May 5th - The Peoples Day | Taking a stand against hate crime | In Praise Of Napping

May 5th - The Peoples DayLess than one week to polling day and the pundits and pollsters are filling the airways and column inches with their take on who will be the big winners and who will be the losers. Who will emerge with more or fewer Assembly seats? Will the Protocol galvinise a so far lack lustre unionist campaign? Will the DUP/TUV and their loyalist allies succeed in frightening unionist voters into toeing the line?  Or will Sinn Féin up-end a century of partition and the northern state by taking enough seats for Michelle O’Neill to become First Minister?Taking a stand against hate crimeAt the start of the year people across Ireland were shocked by the brutal murder of Ashling Murphy. The 23 year old primary school teacher was attacked while out jogging along the Grand Canal at Tullamore in County Offaly. The outrage and condemnation of her murder reflected the enormous frustration and anger that exists at the regular reports of violence against women, much of it related to domestic violence. Women’s Aid in the South has recorded 244 murders of women since 1996, when they first started keeping a record. In Praise Of Napping. Our dogs seem to sleep a lot. They just lie down, close their eyes and doze off whenever the notion takes them.  Especially in this good weather. They pick a sunny spot and drift off into doggie dreamland. I suppose that’s one of the advantages of being a dog. As long as you don’t annoy the humans too much you can generally laze about. Cats are the same. They also lie in favoured spots and doze off whenever they feel like it. From them we get the term catnap.  We humans could learn a lot from dogs. And cats.