Whether you’re a business owner or an employee, I think everyone is watching the pennies and the pounds (sorry, cents and euros) these days. And given the amount of both small and larger businesses in Waterford that have permanently closed their doors in the past twelve months, it’s little wonder that...
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Desperately seeking Dennis
Desperately seeking Dennis
Recently discussing Halloween costumes in our house, the suggestion was made that we try to find a Dennis the Menace outfit for the wee man. He’s hit the Terrible Two’s, you see. And foremost amongst his favourite pastimes these days are climbing both animate and inanimate objects, leaping from said...
A cut too deep
A cut too deep
I was contacted by a lady this week who had been utterly dismayed to hear media reports that St Brigid’s Family and Community Centre in the city might be suffering the chop of An Bord Snip Nua (the report has advocated closing the Family Support Agency, the State body with responsibility for funding some 107...
Bitter pill to swallow
Bitter pill to swallow
I must have been having a brief lapse in consciousness last week when I went into Boots to buy a bottle of shampoo. That is, the ongoing impasse between Mary Harney and the Irish Pharmacists’ Union must have momentarily slipped my mind, because otherwise I certainly wouldn’t have risked the queues of...
Not to be sneezed at
Not to be sneezed at
I considered staying away from the Spraoi Festival this year. One of my very favourite weekends of the whole year and I couldn’t quash a feeling of dread in the pit of my stomach that I’d be better off at home. I was willing to forego a fantastic three days of free street entertainment (and deprive my...
You are what you eat, right?
You are what you eat, right?
Just as I was heading for the front door to go to work the other morning, a promotional leaflet from Supervalu publicising the store’s weekly special offers came through the letterbox. Almost without thinking, I slipped the leaflet into my handbag, to peruse while I was stuck in traffic. It was only while I sat...
Sweet Little Lies
Sweet Little Lies
What’s the biggest fib you’ve ever told? Perhaps more interestingly, what’s the little porky you find yourself telling again and again… and again? If you find yourself breaking out in a cold sweat as I hazard a guess that you regularly shave a couple of years off your age, swear you only have...
The long road travelled
The long road travelled
I was at a meeting of the City Council on Monday night when the news filtered through that Breastcheck would FINALLY be coming to the city. Having spent years reporting on the dedicated campaign for Breastcheck, on the thousands of Waterford people who marched and signed petitions, on the committed local politicians...
Girls Only
Girls Only
Remember the slightly bold marketing campaign of Yorkie a few years ago, that told us the chocolate bar ‘wasn’t for girls’. The one where TV ads showed us women attempting to purchase the chunky chocolate bar by glueing on fake beards, dressing up as builders with hard hats, and swaggering into corner...
Trouble on the line
Trouble on the line
No matter what the cause of the tantrum, no matter how bored or frustrated he is, the one item that is guaranteed to distract my toddler is a mobile phone. From the youngest age, he’s been fascinated by the lights and sounds – and the fact that he can control them by pressing buttons. If he gets his...
Raise the Last Glass
Raise the Last Glass
When the news broke that the staff of Waterford Crystal had taken possession of the Visitor’s Centre last January, it was little surprise that locals rallied around – joining large scale protests and sending tea and sympathy, in whatever form they could, to the beleaguered workers. We were shocked and...
Sisters aint doin it for themselves
Sisters aint doin it for themselves
There was probably little or no furore when, in the run-up to Ireland’s first local elections in 1899, The Kildare Observer ran a front page story reporting “loud laughter” at the announcement that the ballot would give women the right to vote for the first time in this country. The notion, it was...