Articles
Article
Pandemic can expose deep fault lines in our relationships
It's now over a year since the Covid pandemic gatecrashed our lives, spilling its viral and stress load into every aspect of our being. It will be some time before the full psychological impact of the pandemic can be calculated. But we already know that for at least one in four people...
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Posted: 04 April 2021
Article
What are we missing most? Each other
Only when we can meet others will the sense of possibility in our lives be restored
Sun, Mar 28, 2021
Half of us feel that the pandemic has had a profoundly negative impact on our lives. Illustration: iStock
The results of the 2021 Sign of the Times survey by Behaviour & Attitudes are published by The Irish...
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Posted: 31 March 2021
Article
After: How do we move on from the trauma of the pandemic?
Don't dwell on why this happened - ask yourself how you coped and what you learned in the process, writes Maureen Gaffney
‘The most important life lessons come from setbacks’
'You must go on. I can't go on. I'll go on."
Oh Samuel Beckett, where are you now when we need you?
The...
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Posted: 21 February 2021
Article
At the end of a long, cold January in Level 5 lockdown, a sombre Micheál Martin announced it was to continue until March. To drive home the point, Leo Varadkar took pains to add: "At least."
Thanks, Leo. Hardly surprising then that a recent Department of Health survey found people were reporting significantly higher levels of boredom, anxiety and depression.
The wave...
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Posted: 07 February 2021
Article
The land of the mother and baby homes
The Mother and Baby Homes report triggers a wash of memories of those grey decades
Sat, Jan 16, 2021
The writer Thomas Kilroy set his play, Christ Deliver Us! in 1950s Ireland. In it one of the characters, Winnie, is full of wonder about a local swallow hole, where everything that people discarded ended up,...
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Posted: 31 January 2021
Article
Now comes the darkest hour before dawn. How do we cope?
Vaccines are on the way, but waiting is difficult when so much is riding on the outcome, writes Maureen Gaffney
‘Engaging in an activity that stretches us is the nearest we get to pure happiness’ Stock photo:
Just over a week ago I fell on a hill walk and cracked a rib....
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Posted: 10 January 2021