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Articles by John Arnold
John Arnold: ‘Blackas’, Christy Ring... words of wisdom in a book of poetry
Monday was November 2, All Souls Day - the day when we remember all those family members, relations, and friends who have died. As our priest Fr Joe reminded us at 9.30 Mass in Bartlemy, it’s also a day to recall and pray for those who have no-one left to speak their name. All Souls Day is usually the day I’d visit as many cemeteries as possible to pray at the gravesides of loved ones.
John Arnold: I completed the holy trinity... Medjugorje, Lourdes, Fatima
I’m not absolutely certain, but I think I saw the film 101 Dalmatians in a cinema many years ago, and of course in recent decades it’s often been screened on television. I knew very little about the breed of dog or its history until last week. We had two wonderful tour guides and on a day trip in Croatia from Makaraska to Dubrovnik, he explained everything to us.
John Arnold: It took 45 years, but we’ve finally made it to our honeymoon destination
Look, I know, one should forgive and forget, but with some things - it’s very hard indeed! Like Tito for example – I never met him, nor anyone else that actually encountered Josip Broz, for that was Marshall Tito’s, or if you like, President Tito’s, real name. To be honest, back in May of 1980, my wife and I never even knew the man was sick. What do they say about ‘The best laid plans of mice and men…’, yes indeed, they do ‘oft go astray’.
John Arnold: ‘We can only imagine joy in Cork family when Dublin won’
Sisters Ellen and Catherine Connors were both born in Ballyhooley in or around 1810. Their father was a publican or, as they used to say back then, a vintner; relations still own and operate the Roundy House in the village. Ellen married Batt Arnold, my grandfather’s grandfather, in 1834. Three years earlier, Catherine had married Patrick Barry. A son of that marriage, Daniel Barry, was a first cousin of my great-grandfather Daniel Arnold.
John Arnold: A year since I milked my last cow... and I have no regrets
Long ago in the GAA, there were just three grades for club teams - Senior, Junior and Minor - and none of these were age groups. For example, the Minor Grade was not just for players under the age of 18 (or 17 as it now is) - no, it was simply the Third Grade for clubs here in Cork. Then things changed in the 1920s when Minor meant the grade for players who were not over 18.
John Arnold: Napoleon, William of Orange... and my own take on ‘history’
I suppose ‘keeping it in the family’ was very important long ago. This was especially so when it came to money, land, and power. Amazing, isn’t it, that decades - even centuries - after an event happening, the repercussions can still reverberate down the corridors of time. Over the weekend, echoes of 1998, yes, and 1798, and even the 1600s dominated the news in this small country of ours.
John Arnold: 100 years after his death, Cork will remember Sam Maguire
The town of Dunmanway wasn’t overcrowded on Tuesday, February 8, 1927. Despite ‘discouragement’ from Church and State, ‘Old’ IRA men - most of them Catholics, friends, and neighbours - turned up for a funeral in the local Protestant Church, St Mary’s. Two days earlier, Sam Maguire had died in his family home at Maulabracka just outside the town. A month short of his 49th birthday, Sam had suffered with TB for a number of years - his brother William was present when he died.
John Arnold: A day at the races... but using AI to select bets lost me €60!
Ye all know that I know very little about this new AI (Artificial Intelligence) thing, but apparently it can be used in several beneficial ways like helping to scrutinise X-ray results and other medical tests. A warning of a possible Doomsday scenario in relation to AI came just last week from an unlikely source. Two years ago, Geoffrey Hinton won a Nobel Prize for Physics for his pioneering work on ‘learning machines to think’. Indeed, many regard Hinton as the real ‘founder’ of AI.
John Arnold: Mystery of life and death of a Cork emigrant is finally solved
I’d never heard of the Western Sydney University until a few days ago when I was going back over bits and pieces I had written over the last half-century or more. Sixty-five years ago this week, my father died - I was just four years of age and in truth never really remember him.
John Arnold: Dave was buried in England... but his home was always Cork
Walking slowly along the path, looking at all the names, all the Irish surnames, was a strange experience. I could have been at home in practically any part of Ireland. Of course, there were plenty other names too, but Meara, Burke, Cassidy, Beirne, Murphy and so, so many others - amazing. I was never in the city of Manchester until last week when I attended a funeral there. The burial took place in the Southern Cemetery in the city.
