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5 days ago | 
southernstar.ie | Emma Connolly
This week our columnist ruminates on doing exams, the ‘Leaving Cert holiday’ and yes, more potatoesIT’S been a week of school graduations, award ceremonies and end-of-year masses, meaning everyone – parents, students, teachers – are emotional wrecks. And the state exams haven’t even started yet. I really feel for the students, there’s no denying that it’s a very demanding time, physically and mentally.
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1 week ago | 
southernstar.ie | Emma Connolly
Inchydoney Inshore Lifeboat Association crews were on duty at the popular beach at the weekend in a precautionary move, ahead of the return of lifeguards at the start of June. Volunteers made the decision to take to their inshore rescue boat in anticipation of large crowds at the beach due to the fine weather, and engaged in at least 20 encounters with swimmers over both Saturday and Sunday.
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1 week ago | 
southernstar.ie | Emma Connolly
After the Communion was said and done, all Emma Connolly was left with was an excess of potato salad and a few loads of wet laundry. WE’RE still coming back down to earth from the post-Communion high, over a week later. It really was such a super day, only it went by far too fast and I genuinely wish we could do it all over again. If I had the chance I would do a few things differently though. Well one thing specifically – I’d have less potato salad.
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1 week ago | 
southernstar.ie | Emma Connolly
TRADERS in Bandon are furious about the planned closure of the town’s main thoroughfare for two months from June to August, to allow for road surfacing and traffic calming measures. Those that spoke with The Southern Star say business is already down by at least 40% due to ongoing works on South Main Street’s footpaths, which meant the removal of parking on the street, as well as a general lack of parking in the town.
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2 weeks ago | 
southernstar.ie | Emma Connolly
THERE’S been a mixed reaction to last week’s stakeholders meeting aimed at addressing current ‘critical’ levels of TB disease in the country.
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2 weeks ago | 
southernstar.ie | Emma Connolly
The Southern Star and Celtic Ross Hotel 'West Cork Farming Awards' May monthly winner is Jer Coakley, Reenascreena. LIKE all agricultural contractors, West Cork man Jer Coakley is in the middle of a busy season, baling silage. But more uniquely Jer is also gearing up to defend his world ploughing title in the Czech Republic this September. The 37-year-old won the World Reversible Ploughing Championship in Estonia last August in what was a first for both a Cork and a Munster person.
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2 weeks ago | 
southernstar.ie | Emma Connolly
From pedicures and picking shades of nail polish to trying to plan a flight-free holiday, it’s been a busy week for our columnistI WAS attacked by someone armed with a blade this week and do you know what ... I not only asked for it, I actually encouraged it. It was all part of my annual pilgrimage (I say pilgrimage as there’s a bit of suffering and atonement involved) to have my feet ‘done’ last week.
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2 weeks ago | 
southernstar.ie | Emma Connolly
THE real story of the murdered mother-of-three, Valerie French from Leap, has been told by her brother in a new book. In June 2019, Valerie (42) was murdered by her husband James Kilroy at their home near Westport, while her three young sons lay in bed. Kilroy was jailed for life in July 2024 after a jury rejected his claim that he was insane when he killed his wife, but he has since been granted legal aid to appeal his conviction.
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3 weeks ago | 
southernstar.ie | Emma Connolly
From rearing beef cattle and turkeys to practising and teaching yoga, farmer Gerard Keohane is focused on wellbeing and a good work-life balance, writesAGILE is a good word to describe Gerard Keohane, based just outside Clonakilty, although he says himself that ‘unorthodox’ might be a better fit. He’s certainly agile when it comes to his approach to farming, having embarked on his career as a dairy farmer, and later pivoting to a suckler operation with a small herd of pedigree Aberdeen Angus.
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3 weeks ago | 
southernstar.ie | Emma Connolly
Leading actors grab the limelight, but there’s plenty of fun in the background too, as one Union Hall woman tells Emma ConnollyIT was her dad’s dairy cows that gave Union Hall woman Maura O’Callaghan her first taste of filmmaking as a teen in War of the Buttons and since then she’s worked on hit Hollywood movies, the award-winning series Bad Sisters and popular RTÉ soap Fair City.
