You do? Those are the days when every bite of meat before becoming vegetarian feels like an…

Bye Bye Billy Bragg

Bye Bye Billy Bragg. Never thought I would say those words. His songs, his lyrics, spoke to me in earlier times. Thatcher times. He was Right On in the best possible way, he simply proclaimed decent values coupled with history and it was powerful. His songs moved me and helped me retain a sense of value and to think through some of my own bias, class, upbringing. I respected and admired him and…

Which is the biggest colour…?

I tuck my four year old grandson into bed and sprinkle sleepdust in his eyes, and watch as he magically, deliciously believes in it. Another night he tiptoes noisily into my bedroom, shimmies down under the sheet and snores quietly, contentedly, until dawn when he wakes with an almost audible “ping” and starts chatting patiently to me until I wake up properly. One morning he asks me, with a…

Open letter to Boris Johnson

Boris, Boris, Boris

It is time this whole thing came to its inevitable end. Your cocks-on-the-table let’s-see-who-can-be-Prime-Minister thing with the equally unlovely Cameron – although at least he is prettier – has done the job. You got it. You fooled and bribed and bullied enough people to get through that door. You history of lying, cheating, blustering, bullying and gaslighting your way…

The sense of it all

Most days I think we skitter along the surface of life like the smooth hard pebbles that skim across cold deep lakes and oceans, pitched from the hands of young boys and men in competition with themselves. We dip without sinking, lift without flying, never taking enough water to be wet or enough air to be dry.

Some days, though. Oh some days. On those some days every sense pulses and quivers.…