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Anne HailesThe Irish News |
Take the road up the hill out of Broughshane, along the coggly lane to the old farmhouse now converted into a cosy home. Here you’ll find Willow...
Halloween took on a new meaning in 1959. It was the day Ulster Television opened its doors to the public, initially in the Belfast area but destined...
Imagine a stout wooden shed, cosy and warm, the smell of pancakes sizzling on the skillet, walls vibrating to the sound of fiddle music and singing. A...
Meeting up with Greg Cowan is a treat. We’ve been friends since he appeared on an Ask Anne programmes where he was a hit with the viewers - but...
“Could I have your attention, ladies.” Tuesday April 18 1911. Campbell is the foreman. Nan Rose, a child, is a doffer in the linen mill. With her...
Newcastle Lions have mounted a vigorous campaign to reverse the BBC decision to axe the vital sign language provision on news programmes. Zone...
It’s really swings and roundabouts. First it was salt, then fat, now it’s sugar but when the late Dr Michael Mosley says “sugar”, I take...
I will take this column out on a cold day next January and recall the last day of August in Donegal. The sky is blue, the lanes are flanked by...
Fancy becoming a star of stage, screen and television? This just might be your chance, a stepping stone to success. I’ve always wanted to be a...
I knew nothing about the Antrim and Newtownabbey Crematorium until 10 days ago when a funeral service opened my eyes to this state of the art...
What do you do if you hate your life, your name, your family? Or most of them? Emmet McCrudden grew up in the small village of Carricktown surrounded...
When I look back all those years, our wedding was a great day. The church service, the reception organised to perfection by my parents - Dad the...
When Maureen Martin asked me to accompany her to meet friends visiting from Ohio in the United States, I was happy to accept but didn’t expect to...
“You’re far too nice, you’ve got to be a diva, you must be a diva.” A director’s uncompromising note to actress Caroline McMichael who plays...
“NINETY-FIVE per cent of young farmers in the UK say poor mental health is the biggest hidden danger in the industry. If you agree, give me a hug or...
Recently on BBC Radio 5 Live, Stephen Nolan covered the subject of toilets. Fair enough, important to us all. The debate was around the old fashioned...
A gardener or a gigger? Or both? For Barrie Quinn they go hand-in-hand but whereas gardening is his passion and his pleasure, gigging is mainly to...
Recently I was writing about woman’s suffrage and how those pioneers fought a brave fight for the vote, enduring torture and imprisonment and very...
Don’t get irritated with someone at the end of the phone who works in a call centre or a customer service desk. You just never know who you are...
“The doctor took the loose end of the sheet and began to bind me: he wrapped it round and round me, my arms tight to my sides, wrapped it up to my...
Gentlemen; if you were approached by an attractive woman asking you if you’d like to become a male model, what would you say? Not just any...
“Hug the teapot” was Gerard’s advice. How right he was, on a cold and blustery day, what better way to warm yourself inside and out. Beside me a...
Many women working in a man’s world encounter difficulties, often facing intimidation and being badgered; to succeed they need to be strong, know...
For playwright Michael Cameron it began on a rail journey to Portrush. For me it began over lunch a couple of months ago. It was then that Michael...
Calling all grannies. Do you share your cooking and baking skills with your grandchildren? Calling all children. Do you share your granny’s cooking...
This week 24 years ago I had a mastectomy. It came as a dreadful shock. I was leaving the screening service in Linenhall Street, stopped to speak to a...
They promised a new destination for Belfast, bringing together a new way of working, living and shopping in the heart of the city centre. The...
It used to be the case that a street directory was part and parcel of most households in Northern Ireland. I loved these bulky red books, telling the...
Once upon a time in the days of Ulster Television’s Ask Anne, I worked with Deane Houston of the Belfast Blind Centre. When he mentioned that there...
Well, we seem to have moved on from mindfulness to kindness and what better move could there be? Nothing is new, all these thoughtful fashions we go...
Parallel Lives is intriguing - a ghost story and a love story - but the background to this book is a story in itself. Initially we are transported to...
Isn’t the world a wonderful place? Scary at the moment, fear coming at us from all sides, wars and political chaos, climate change and cost of...
Not too many people can claim a particular teacher inspired them to follow an amazing future - I know I can’t, but Anne Madden can. She was a pupil...
Last Wednesday was a date to remember because January 31, 71 years ago, was a day which brought sorrow to families in Northern Ireland and Scotland,...
When I think of the coronavirus, I think of a slimy octopus with its tentacles stretching into every area of life. Over those three-plus years and...
Watching the Masters snooker and listening through ear buds was very satisfactory. At one point I left the room, and at first I was still able to...
I made a mistake. I thought Havelock House being razed to the ground last week wouldn’t concern me, despite the request by campaigners to have a few...
Over the last couple of weeks there hasn’t been a lot on television to choose from but two have really stood out to me: In The Name Of The Father...