John Arnold: Can you really put a curse on someone or a place?
Can you really put a curse on someone, or on a family or a parish, a team or a whole county? Good question that, especially now in the after-glow of Mayo’s brilliant win in the All Ireland Football Final against Kerry last month. For 75 long, lonesome years - seven and a half decades - the boys from the County Mayo toiled and strove might and main but to no good.
John Arnold: At an ancient Cork well, I took a moment to ponder and reflect
I’m not sure where I first heard of or read the Irish phrase ‘áit iargúlta’ - maybe it was in Seadna by An t-Athair Peadar. Anyhow, is cuma, no matter, it’s just an amazing little phrase. Just two words but it conjures up so much.
John Arnold: Back to the future..thoughts from the summer of 2086
‘How do you mean -taking books to school? Did ye actually have real books made of paper in the house and went to a real school building-like we saw in the online museum?’ It’s the month of August in the year 2086. The summer is nearly over, and the temperatures are dropping back to near normality – a cool 36C by night and around 42C in the afternoon. There is great excitement all over the country as the 1986 Census of Ireland returns have just been released.
NRG Nears 1.2-GW Hyperscaler Deal Amid Texas Data Center Pause
Troutman Pepper Locke’s John Arnold, Brandon Lobb, and Rachael Beavers‘s article, “Texas Hits Pause on Data Center Grid Connections Amid Growing Oversight Push,” was quoted in the August 6, 2026, Utility Dive article, “NRG Nears 1.2-GW Hyperscaler Deal Amid Texas Data Center Pause.” It’s unclear whether Gov. Abbott’s “audit” of Texas data center projects seeking grid interconnections will affect the deal announced this week or NRG’s broader BYOP strategy.
John Arnold: Imagine... we nearly got our own railway here in Bartlemy
I was only ten when the train to Fermoy from Mallow and on to Waterford ceased to operate. So ’twill be 60 years next March since the last train left Fermoy Station. Once, that I can remember, was I at Fermoy Station to see an actual train on the tracks there. It must have been in the mid-1960s. My father had a first cousin, Seamus Barry who lived in Bristol. His father James Barry was a brother of my grandmother. James emigrated to England and married Mary O’Curry from Belfast.
John Arnold: What’s this Tinder? I used to swipe right for The Siege Of Ennis...
Someone was trying to persuade me lately that I sang an incorrect version of one of my very own favourite Elvis songs. We had a heated argument, and anyone that knows me will agree that in my youth (in the last century) I bore an uncanny resemblance to the King. Other than the fact I had foxy curly hair and a freckled face, I think one could see certain similarities in our facial profiles and muscular formation.
John Arnold: My pilgrimage to Fatima left me pondering mysteries of life
One of the most famous paintings by the Italian artist Caravaggio is ‘The Calling of Saint Matthew’. Painted around the year 1600 for the Contarelli Chapel in Rome, the masterpiece still hangs there to this day. Like the Mona Lisa by Leonarda da Vinci, ‘The Calling’ has a certain mystery and mystique about it. Just as no one knows if the female figure is smiling in mirth or in happiness, similar questions remain four centuries after it was completed.
John Arnold: ‘When we had cash, you had to cut your cloth to suit your measure’
Talking to children lately about money and cash, and notes and coins, you know, I felt as though they thought I was living close to Stone Age times. With so much talk nowadays of the ‘digital age’ and so many things being done by AI, I think to myself ‘where is it all going to end?’ Then everyone, well nearly everyone, says change is great. Others muse, ‘the more things change, the more they stay the same’ -sounds like a contradiction, doesn’t it?
The World Cup is exactly what America needed | Opinion
Soccer fans, dressed in USA kits, watch warmups before a World Cup round of 16 soccer match between Canada and Morocco in Houston, Saturday, July 4, 2026. Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle The World Cup is exactly what America needed, at exactly the right time. In an era when nearly everything divides, sports has a unique ability to unite. All of us have watched that play out over the past several weeks.
John Arnold: At my last meeting with Sr Colette she said 'God might call me'
A 14-year-old girl walks through the fields on the farm with the sheepdog. She knows that these same fields and this farm could one day be hers. She has been living here in Farnane Upper in Waterford with her uncle and his wife since she was five. From the Looby’s home, she had gone to the local National School in Kilbrien. Born in Barracree on Thursday, January 31, 1918, to John Hickey and his wife Bridget Looby, the newborn girl was christened Bridget Teresa, and known as Biddy.
