Lifestyle

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By John Rainsford   LORRAINE Fanneran got her first break in big business at the tender age of 13 when she went to work in a corner shop. Truth be told though, the Shannon-born entrepreneur resigned within six weeks after being headhunted by a competitor who offered her a higher wage (25 pence!). Luckily, employer number one chose to laugh it all off, telling Lorraine, prophetically, that she would go far in life. Fast-forward to today and her La Cucina (The Kitchen) restaurant and Italian food range is the subject of rave reviews and numerous awards. In fact, her new company will soon be producing a range of fresh Italian products for retail shops and supermarkets all over Ireland. Nevertheless, Lorraine is quick to explain that this success has come about as much by accident as design. Although the mother of two went to St Senan’s Primary School and St Caimin’s Community School in Shannon, she looked further afield when …

CAROLYN Shadid Lewis is an American filmmaker and director of Seams, an oral history film about Irish women and the Second World War.

THE Referendum Commission has urged people throughout the State to vote in the Fiscal Stability Treaty referendum on May 31.

KILLALOE and Ballina will be ‘putting on the style’ in earnest on Thursday, May 24, when local businesses stage a major fashion and beauty extravaganza in aid of the forthcoming Pink Ribbon Walk and Action Breast Cancer.

AT the start of the Great War in 1914, the United States pursued a policy of non involvement.

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AS he descended K2, the world’s most dangerous mountain, Limerick’s Ger McDonnell encountered a shocking sight: three distraught climbers suspended upside down. The two Koreans and their Nepalese Sherpa had become entangled on a fixed rope when returning from the summit and were dangling for almost four hours. A member of their party had already fallen to his death. The previous day, August 1 2008, McDonnell became the first Irish person in history to reach the mountain’s 8,611m/28,251ft peak. Although he had never met any of the climbers stranded before him, McDonnell spent nine hours – three with the help of an Italian climber – at almost five miles above sea level freeing them. Tragically, shortly after the rescue, an ice-fall killed McDonnell and the climbers he had saved. Written by his brother-in-law, Damien O’Brien, The Time Has Come is a new book celebrating McDonnell’s life and meticulously reconstructing the events leading to his death on K2, known as ‘The …