What Lies Beneath

György Marx was everything I have never aspired to be: a physicist, an astrophysicist, a science historian, and a professor. Okay, I’d have liked to have been a professor, but not in science subjects. Google tells me that he discovered the lepton numbers and ...

I like to think that I can spot potential. In plans. In people. In property. Especially in property. I’m not for a minute suggesting that I know the real estate market and know where to invest to get the best return. I’m clueless in ...

Someone once told me that their birthday was on 16 June. Ah, I said, you were born on Bloomsday. They looked at me, cluelessly. In explaining what I meant, I realised that I was innately proud of a man I’d never met and a ...

I’m a firm believer in old souls and past lives. Some of us - not all of us, but some of us - have been around before. I’ve learned to pay attention to that feeling I get when I meet someone for the first ...

I didn’t get to see the Pope when he was in Budapest recently, but I was delighted to read that he’d revisited St István’s letter to his son from the eleventh century (knowns as the Admonitions) and had spoken so frequently about helping others, ...

It’s been a while since I’ve done the tourist thing in Budapest. Most of my visitors have been here before and want to venture further afield. This time though, I’d a first-timer and I’m in shock.

I grew up in a place and time when having some sort of voluntary experience on your resumé or CV was almost as important as your exam results. In 1980s Ireland, it was a given that you’d be asked about it in just about ...

His given name wasn’t Patrick. His colour wasn’t green. And he was never canonised a saint. In preparation for the big day in March, a fact check of stuff I thought I knew about St Patrick has me questioning everything else I was taught ...

One of the more confusing things about living abroad is getting your head around a new set of holidays. I was surprised that in Malta, Easter Monday isn’t a national holiday. I was surprised, too, that in Montserrat, 17 March, St Patrick’s Day, is. ...

It’s Christmas. The season of goodwill. And giving. Lots of giving. Mostly giving stuff that people don’t want or won’t use or have no need for. It amazes me how caught up we all are with consumerism, even in times of spiralling inflation, increasing ...