John Arnold: The hay-making day when tea was laced with carbolic soap
We were in Thurles in plenty of time on Sunday last. It was a really early start that morning as we had a car boot sale in Rathcormac. I was on the ‘second shift’ from 7am until Bartlemy Mass time at 9.30am. We weren’t exactly like d’Unbelievables who had ‘the dinner early to get a good run at the day’. Luckily, I wasn’t driving on Sunday as we headed off for the birthplace of the GAA at 10.30am. It’s just 54 years, 1972, since I attended my first big hurling game in Thurles.
Spor Gündeminde Bugün Öne Çıkanlar
Fenerbahçe Kulübü, bugün gerçekleşen olağanüstü genel kurulda tarihinin en kritik seçimlerinden birini yapıyor. Verilecek karar kulübün gelecek yıllardaki sportif ve ekonomik rotasını belirleyecek. Seçim sonucu kulübün geleceği açısından belirleyici olacak. ARDA GÜLER DÜNYA LİSTESİNDE BİRİNCİ Arda Güler 124,8 milyon euroluk değeriyle dünyanın en pahalı hücumcu orta saha oyuncusu oldu. Genç yetenek bu alanda ilk sırada yer alıyor.
John Arnold: Fond memories of Jim... who answered SOS when I was born
Now in my 70th year, every now and then I try to remember what I first remember! That may sound strange, and maybe it is; but it’s hard sometimes to differentiate between one’s own memory and things learned down the years from others. Though I was four-and-a-half years old when my father died in September 1961, I have no clear recollection of him at all. Despite that lack of paternal recall, I think I have a memory of my grandmother- my father’s mother - who died in 1959 when I was two.
Why do cricket balls have to be so hard?
Credit: YellowMonkey/Blnguyen / Wikipedia The game of cricket is believed to have originated in rural England sometime in the 16th or 17th century. The earliest versions of cricket balls had no standard size, weight or stitching: they were handmade by locals and consisted of a round leather case filled with materials such as cork or wool. As there were no set requirements or construction methods, each ball was different, and this affected how it bounced, moved and rebounded off the bat.
Why do cricket balls have to be so hard?
The game of cricket is believed to have originated in rural England sometime in the 16th or 17th century. The earliest versions of cricket balls had no standard size, weight or stitching: they were handmade by locals and consisted of a round leather case filled with materials such as cork or wool. As there were no set requirements or construction methods, each ball was different, and this affected how it bounced, moved and rebounded off the bat.
Why do cricket balls have to be so hard?
Battle of the Sexes is the sequel no one wanted. Why is the BBC indulging such an ugly spectacle? The tennis season may be over but silly season is in full swing, and the last match of 2025 is likely to be its worst. Sunday will stage the ‘Battle …
Running ‘super shoes’ may make you faster - but at what cost?
Once seen only on the feet of elite runners at the Olympics and other premier running events, the so-called “super shoe” has moved from racing podiums to pavements. Today, you’re just about as likely to spot them at a Saturday Parkrun as you are on the world stage. So what are they exactly, how do they work and do they potentially increase injury risk? What are ‘super shoes’?
Dick’s ashes brought home to Cork, to be scattered by his parents’ graves
There’s a famous story told about Daniel O’Connell and a man breaking stones by the roadside in 1829. The Liberator was heading home to Derrynane in Kerry shortly after the passing of the Catholic Emancipation Act in the English House of Commons. The stonebreaker enquired as to what way the change in the legislation might effect his life.
70 years a Brother... Dan has served God and the people well
There was a huge crowd at the Dungourney versus Lisgoold hurling game in Castlelyons last Sunday. After a rip-roaring match, the men from Jamesey Kelleher’s parish won. One very interested and vocal Dungourney supporter was Dan Leahy, or to give him his correct title, Brother Nicholas Leahy. He celebrated his 87th birthday the day before the match, so overall it was a great weekend for the affable and adventurous octogenarian.
Down the generations, locals long had a beef with our bull!
I find it hard to imagine that Tom Scanlan is dead over 30 years. Tom was 75 when he died suddenly in June, 1994 - at the time I was 37. Though close on four decades separated us in age, we were great friends. Similarly, he’d been a close friend and neighbour of both my father and my father-in-law. All three were born between 1910 and 1920 - a tumultuous decade in the history of this country.
