Colette NiReamonn Ioannidou

I only heard parts of an interesting programme on the BBC, because phone calls prevented me getting the title or presenter who subjected himself to reacting to various noise tests. ...

Would a primary or other headteacher in Cyprus kill him-/herself if their school was given a one-word, inadequate, label? That tragic result happened in the UK where Ofsted assesses ...

The recently-widowed and aged Cypriot neighbour of a friend took to going to church in the evenings unaware she was being watched. One night, she returned to find her home ...

Greek American David Sedaris is an inimitable raconteur, an irreverent and brilliant wit whose jokes can be blunt, but never tainted with coarseness or discrimination. He’s gay, happy in ...

I’m Irish, love my country and my culture. My father’s name is described as Normo-Celtic, my sister, older by 16 years, always told me I had a retrousse nose, ...

My early impressions of Cypriots were formed by friends introduced to me by my late husband, Andreas, a very good man, therefore the friends he chose were good people and ...

The word empathy means the ability to see the other person’s perspective. Netflix’s Zero Day with Robert Di Nero features tech havoc from within, stoked by dissatisfaction at ...

A retired martial arts master and I have laughed over on-screen fights where heroes seem impervious to the consequences of prolonged hits on their bodies. I once saw a young, ...

As Donald Trump’s vision of a Gazan Riviera landed like a fart bomb, Vladimir Putin must have been crying ‘Da! Da! Da! Trump has lost his marbles and I’...

Once, when this question was asked, it was out of interest and the person being asked need not take fear it actually translating into ‘You don’t belong/come from ...

A long-time Cypriot friend absolutely adored Johnny Logan and What’s another year? On her greetings cards she writes rhyming poetry, declaring ‘The other kind is just chopped up prose!’ ...

‘I’ll never forget the New Year I was 15,’ an Irish friend told me. It was near lunchtime, the extended family in the living room. There was a bang on ...

Soon president-elect Donald Trump will rule the White House once more and an intelligent, educated woman I know, is ecstatic. When I asked her if his attitude and that of ...

I watched The Day After Tomorrow when it first came out and was impressed with the terrifying special effects. The second time round, I was impressed and worried by how ...

It’s fair to say humans have stolen from each other since the beginning of time. Thieves reap the benefits of other peoples’ labour without the slightest pang of conscience, ...

I watched Ancient Apocalypse on Netflix. Interested in two strands of human development: space, and human advances towards civilization, the series drew me in. The sky and what evolves up ...

We all tell the odd white lie to avoid something or someone. No real harm done, like excuses to get out of a thing you don’t want to attend ...

Flat, calm August welcomed an interesting September. The reaction to Odysseus Michaelides’ sacking as auditor-general was an example of the law versus the people. His wasn’t a case of ...

An Irish poet once told me ‘We’re storytellers by nature and that includes gossip. What begins as a short story one end of town is a full length novel ...

Parenting is a learning curve, teaching is a qualification. Praising a child’s efforts is often more productive than complaining about mistakes. Some highly-qualified teachers lack sensitivity or the personality ...

The EU has advantages on one side, question marks on the other. In July, The Irish Times columnist Jack Power writing about Ursula Von der Leyen’s reelection chances said ‘...

Sure, we’re biased about home products, Smuggling Hendrix was great, and everyone I’ve asked said Stelana Kliris’ Find Me Falling was captivating. Some foreign critics deemed it simple ...

When my politically opposed friends Dub a proxy Democrat and let’s call her Sally, a Trumpite, get together it’s akin to tectonic plates grinding off one another. Maria ...

‘In the burnt earth I lay weeping, I had lost all my humanity. In the scorched earth, like a wounded animal, wondering where was my life and the person I ...