Occasional Scribbles

The average speed of a bus in Berlin is 17.9 km/h. Last year BVG (Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe) carried one billion passengers. The company...

The founder of  the world-famous fashion design company Hugo Boss made uniforms for the Nazis and the Wehrmacht. Founder Hugo Boss joine...

This week's Independent News & Media Irish regional newspapers' column. Michael Commane   I lived in West Berlin in the ...

  Stan and Ollie  is a film worth seeing. It's showing in Dublin's IFI. Steve Coogan and John C Reilly tell an interesting stor...

Today is Holocaust Memorial Day. Israel and a number of others states commemorate the Holocaust in April, (the day changing every year as it...

The world's 26 richest people own the same wealth as the poorest half of the world's population, which is 3.8 million people. The ...

Nurses who are members of the INMU are due to take industrial action next week. When a teacher goes on maternity leave she is immediatel...

Yesterday at a commemoration in the Bavarian parliament in Munich to honour the victims of the Holocaust the majority of AfD parliamentaria...

Flowers in full bloom on January 22 in the garden of St Luke's Hospital in Dublin's Rathgar. Climate change. Certainly changing...

This week's Independent News & Media Irish regional newspapers' column. Michael Commane When I mentioned to a friend tha...

The Anne Will programme on Germany's ARD last evening discussed Brexit. Included on the panel were two German politicians, Luxembour...

From The Tablet  this week. Rome's mayor, Virginia Raggi has said that the Catholic charity Caritas will keep the €1.7 million of co...

All these three accounts have a common theme through them. Yesterday staff at St Luke's Hospital in Rathgar went of their first walk...

On Thursday Jesuit priest Tony O'Riordan was on RTE 1's Sean O'Rourke programme. He spoke about his work with the Jesuit Ref...

On this date, January 18, 1943 the Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto rose up against their German oppressors/murderers. And on the same date tw...

Shortly after 10pm last evening British Prime Minister Theresa May spoke outside 10 Downing Street about the Brexit dilemma. It was a sh...

The best way to avenge yourself is not to be like that. Marcus Aurelius

This week's Independent News & Media Irish regional newspapers' column. Michael Commane For the first time in its histor...

Wise words from Edith Eger in The Choice. Time doesn't heal. It's what you do with the time. Healing is possible when we choose ...

And if we have heavy rain or snow can this roadside shore help? No. The upkeep of the shore on Orwell Road  is the responsibility of...

Florian Henckel  von Donnersmarck's new film 'Never Look Away' is not to be missed. In many aspects it complements 'The...

On this day, January 12, 1945 the Red Army began the Vistula/Oder offensive, the final attack against Germany. Soviet forces outnumbered the...

Fr Raniero Cantalamessa gave a retreat to the US bishops near Chicago from January 2 to 8. All the talks are available at this link . ...

This from yesterday's Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/ commentisfree/2019/jan/10/ jair-bolsonaro-brazil- minorities-rainforest...

The only thing standing between me and greatness is me. Woody Allen

Guardian's Richard Wolffe casts a cold eye on last night's Trump television performance. https://www.theguardian.com/co mmentisf...

Guess who said this. I am the greatest builder of fortifications of all time. It sounds familiar, sounds like something a current wo...

This week's Indepenent News & Media Irish regional newspapers' column Michael Commane Before Christmas I met a friend for lun...

This is a brilliant article that appears in today's  Guardian. Guardian columnist, Emma Brockes captures almost perfectly the mood i...

It's looking ever more likely that US Democrat senator Elizabeth Warren will run for the presidency in 2020. Te 69-year-old lawyer i...

This surely has to be an extraordinary death notice.  It must be a caricature of itself. Note how clerical and lay are spelt, upper...