Mary Kenny

As an island nation, Ireland relies heavily on connectivity and access to the world at large. Photo: Tom Burke

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Mary Kenny Opinion Aviation opened up the world to us, now it needs our support to get airborne again

My mother came of age in the early years of the Free State, and over the course of her lifetime two aspects of being Irish made her hugely proud. One was the “little green passport” with “Eire” embossed on the front cover. The other was the sight of an Aer Lingus aircraft flying the flag to international destinations.

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Mary Kenny Opinion ‘I’ve just attended the wedding of one of my oldest friends. The bride was a radiant 78 and the groom a glowing 83’

Can people find love — and marriage — in their mature years? I have the evidence that they can: I’ve just attended the wedding of one of my oldest friends. The bride was a radiant 78 and the groom a glowing 83.

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Mary Kenny Opinion ‘After a long exile, soon I’ll be back in my native Dublin... free to stroll the banks of the Dodder and reminisce about bohemian Baggotonia’

Very soon, all going well, fingers crossed, le cúnamh Dé, and Inshallah, I expect to be back in my native Dublin again, after a long exile caused by the wretched virus. So, doubly vaccinated, distance-abiding and in the open air, I should be free to stroll by the banks of the Dodder river and its environs, watching the waters run over the little brooks and weirs, and the willows bend their graceful boughs.

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Mary Kenny Opinion ‘Jeff Bezos may have changed how we shop forever but no amount of AI can replace real retail’s human touch’

Major emergency! I lost my mobile phone charger — and without an electric charger the battery would run down, with the unthinkable result of no mobile phone. What to do? Go on Amazon. See screenshots of various charging devices. Click on suitable one. The next morning, a new phone charger plops through my letter box, for the price of a tenner.

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Mary Kenny Opinion ‘Punctuation inspires passion. People have been driven into paroxysms of rage by the simple misuse of an apostrophe’

There’s a joke about an old grammarian on his deathbed. “I die, or I am dying — both are correct,” are his last words. I don’t think that grammar and syntax will be the last thing on my mind when I depart this world, but it’s surprising how much passion and inflammatory feelings such matters can inspire.

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Mary Kenny Opinion ‘Before Article 41.2 is deleted, let us face the honest truth about the “woman in the home”: it was never more than window-dressing’

Abolish the “woman in the home” clause in the Constitution! That seems to be the judgement of the Citizens’ Assembly. The 99-member body concluded that Article 41.2, wherein it is affirmed that “the State recognises that by her life within the home, woman gives to the State a support without which the common good cannot be achieved”, should go. The phrasing is outdated and the pledge is a hindrance to gender equality.

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Mary Kenny Opinion ‘A united Ireland will happen in the foreseeable future — but a shared island will be a different country’

Predictions are often a mug’s game — who predicted the pandemic and its impact? — but I’d still take a futures bet on this: there will be a united Ireland in the foreseeable future.

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Mary Kenny Opinion ‘We are fascinated by “the family face”: we see it in old family photographs — and we look for it in the royals’

Despite the global spotlight on Prince Philip’s funeral last weekend, not everyone is a fan of royalty. Some people in this country weren’t keen on flags flying at half-mast. And plenty of rational republicans — those who favour a republic as a democratic form of governance — can’t understand the survival of monarchy. Why should an accident of birth favour one family? Why should an individual receive exceptional deference because an ancestor ascended a throne, once upon a time? That time is over, surely.

Mary Kenny Opinion ‘Colour-blind casting treads a delicate path between fair employment and plausible drama’

Thandiwe Newton is a terrific actress — and, as it happens, a stunning beauty — who has recently attracted even more renown by changing her name back to its original African composition. When she first began her career, the original Zulu “Thandiwe” was anglicised to “Thandie”. For Ms Newton, now 48, restoring the original is about reclaiming her identity: her father was English, her mother a Zulu princess. She has received overwhelming support from people who applaud the authenticity of the gesture.

Britain's Prince Philip in 2012. Picture: Reuters

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Mary Kenny Opinion Prince Philip: the penniless exile who overcame a nomadic childhood marked by tragedy

WHEN it was first known that Prince Philip and the then Princess Elizabeth were in love – she had been smitten by him since she was 15 – the royal family was not delighted.

