SOME older readers will recall The Irish Weekly—sister paper of The Irish News—being sold in churches throughout Scotland. It was a Nationalist and Catholic publication, which, in 1892 incorporated The Ulster Examiner. The content was of Irish interest whether in news, prose, history or verse.

IT IS perhaps the human condition to take for granted your good fortune. However, I have no excuse for failing to regularly remind myself that for the past 30 years, I’ve been able to call Ireland’s best-kept secret my homeplace.