OUR friends used to call our 1950s house the “unrivalled opportunity” — auctioneer-speak for a “kip”.

Minutes before this man had been talking about the sanctity of each human life. Now he was dismissing the unmarked graves of the babies who died needlessly at Bethany and the stories of the home’s 25 survivors by saying it wasn’t “technically” a Church of Ireland home.

The casually intertwined lives of Haratun Batmazian and my grandfather show us a Cork throbbing with opportunity as part of the British Empire.... Irish independence was terrible for Cork. From then on Dublin... sucked the energy out of the rest of the country.

WHAT upsets me most about the Government’s decision to legislate for abortion in Ireland in cases of a risk of death by suicide is how it patronises women.

WHERE’S the Climate Bill, Minister Hogan?

IT’S time, finally, for some honesty.

‘I KNOW you don’t like being pregnant, but do you really feel bad enough to commit suicide?”

TAKE some time to relax with a nice glass of wine in our bar or restaurant and enjoy a delicious pre-show dinner”, says the advertisement for a hotel package I’m led to when I try to book for Four Angry Men at the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre on Nov 27th.

ELIZABETH Warren won back for the Democrats the historic Kennedy seat in Massachusetts, and so there’s finally someone in the US Senate who understands family values.

ONE OF the social workers had an unblinking stare which was fixed on me at all times.