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Mary Kenny Opinion ‘The social peck is a relatively new feature of Irish society. Is it one we should kiss goodbye to post-lockdown?’

Were you brought up to kiss, hug and embrace those you only knew quite slightly? Most Irish people, I think, used to be quite reticent on this score. The kiss and the cuddle might be a family thing — although even among families, not all were kissy-huggy — but the ‘social kiss’ wasn’t a common feature of Irish society.

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Mary Kenny Opinion ‘It’s fascinating that in an increasingly secular world, the challenge of a pilgrimage has been growing steadily’

Here’s another Easter passing by, and I still haven’t fulfilled an ambition to walk the Camino pilgrimage, those 780km across Spain to Santiago de Compostela. This year, I’m blaming it on the restrictions imposed by Covid, rather than admit that the notion of setting off on such an April trek is probably beyond my capability.

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Mary Kenny Opinion From pop in Papua New Guinea to golden oldies in Japan, my trip around the world in 80 radio stations…

Gay Byrne always said that radio was more person-to-person than television: on TV, you’re speaking to masses. On radio, you’re communicating with just one person at a time.

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Mary Kenny Opinion ‘Museums used to be about conserving the past, but now they’re also about forging the present and even predicting the future’

Won’t it be marvellous when the museums and galleries open again and we can actually see real art, real sculpture, real antiquities? Online is fine, but “being there” is the experience.

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Mary Kenny Opinion ‘Maternity leave is great — but there is always going to be a degree of FOMO’

We should, I think, all welcome the statement made on behalf of Minister Helen McEntee that she intends to take her full six months of maternity leave — not just for her own benefit, but to “pave the way” for other female politicians’ rights. (At present, there is no provision for TDs to take maternity leave, although this is likely to be amended in the near future).

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Mary Kenny Opinion ‘Isolation is the worst thing for alcoholics — they need social networks if they are to recover’

As a recovering — hopefully, recovered — alcoholic, I have no problem with the Minister for Justice’s proposal to bring Sunday pub trading hours into line with longer weekday hours, or allowing the sale of alcohol at a variety of venues. Hours of the day at which you can purchase liquor are not the problem.

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Mary Kenny Opinion Is one person’s erotica – and freedom of expression – another person’s offensive pornography?

Saoirse Ronan’s new movie, Ammonite, is about Mary Anning, a shy young woman who was a pioneering fossil-hunter. Her achievements were never credited in her lifetime by male academics, but the value of her work has been rediscovered. The film also introduces an apparently fictional theme in Mary Anning’s life — a same-sex relationship, which is said to be hot stuff, when Kate Winslet as Mary falls for Saoirse’s character, Charlotte.

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Mary Kenny Opinion ‘Yes, I miss the dear loved ones I cannot see to hug, but by heaven, I miss my hairdresser’

If you saw me now, you’d call me a holy show. I’m a cross between the Wild Woman of Borneo and the Madwoman of Chaillot. It’s the hair. It’s a sight. Everyone’s locks have grown during lockdown, but some people have lucky hair, which just looks longer and fuller. Mine just sprouts in annoying wisps all over the place.

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Mary Kenny Opinion ‘Saucy and playful, frothy French comedy Call My Agent has been the perfect lockdown escape’

With the loss of real cinema — and theatre — over lockdown, most of us have had to find our entertainment via alternative sources. My most recent screen pleasure is the hit French comedy-drama Call My Agent. It’s a scream!

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Mary Kenny Opinion ‘Film star Jane Russell’s transatlantic adoption story illuminates the times she lived in’

Jane Russell was, in her time, a very famous film star — you may have seen her alongside Marilyn Monroe in the classic “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes”, released in 1953. She first hit notoriety when she starred in Howard Hughes’ “The Outlaw”, as a sulky, sexy, siren lying on a bed of straw: Hughes, an engineer, had designed a special cantilevered bra to the shape of Jane’s voluptuous figure (although she says in her autobiography that she never actually wore it).

