How can I help my friend overcome her problem gambling?     “I used to feel good about myself. My successful career. Good with money, honest and dependable. All that’s changed. I hate living in fear, lying to my boss, cheating and scrambling to pay bill.”  “After my husband died, friends took me to the casino…

Weekend Syndrome Do you live with a person or, more importantly, are you a person who finds the weekend difficult to manage? Do you find tiredness, anxiety and sadness creeping up on you as the weekend approaches? Does the so-called “Weekend Syndrome” really exist or is this just another example of our need to catalogue everything…

Dear Miss Austen,I take the liberty of writing to you on this, the 200th anniversary of the publication of Pride and Prejudice.  What a phenomenon you became as the years rolled on! I wonder what you’d make of it all.  To think that you had to publish your works as “A Lady” and that you…

45th anniversary of the death of Padre Pio September offers devotees of the renowned Capuchin Friar Padre Pio opportunities to reflect on key moments in the Saint’s life: 20th Sept. 1918 stigmata; 23rd Sept. 1968 death; 26th  Sept. 1968 his funeral caused an unprecedented outpouring of grief in San Giovanni Rotundo (FO). This week, as the…

Dear Miss Austen,  I take the liberty of writing to you on this, the 200th anniversary of the publication of Pride and Prejudice.  What a phenomenon you became as the years rolled on! I wonder what you’d make of it all.  To think that you had to publish your works as “A Lady” and that you…

The Candy WomanYou may have heard that Beatles song "She's Leaving Home" I don't suppose many people have stopped to wonder what ever happened after she "silently closes the kitchen door and steps outside where she's free." Maybe my story is one version of the answer.A few months ago I, too, left home. Only, I…

Thank you, FreddieHelen Maxwell left the taxi outside Dublin's bustling airport, her cheeks flushed as anticipation battled with apprehension. Fear made her almost bolt back inside the safety of the relatively familiar car. Just like Dad's old car. Her anxiety diminished as she checked in for Venice at desk 19 and treated herself to a…

Maynooth University in its infancy 1969-1973   September 1969. The College and I were smack in the middle of a Who-am-I? What-am-I? Why-am-I? Where am I going? crisis. Neither of us was coping too well.Maynooth went through a metamorphosis just when I was thinking I wanted to 'be a teacher'. Living in the vicinity made Maynooth,…

Alone with her newborn infant in the semi-private ward, the best they could offer in that godforsaken hospital, Vanessa Lanterni had spent hours muffling sobs against her pillow. The silence of the sleepless winter night taunted her and the words that had been said pounded in her brain. Then succumbing to exhaustion she'd fallen into…

Vanessa turned away and a strange loneliness engulfed her. She was thinking of her mother in a way she’d never done before and wished she could remember her face. But she could only see a photo on a sideboard somewhere – her mother proudly erect beside her beautiful six-year-old daughter on her first day at…