The first photo is of the current state of Caement Park. This is a particularly sad sight for me when I think of the childhood and adult memories that I have of the place.

Going to watch the late Jim Nelson in charge of the Antrim hurlers and put it up to the best in the country in the very early nineties, and I even remembers one or two games from the late 80s i think! Jim went on to play an influential role in my life as a hurling coach, a source of infinite hurling knowledge, a friend, and a supportive figure when I went on to play senior for Antrim and also when I made the move the University of Limerick to play Fitzgibbon Hurling with some of the best young hurlers in the country at the time.

Continue reading “Time to Rebuild Páirc Mhic Easmuinn” →

This is not a blog of self doubt. More a pondering on my relatively new role an an employer of people at ACLAÍ that all started with a question. “Who am I to be a boss?” Its a role that I have never completely settled in to, but as ACLAÍ grows its services and its customer base, it is something that I need to come to terms with, both the enjoyable aspects of being at the helm, and the less fun parts too.

Continue reading “About Being an Employer” →

So this thing about minimalism is a pretty new thing by the looks of things. Less is more. Actually come to think if it, its not that new. Monks of all traditions have cultivated a culture of having the bare minimum of material possessions, although I have heard rumours of some modern orders of Monks with iPhone and other modern worldly possessions. It does seem however that minimalism makes a fashionable return after a period of manic consumption in the modern world in the same way that you feel like you don’t have to eat for 3 days after a mammoth dinner outing with friends.

Continue reading “Possessions” →

Its funny how low levels of sustained annoyance or anxiety can slowly but surely build up over time. Just like a jog filling up from a constant drip drip. I have had a few instances in recent times, where I was letting stress slowly build up, without addressing the issue(s) at hand, often using my ‘work’ as a convenient distraction from getting down to the crux of the problem once and for all.

Continue reading “Accepting” →

It seems that I go through phases of getting sucked in to phone-checking, and craving social media notifications, and at the moment, I feel like I am coming out the other side of a period of constant checking and posting, and checking! To me credit, I am glad that I realise that I get sucked in when it happens, but for me the challenge is to realise it as soon as possible and start working on getting out of it. I also like to remind myself that this is a classic ‘first-world problem’ as they call it.

Continue reading “Kicking A Social Media Habit” →

In Part 1 of this series, I discussed the trap of doing what I though I was supposed to be doing, as opposed to doing what I actually enjoyed doing while getting me unique personal training facility, ACLAÍ, off the ground. In this instalment, I would like share with you the rock bottom point that made me realise that I wanted to do things differently.

Continue reading “Starting a Business Without Selling My Soul: Part 2” →

I have been thinking on this for quite some time now, and would now like to pose the question to you. Do you think that our ever growing self-obsession is killing our compassion for fellow humans? Does it reduce our humanity in the face of ever more common violence, corruption, and hatred in the world today?

Continue reading “Is Self-Obsession Killing Our Humanity?” →