I wept at Croker, not for Cork’s loss, but for Tipp’s ‘16th man’
Well, people are just great, aren’t they? Ah yes, I cried in Croke Park last Sunday. My tears were not for the Cork team -they came to Dublin to win but never really got going and Tipperary were far better on the day. No need for tears on that account. Yes, sport can be wonderful, so brilliant; but it can also be so, so cruel. The cause of my crying came during a magnificent acceptance speech by Tipperary Team captain Ronan Maher.
Successful transcatheter device occlusion of a silent patent ductus arteriosus after treatment for infective endarteritis
Hostname: page-component-6bb9c88b65-znhjv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-07-24T03:35:33.280Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 July 2025 Danielle D. Strah [Opens in a new window] , Stephen T. Dalby [Opens in a new window] , Brent M.
Successful transcatheter device occlusion of a silent patent ductus arteriosus after treatment for infective endarteritis
Case presentation A 5-year-old male with past medical history of surgical repair of cleft lip and palate but no known cardiac history presented to the emergency department with persistent fevers for 9 days duration and worsening respiratory distress despite completion of cefdinir and azithromycin courses for presumed pneumonia. His cardiac exam was normal with no murmur auscultated.
As the bells tolled for Durcan, I toiled with the hay, recalling his wonderful poem
We were turning the hay last Thursday at high noon, no panic and no rain, until Friday at least - it never came Friday, nor Saturday either, just a squib on Sunday. Last week and the week before were glorious. I know one old saying runs, ‘A wet and windy May fills the barns with hay’, and older generations of farmers would frown and shake their wise old heads at the very thought of cutting hay in the sacred month of May.
Catholic perspective on end-of-life planning
By Fr. John Arnold, St. Mark Catholic Church, Oro Valley Preparing for death is an ancient Christian practice. Christ gave his death on the cross away for the salvation of our souls and Christians, following his example, prepare to give their death away for those they love. My grandfather Walter Peter, a devout Catholic man, just before he died told those at his death bed, “The things of this world are as naught.” That is what my mom told me.
Farewell to our beloved puss - a farmyard cat like no other
Our sheepdog Murph never liked cats. I suppose ’twouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that he actually hated cats - all cats! We got Murph as a pup around 2005 and named him after my cousin, who gave us the little whitish pet after our previous dog Tiger had died. For nearly 15 years Murph served family and farm here in an admirable fashion. People say that on a farm, when one dog is getting older it’s time to bring in a younger pup and leave him pick up the ways of the canine world.
The night a pig really flew on drive home from GAA victory
While I’d be a hurling man myself, as a life-long GAA member I have a great grá for Gaelic football too. Back in the 1880s, when there was a bit of a schism in the Association here on Leeside, three different and rival ‘County Boards’ were in existence for a few years. Those were troubled and tumultuous times in the fledgling GAA, with the political Parnell ‘Split’ resonating right throughout Irish society.
You’ll never guess which Cork ditty I sang in Pompeii arena!
I’m not sure if Pavarotti, Mario Lanza or Enrico Caruso ever sang solo in the amphitheatre in Pompeii. But only last week I got my chance in the 5,000 seater arena in Italy! Our Italian guide was wonderful, she knew the full history of the town that got covered with ash on St Bartholomew’s Day in the year 79AD. She answered our questions without a bother. Maybe 500 were in the circular area when we arrived.
How do I know when it’s time to replace my running shoes?
Conventional wisdom tells us the average lifespan of a running shoe is around 500 to 800 kilometres. But where did this advice come from, and is it based on science? Some evidence comes from impact testing with machines designed to simulate the shoe repeatedly contacting the ground during running. Other evidence comes from monitoring runners who have used shoes in the real world for long periods. This research is often focused on shoe materials and structure.
Cork community revive harvest festival in bid to keep parish hall open
I was asked just this week by a person from the northern part of the county: “Did you ever hear of the Bartlemy Thrasher?” The strange thing was, I was just about to start writing this piece and it was going to be all about our recent harvest festival held just last week. The two subjects are intrinsically linked - the ‘Thrasher’ and the harvest - wasn’t it strange the two should collide at the one time?
How do I know when it’s time to replace my running shoes?
