Colette NiReamonn Ioannidou

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 ...

Monk caught me years ago, and second time around on Netflix I surrendered to the sheer pleasure of the series. Actor Tony Shalhoub’s take on the obsessive-compulsive detective Adrien ...

Although I don’t dwell on the Old Reaper, this squirrel thought it time to throw away junk to make sorting easier for those left behind when I pop off, ...

This once-teen devoured sci-fi novels and it’s revelatory to watch as what knowledgeable and imaginative writers predicted becomes reality. Applications then lacked tech innovation, but with time, AI has ...

Greek words pad today’s English, take politics. Ancient Greek ‘democratia’ selected those who would benefit under it: plutocracy. What’s changed? Some politicians, supposedly maintaining its modern-implied, human rights ...

THE WAY THINGS ARE Buddy was a rescued, fierce-looking, lovable Labrador-Great Dane cross. Friends adopted a Cane Corso mastiff responding in kind to love given. Buddy was left as nature ...

THE WAY THINGS ARE Why wasn’t Joe Biden’s ‘Outrage and heartbreak!’ at the brutal death of seven foreign aid workers the reaction of a man who suffered family ...

THE WAY THINGS ARE Apart from Ed Speleers, the trailer for An Irish Wish was uninspiring. I’m not a Lindsay Lohan or rom-com fan. Still, it was a chance ...

THE WAY THINGS ARE After getting into and out of Suits, I was happy to find on Netflix an actor I like, Nathan Fillion, and his female co-workers in The ...

THE WAY THINGS ARE Critical thinking doesn’t mean teaching children selected influences the teacher either approves or disapproves of. It means giving unbiased information and allowing a child to ...

THE WAY THINGS ARE Euthanasia is legal in some countries, not in others. It costs to have the privilege of deciding when it’s time to die in comfort, slipping ...

THE WAY THINGS ARE ‘The politician man says do the best you can. And I will do my very best to help. Yes, please do sir, help yourself.’ So sang ...

THE WAY THINGS ARE ‘It wasn’t just the pain of violent penetration when I was dry and ignorant of what was happening, it was also constant fear when he ...

THE WAY THINGS ARE Old Cypriots say the youth have lost their traditional friendliness, heads in phones. Hope lives. While food shopping my card blanked, so I separated necessities and ...

THE WAY THINGS ARE You’ll read some articles relating to the celebrations around December 25 that include a health warning. Not just don’t overeat or drink but the F ...

THE WAY THINGS ARE Self-help books advise on a range of things – grieving, diet, stopping smoking/drinking etc. This works for some people depending on their personality, how they think, ...

THE WAY THINGS ARE America’s main reelection candidates are two ageing men with no one apparently able to differentitate between them. Rumours augur Michelle Obama as a future Democrat ...

THE WAY THINGS ARE On a favourite site among the usual gems of advertised literature, I found horror stories especially written for children. Young adults enjoy scary thrills. I lied ...

THE WAY THINGS ARE In the Jewish insurgency against the British, Israel’s Irgun, led by Menachem Begin, bombed the King David Hotel in Jerusalem. Ninety one people died, 49 were ...