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Dave Oconnell

Dave Oconnell

Connacht Tribune

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Dublin seems determined to destroy its golden goose

A Different View with Dave O’Connell It sounds batty but we’re rapidly getting to the point where, if you want to enjoy a night out in Dublin,...

previous day 10

Connacht Tribune

Dave Oconnell

Mid-life crisis is just bowing to the reality

A Different View with Dave O’Connell The real crisis with a mid-life crisis, according to the late novelist Martin Amis, is that the worst crisis...

21.09.2023 10

Connacht Tribune

Dave Oconnell

Life span and health span are two very different things

A Different View with Dave O’Connell It’s all about health span, not life span, writes the great Richard Ford in his latest novel – and final...

14.09.2023 10

Connacht Tribune

Dave Oconnell

Staying silent or lashing out when you’re on the RAAC

A Different View with Dave O’Connell he UK’s Education Minister is experiencing a week to forget on many fronts – primarily because half the...

07.09.2023 10

Connacht Tribune

Dave Oconnell

Tea holds the secret to solving life’s big puzzles

A Different View with Dave O’Connell Teetotallers aren’t just good for the lift home from the pub or for keeping their heads when all about are...

31.08.2023 10

Connacht Tribune

Dave Oconnell

Accommodation crisis shows bedsit-land wasn’t the worst

A Different View with Dave O’Connell A long, long time ago in Rathmines’ bedsit-land, a few pints in the pub turned into a crowd coming back to...

24.08.2023 7

Connacht Tribune

Dave Oconnell

Sometimes that rising tide does nothing but drowns you

A Different View with Dave O’Connell It may have been Mark Twain or Benjamin Disraeli who coined the observation that there are three kinds of lies...

17.08.2023 10

Connacht Tribune

Dave Oconnell

Be careful what you wish for on Artificial Intelligence

A Different View with Dave O’Connell here a segment on a radio quiz show called Sorry I Haven’t Got a Clue on BBC Four, where compere Jack Dee...

10.08.2023 10

Connacht Tribune

Dave Oconnell

News cycle moves on but not when it really matters

A Different View with Dave O’Connell It never seems like it at the time but even the biggest stories fade from the front pages and the public...

03.08.2023 10

Connacht Tribune

Dave Oconnell

Cultural giants allow us all to bask in reflective glory

A Different View with Dave O’Connell Culturally there’s clear blue water between Druid and the Saw Doctors, but collectively they made last...

27.07.2023 10

Connacht Tribune

Dave Oconnell

No longer hanging on the telephone

A Different View with Dave O’Connell When Blondie played a storming set on the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury recently, Debbie Harry kicked off with...

21.07.2023 10

Connacht Tribune

Dave Oconnell

It’s time to get serious and crack down on packaging

A Different View with Dave O’Connell It was the cardboard box outside the plastic tube of toothpaste that triggered it – why the double wrapping...

21.07.2023 6

Connacht Tribune

Dave Oconnell

How fully life can change on the head of a match

A Different View with Dave O’Connell When you’re a child,” wrote the veteran novelist John Irving in his latest and what may well be his final...

06.07.2023 20

Connacht Tribune

Dave Oconnell

Memories of a man who loved radio – and every day of his life

A Different View with Dave O’Connell The late, lamented DJ Tony Fenton was a very funny man. Only he didn’t really know it and he wasn’t trying...

29.06.2023 10

Connacht Tribune

Dave Oconnell

You know you’re pushing on when you’re part of history

A Different View with Dave O’Connell A cracking new book from our old Tribune colleague Harry McGee – currently prominent on the shelves in every...

22.06.2023 8

Connacht Tribune

Dave Oconnell

Baby feeds hold the secret to later examination success

A Different View with Dave O’Connell Children who are breastfed are twice as likely to do well in their GCSEs as those who aren’t, proclaimed...

15.06.2023 10

Connacht Tribune

Dave Oconnell

Memories of smoke-filled rooms and stuck keyboards

A Different View with Dave O’Connell It was back in the early days of the technological revolution in newsrooms when one intrepid sports reporter...

08.06.2023 7

Connacht Tribune

Dave Oconnell

What defines the authentic Irish bar far away from home?

A Different View with Dave O’Connell It’s impossible to put an exact figure on it, but the consensus by now is that there are actually more Irish...

01.06.2023 10

Connacht Tribune

Dave Oconnell

If you don’t know who you are, the door staff have no chance

A Different View with Dave O’Connell The only time in your life that you should ever utter the words: “Do you know who I am?” are if you’ve...

25.05.2023 9

Connacht Tribune

Dave Oconnell

Eurovision is just a giant party that could never cause offence

A Different View with Dave O’Connell As it turned out, we were much closer to a Eurovision win than we could ever have imagined – not Ireland, of...

