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My First Day at School
My first day at school began with a suspiciously thorough wash. We had left rural Donegal and landed in inner-city Coventry, a decision in which I had…
Analogue childhood. Digital life.
Analogue childhood. Digital life.
Still curious.Still laughing.
Irish humour from a generation that remembers life before Wi-Fi but has no intention of being left behind.
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The Incredible Shrinking Man
I was never very tall. At my peak, I reached five feet eight and a half inches. The half was important. When you are under five feet…
Crossing the Border
As a teenager growing up in the 1960s, I had mixed feelings about the border between County Donegal and Northern Ireland. To my parents’ generation, the border…
The Good Room
When baby boomers were young, most houses seemed to have a room called the Good Room. It had the best sofa, the best rug, the best chairs…
Bring Your Something to Work Day
It all started, I think, with Bring Your Child to Work Day. Like many modern ideas, it seems to have started in America and eventually crossed the…
When Amazon Came in a Book
Long before Amazon, Shein and Temu discovered the revolutionary idea of selling people things they had never seen, every household in Britain and Ireland had at least…
Men, Women and Evolution
I sometimes wonder what exactly evolution was up to when it produced men and women. Obviously we’re the same species. Science is very clear on that. But…
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The Problem with Emails
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The Fountain Pen
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Old Spice Aftershave
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