Any runner will tell you there’s nothing better than slipping on a brand new pair of shoes. But how regularly should runners fork out hundreds of dollars on their next pair? Conventional wisdom tells us the average lifespan of a running shoe is around 500 to 800 kilometres. But where did this advice come from, and is it based on science? Some evidence comes from impact testing with machines designed to simulate the shoe repeatedly contacting the ground during running.
How do I know when it’s time to replace my running shoes?
Written by John Arnold, Senior lecturer, Sport & Exercise Biomechanics, University of South Australia Any runner will tell you there’s nothing better than slipping on a brand new pair of shoes. But how regularly should runners fork out hundreds of dollars on their next pair? Conventional wisdom tells us the average lifespan of a running shoe is around 500 to 800 kilometres. But where did this advice come from, and is it based on science?
A master storyteller who had a wonderful way with words
The gift of bilocation - the ability to be in two places at once - would be great, but I’ve not yet acquired it! Usually, I get a diary around Christmas each year to have near the phone on the wall - yes, we still have one of these, and very handy it is too! Well, early in the New Year the ‘hardy annual’ dates are pencilled in to that ‘page a day’ diary - dates like the Point to Point Races, pilgrimage to Lourdes, birthdays, anniversaries and weddings coming up.
An uplifting experience, being close to St Bernadette in Cork
’Twas Karl Marx that said ‘religion is the opium of the people’, and on first glance it seemed as though the German thinker was just plain anti-religious and simply attacking anyone who had any religious inclination or belief. There’s an old Irish seanfhocail, ‘Ní mar a shíltear a bhítear’ - things are not always as they seem - and no- one can deny the wisdom and truth of these few words.
Tales as Gaeilge, of forts, fields and Blonde Sheila of the Knife
Is maith liom an Gaeilge, and I speak it any chance I get. Yes, I have a great grá for our native tongue, though I could never get the hang of Irish grammar, but then again, things like an tuiseal ginideach and an tuiseal laithreach aren’t that important. Around this time of the year half a century ago, I was in a quandary, pondering my future.
Sorry, lads, this will always be the All-Ireland Final weekend!
Oh, leave me alone will you Dolores Keane, and that most haunting song Teddy O’Neill! It’s the first week of September, but my biological and sporting clock is all upset and tri na cheile - ’tis like a mixture of puberty, middle-age angst and post-pension blues! I don’t know where to start, but I suppose the beginning is as good as anywhere to start my tale of woe. Hold on now a second or an hour, John, I can hear ye say - maybe woe is too strong a sentiment to be expressing.
Cork community undertake marathon fund-raising cycle in memory of friend
Cliff Richard had a huge hit one time with a song entitled The Young Ones. It contains a beautiful line ‘Once in every lifetime, comes a love like this’ and those few words truly sum up the life of Jeremiah Ronayne. A larger than life figure, he lived and loved in a manner that showed his indomitable spirit and generosity. Jeremiah loved his family, friends and neighbours in Lavally, near Mallow, and loved life in all its aspects.
Brave Irish citizens who died in pursuit of a fairer society
Is there really such a thing as a just war? Can violence be sometimes or never justified? Was it the bould Daniel O’Connell that said, ‘No political change is worth spilling a drop of blood for’? In a Utopian society there would be no need for anything except peace, love and harmony - but where do we find it? Ah yes, so many ifs and buts, but in reality we live in an imperfect world. Truly lofty aspirations are worth grasping at, but are oft times unattainable so we have to settle for second best.
Dating rituals and chat-up lines in our youth
Ah, the long summer evenings of August long ago. When the day’s work finished, how many hearts and minds turned towards music, dance, and just possibly romance? Whether it was a bus trip down to the Majorca in Crosshaven or across to the Highland in Newmarket, a joyous journey to Redbarn outside Youghal, or an unsophisticated but delightful platform dance in Inchigeela, those were the places that memories were made. Which do you remember best?
90 today, a Cork Olympian and a horse rider par excellence
The Munich Olympic Games of 1972 are unfortunately remembered by many because of terrorism and killing rather than any athletic prowess. What is now generally referred to as ‘The Munich Massacre’ happened when members of the Palestinian ‘Black September’, a radical militant group, attacked the Israeli Olympic team, killing two and taking nine hostages - these were all killed subsequently after a rescue attempt failed.
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