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My time as a porn star left me suicidal -- but now I help others escape this twisted industry

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 05:00:00 +0000

April Garris is a mum. She is bubbly, well-spoken and works as a service technician, fixing warehouse equipment around the area where she lives in California. She is also an ex-porn star who appeared in 20 hardcore films, used crystal meth and was committed to a psychiatric ward after she reached rock bottom and wasn't sure she could go on with the life in which she found herself.

'Music is a great healer'

Sat, 06 Mar 2010 05:00:00 +0000

This is Mairéad Ni Mhaonaigh's year. As lead singer of Altan, she is celebrating 25 years as the most recognisable face of Ireland's most recognisable trad group.

Women behaving badly

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 05:00:00 +0000

Our staff party was a month late, and much-needed. Since the end of last year, I've been working at a high-end restaurant in Chelsea, but this was the first proper staff party I had attended.

The mother of all work problems

Sat, 06 Mar 2010 05:00:00 +0000

An important moment in the history of women will occur at some unspecified point in the next few months. An unknown American will arrive for her first day of work and the gender balance in the US workplace will, for the first time, tip in favour of women. Men will be in the minority, albeit a pretty large minority.

I'll show Simon Cowell how to do a real charity single

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 05:00:00 +0000

It was the moment when Shane MacGowan decided he could not sit back and do nothing. He had to rush out a single to raise money for victims of the Haiti earthquake when he first heard what Simon Cowell's hand-picked starlets had done with REM's 'Everybody Hurts'.

British high street's first disabled model

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 11:34:42 +0000

A woman who uses a wheelchair is to become the first disabled model on the British high street when she is featured in a department store's window display.

I love animals -- but I'm happy to cut them up if it will save humans

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 05:00:00 +0000

Growing up in the country, I had pets galore. I was given a puppy when I was just days old and 'Dusty' remained a solid part of our family until he died 14 years later.

Poll: Rape victims partly to blame

Mon, 15 Feb 2010 14:30:27 +0000

More than half of Britons believe some rape victims should take responsibility for being attacked, research has suggested.

I had 15 abortions... it was my terrible addiction

Sat, 23 Jan 2010 05:00:00 +0000

Some people are addicted to alcohol, others to drugs. But self-professed abortion-addict Irene Vilar derived her highs -- and devastating lows -- from beginning and ending pregnancies; 15 in all.

Teenage boys warned over abuse

Mon, 15 Feb 2010 14:34:02 +0000

Teenage boys have been urged not to violently abuse their girlfriends in a new UK Government campaign.

My advice to this nation of moaning Minnies -- get over it

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 05:00:00 +0000

Earlier this month, I woke up in Connolly Hospital in Blanchards- town, north Dublin, attached to a drip. I was about to have keyhole surgery to have my appendix removed, or so the surgeon who examined me the previous night had said.

How writing a song helped me come to terms with the death of my father

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 05:00:00 +0000

Newstalk broadcaster and songwriter Eamon Keane this week launches his first album called Hang The Moon. Eamon, who presents the Lunchtime programme, has always loved music, having written for other artists, TV and the stage. It's a very different aspect to the man who grills the nation's politicians.

Men's hard work in the home is ignored by women, study finds

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 11:30:57 +0000

Men do far more housework than they are given credit for, according to research that claims women do not notice because their male partners "don't make a fuss".

From Blackberry to baby bottle

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 05:00:00 +0000

We've always known that Irish people love their mammies, and with Ireland having the highest fertility rate in Europe, it's clear that we love being mammies too.

The legend of Lying Eyes

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 05:00:00 +0000

IT was a bizarre tale that gripped the nation and the endless fascination it generated will reignite this week as the appeal hearing takes centre stage.

The Power of Attorney

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 05:00:00 +0000

A fortune worth millions, a valuable art collection, a family at war. Liam Collins tells the extraordinary story of businessman Gordon Lambert and explores why he left the bulk of his fortune not to his family but to a man who didn't even consider himself to be in his social circle until the dying man's final days

Family-friendly policy

Sat, 06 Mar 2010 05:00:00 +0000

Home-furnishing suppliers Kevin Dempsey Distributors have been badly hit by the recession, with sales down almost 28pc. But managing director Kevin Dempsey says he has no intention of changing any of his family-friendly policies to cut costs.

Una Nolan - Full-time mother

Sat, 06 Mar 2010 05:00:00 +0000

I felt guilty all the time," says 37-year-old Una Nolan, who decided to leave her job as a senior project manager with a financial institution after having her second child. It's a common refrain for many working mothers.

Lulu O'Sullivan - Founder of GiftsDirect.com

Sat, 06 Mar 2010 05:00:00 +0000

In her early 20s, Lulu O'Sullivan set up her own gift-supply company. Two years later, she had her first child. Now 44, Lulu has four children ranging in age from 10 to 20. Her company Gifts Direct (www.giftsdirect.com) employs 12 people full-time and up to 40-50 temporary workers during busy seasons, such as Christmas.

Can having too much money really make you miserable?

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 05:00:00 +0000

For those of us not rolling in it, the idiom that money can't buy happiness brings a certain comfort. But the notion that riches can make you actively unhappy? Would that we could all test that theory.

How your money has put a smile back on little Josephine's face

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 05:00:00 +0000

Josephine Lubin is one of thousands of children whose lives have been turned upside down by the devastating earthquake which struck Haiti on January 12.

Why our donations to Haiti really make a difference

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 05:00:00 +0000

In times of recession and budget cutbacks, people are asking why the government continues to spend money on overseas aid when we need it here at home.

Missing Jonathan

Sun, 28 Feb 2010 05:00:00 +0000

With grief, you have to leave all your doors and windows open; it comes and goes as it pleases." So says Abie Philbin Bowman, younger brother of Jonathan Philbin Bowman, as we approach the 10-year anniversary of Jonathan's tragic and sudden death. It's something Abie describes as "a little bit like your own personal 9/11. Such a shocking and profound event in your life that it's almost impossible to work out all the impacts that it has had." Those 10 years have been as kind as they can be, softening the edges of pain, though leaving the centre largely untouched. Missing Jonathan is no less active an emotion now than it was then.

' We have it all now... don't we?'

Sat, 27 Feb 2010 05:00:00 +0000

It's 10pm, and I am trying to write this piece while bellowing at my five-year-old to go to sleep. "Mum's using rude words again," he tells his brother and sister delightedly, while I mutter under my breath and try to concentrate.

Paris Hilton ad attracts complaints

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 10:59:50 +0000

Paris Hilton is causing a stir in Brazil, where a government department has claimed a beer commercial in which she stars is demeaning to women.

Our bitter memories of Doctor Heartbreak

Sat, 20 Feb 2010 05:00:00 +0000

In one of the most infamous episodes in Irish medical history, Dr Michael Neary unnecessarily removed the wombs of a large number of women at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda from 1974 to 1998.