18.05.2023 20

Connacht Tribune

Dave Oconnell

Tapping is contactless – but it’s soulless too

A Different View with Dave O’Connell Contactless payments reached a record €17.9 billion in Ireland last year – up by 31 per cent on 2021, as...

11.05.2023 30

Connacht Tribune

Dave Oconnell

Jurgen’s pulled hamstring is justice for the human sponge

A Different View with Dave O’Connell Every dad who has ever stood on a sporting sideline had to feel a small twinge in the back of their leg at the...

04.05.2023 10

Connacht Tribune

Dave Oconnell

Massaging the message for a better end result

A Different View with Dave O’Connell If you’re ever in a tight corner and desperately need to turn a career-ending negative into a party-popping...

27.04.2023 50

Connacht Tribune

Dave Oconnell

Quiet train coaches don’t demand a vow of silence

A Different View with Dave O’Connell It’s an entirely legitimate aspiration to seek out quiet space – even on a busy inter-city train – but...

20.04.2023 10

Connacht Tribune

Dave Oconnell

Full night’s sleep stands you in good stead for a longer life

A Different View with Dave O’Connell It was Christy Moore who famously offered a tenner to St Anthony to help him find some sleep, although that in...

13.04.2023 6

Connacht Tribune

Dave Oconnell

Empty nest parents better viewed as former owners

A Different View with Dave O’Connell there’s a wonderful line in Sebastian Barry’s new novel, Old God’s Time, when the main character, retired...

06.04.2023 9

Connacht Tribune

Dave Oconnell

Owning a home must be an attainable aspiration again

A Different View by Dave O’Connell The first home I ever bought cost me £34,000; it was a brand new three-bed semi-detached bungalow in a new...

30.03.2023 5

Connacht Tribune

Dave Oconnell

Dressed-down street cred helps get message across

A Different View with Dave O’Connell Journalists, for the most part, will never win awards for their sartorial elegance; the traditional image is...

23.03.2023 6

Connacht Tribune

Dave Oconnell

Time and a place for togs – and it’s not in a snowstorm

A Different View with Dave O’Connell Paul Mescal has a lot to answer for – and it’s nothing to do with his Oscar nights or his antics in Normal...

16.03.2023 5

Connacht Tribune

Dave Oconnell

Funerals offer chance to reflect on lives well lived

A Different View with Dave O’Connell It’s a strange thing to go to a funeral when you don’t really know the deceased – because, when you take...

09.03.2023 9

Connacht Tribune

Dave Oconnell

Remembering a girl who came back from the depths of hell

A Different View with Dave O’Connell The shy child was now a woman with a voice that she demands will be heard for the rest of her days, but her...

02.03.2023 40

Connacht Tribune

Dave Oconnell

Barney’s back – but he’s had new teeth and a big nose job

A Different View with Dave O’Connell I’ts definitely twenty years ago since the eldest son – now well into his twenties – was celebrating a...

23.02.2023 6

Connacht Tribune

Dave Oconnell

Curse of insomnia – sure it could happen to a bishop

A Different View with Dave O’Connell There’s consolation of a sort for the thousands out there who tossed and turned in the quest for sleep...

16.02.2023 5

Connacht Tribune

Dave Oconnell

Marriage works well for your health – but not your pocket

A Different View with Dave O’Connell With St Valentine’s Day firmly on the horizon, thoughts for some may turn to love and even marriage –...

09.02.2023 10

Connacht Tribune

Dave Oconnell

Betting on the thrill of the chase can come at a cost

A Different View with Dave O’Connell I’ve never understood betting but, just as I’ve never understood astrophysics either, I’ve plenty of time...

02.02.2023 30

Connacht Tribune

Dave Oconnell

Caught by online fraudsters – and rescued by the bank

A Different View with Dave O’Connell Somewhere in a supermarket in Australia last week, a person or persons spent €57.88 of my money on food or...

26.01.2023 20

Connacht Tribune

Dave Oconnell

What your taste in music says about your own state of mind

A Different View with Dave O’Connell As Elton John once said, sad songs say so much. But now it turns out so do Adele songs or classics by the...

19.01.2023 10

Connacht Tribune

Dave Oconnell

Viewing options ensure TV will never be the same again

A Different View with Dave O’Connell Much has been written about the downturn in newspaper sales, and in printed matter generally, on foot of the...

12.01.2023 7

Connacht Tribune

Dave Oconnell

When is the child’s bedroom no longer just theirs forever?

A Different View with Dave O’Connell There is an age-old parental conundrum as to when you should clear out and do up your grown-up children’s...

05.01.2023 9

Connacht Tribune

Dave Oconnell

Keep an ear open as well to the world around you

A Different View with Dave O’Connell There was a time when the height of audio sophistication was a single white earpiece connected by chord to your...

29.12.2022 10

Connacht Tribune

Dave Oconnell

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