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What time is dinner? Fashionable fasting brings us back to the past

I did a brave thing on January 1 this year. I stepped onto the weighing scales. The horror that I had suspected — you often judge by the fit of your clothes — was confirmed. I’d gained a stone over the course of the previous 10 months. Aaargh!

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Mary Kenny Opinion ‘Marie Stopes may have been a pioneer in family planning, but she was also a racist, a eugenicist and an admirer of Hitler’

You can be a very progressive person, ahead of your time, and a pioneer of new ideas that are subsequently accepted and endorsed. You can also be a very progressive person in your time, and subsequently denounced and disowned by those who inherit your values. That is what has happened with Marie Stopes, the birth control pioneer.

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Mary Kenny Opinion ‘Like her or loathe her, you have to acknowledge Meghan Markle is the undisputed queen of soft power’

In this century, “soft power” is often said to have replaced “hard power”: that is, the power of enormous influence over the lives of millions has replaced tanks and guns. For example, Sweden’s power no longer lies with its military policies, which once commanded so much of northern Europe: Swedish power is now invested in Ikea, Volvo and Spotify.

City of culture: Paris has always been a lure to visitors, writers and artists

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Mary Kenny Opinion ‘I fell in love with Paris when I was 16 and have visited every year since, until Covid halted my annual pilgrimage’

My desires for this year are really very modest. I just want to visit Paris again. Covid has delivered many nasty and tragic blows to many people: it has also kept me away from Paris for the first time since I was 16 years old.

UK prime minister Boris Johnson and Taoiseach Micheal Martin greet each other with an elbow bump at Hillsborough Castle in Belfast

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Mary Kenny Opinion Waking up to a new dawn in our dealings with an old neighbour

So what will be the future relationship between Ireland and the United Kingdom look like after Brexit really kicks in? Once the wretched Covid-19 pandemic is under control, the optimistic belief is that travel and much of trade will continue successfully. The Common Travel Area between Ireland and Britain is unaffected by Brexit – it was recognised throughout the EU-UK negotiations as part of the Protocol on Ireland and Northern Ireland.

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Mary Kenny Opinion Maturing is a process for young people, not an overnight development

When do young people become mature enough to make their own decisions? It sometimes seems like a movable feast. Until 1972, voters in Ireland had to be 21 to cast their vote, but it was then changed to 18. In Scotland, 16-year-olds can vote, and there is quite a lobby to allow suffrage to 16-year-olds elsewhere, too.

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Mary Kenny Opinion ‘If you want to understand America, then watch a classic cowboy film’

Since we’ve been so engaged by American politics — between the November election and the January inauguration — I recently decided to explore US history and culture through a well-established medium: the cowboy Western. So I watched 15 classic Western films, one after another.

Security officers stand guard yesterday at an entrance of the Port of Dover as EU countries impose a travel ban from the UK following the outbreak of a new strain of Covid-19. Photo: Reuters/Matthew Childs

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Mary Kenny Opinion From Julius Caesar to Brexit, Dover always finds itself the port in a storm

Before she died in 1559, Queen Mary I of England wrote that “when I am dead and opened, you shall find Calais engraved on my heart”. I wonder how many impatient and frustrated HGV truckers will feel that Calais and Dover are engraved on their hearts as they queue up on Kent’s M20 and A2 to gain access to the Channel ports?

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Mary Kenny Opinion St Martin de Porres: Irish people identified with the black saint’s backstory of poverty and marginalisation

It was certainly the year when we became aware of the campaign for Black Lives Matter, which had such a meaningful impact all over the globe. A cruel killing of a black man in Minnesota sparked demonstrations in places that had no connection with the American Midwest: sportsmen in many countries felt moved to “take a knee” in solidarity.

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Mary Kenny Opinion Mary Kenny: ‘Cats can teach us the meaning of life just as well as any philosopher’

Throughout this strange year of varying tiers of lockdown, I have seen a lot less of my family and friends. But my cat, Pussolini, has seldom left my side. There she sleeps, on the bed, or curling into my lap like a cuddlesome little baby, or purring sweetly when petted. What a comfort is a dear puss!