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![]() Sophie ClarkeThe Irish News |
IRELAND and the concept of ‘Irishness’ is now, it seems, firmly established in the cultural mainstream beyond our shores. If I had to pinpoint when...
THIS stage of the holiday festivities can often feel a bit flat; presents have been opened, the Christmas dinner has been eaten and Gavin and...
SO another firm fixture on the seasonal schedule currently taking place across towns and cities is the annual Christmas work ‘do’. This is...
I AM sure many of you have already been or will be attending Christmas performances at schools, community centres and churches this month. I am...
LAST weekend saw the return of panto season at Belfast’s Grand Opera House. This year’s production is Peter Pan and, as with recent shows, will be...
SO last week saw the final of the Great British Bake Off and more episodes of MasterChef: The Professionals with the judges whittling down...
WORLD Kindness Day was celebrated last week – on November 13 to be precise. I only became aware of it after the date had passed but I was quite...
LAST week when walking my fully DNA tested miniature schnauzer Ferdy (apologies for the obvious ‘nepotism’ in last week’s column) I was...
I first started contemplating dog DNA testing after people regularly stopped to ask about my dog’s breed. Granted, Ferdy isn’t your regular looking...
There’s nothing that screams Friday night quite like settling down for the evening and tuning into The Graham Norton Show - I love it. From...
CELEBRITIES are often denied dignity in death, particularly when they die young or unexpectedly. There is a thriving market in morbid memorabilia –...
IT’S a quest that has dominated people’s lives since the dawn of time, yet meeting the love of your life is usually depicted as a young person’s...
Last week, for the first time in a long time, I went to the cinema to watch the new Joker: Folie à Deux film. The showing was in the Avenue Cinema,...
Probably, like most of Generation Z, I have never camped – not in the proper sense anyway. In order to have an ‘authentic’ camping experience I...
I am not a very confident driver – I will openly admit that. I once arrived home and was shocked to discover several ugly brown stripes along the...
PROLIFIC American television writer and director Ryan Murphy has been courting controversy since his career began. The unique style and...
OVER the last few years my social media has become increasingly inundated with Facebook and Instagram posts by old school and university chums...
Over the last few decades pop culture has popularised intense, passionate female friendship: from the ironclad connection between Sex and the...
OF all my teenage phases, my stint as a 5 Seconds of Summer mega-fan is by far the most embarrassing. After stumbling across the melancholic black...
I recently wrote about the relatively new phenomenon of cancel culture but on the flip side of that is the concept of self-sabotage. This is when...
I remember the sheer delight I felt when, many months ago, I snagged two tickets to see Noah Kahan at Belfast Vital last Saturday. I was looking...
AS I write, Ferdy, our black, woolly, teddy bear-esque miniature schnauzer is sprawled on the floor fast asleep next to my desk. Don’t take this,...
DURING recent times, the notion that a person can be ‘cancelled’ – a word I must regularly accessorise with frilly quotation marks for my own...
Let’s be honest: technology has improved my life in ways that still surprise and delight me on a daily basis. My phone is also a torch, my TV...
It might be hard to believe but despite being a self-professed hopeless romantic, dating shows aren’t really my thing. Don’t get me wrong - there...
I was recently scrolling through Instagram, not paying much attention – there’s only so many pictures of people in well-coordinated outfits posing...