My trainers are a feminist statement

HOT off the presses from Milan Fashion Week: the in-crowd have ditched their trainers. That’s right: those comfy runners are no longer the height of sartorial savvy; to be on-trend, you must replace them immediately – ideally, according to the experts, with cowboy boots (horse outside optional).

To which I can only say: over my dead body. The fashion pack can do what they like, but my trusty trainers – bright pink, five years old, and so well-worn they’re falling apart – are going nowhere.

I don’t wear them because they’re fashionable. I wear them because they are comfortable and practical. I can run for the bus in them, or sprint after the two-year-old as he makes yet another catch-me-if-you-can dash out of the playground.

I can wear them in the office while sitting at my desk (no one can see) and then put normal shoes on to walk to the coffee machine.

Most importantly of all, runners are forgiving of middle-aged female feet that aren’t quite sure what size they want to be on any given day.

I bought my current pair just after having my first baby, when my right foot had suddenly grown a half size. And I wore them all throughout a second pregnancy, when the other foot decided to grow a half size too, and then retreat back to normal postpartum.

Stilettos and court shoes pinched my indecisive tootsies, but my runners embraced them in a cloud of understanding and forgiveness.

In fact, I’d go so far as to say that trainers becoming fashionable was one of the very few feminist moves the fashion industry has made – it’s usually too busy designing clothes for freakishly tall, freakishly thin supermodels to care about your feet.

Anyway, I am now in the market for a new pair of trainers, a little less pink this time but just as comfortable. To hell with fashion, my feet just want freedom.

A house is much more than just a place to live

AS THE housing crisis continues to baffle those in charge, the latest proposal to encourage older people to downsize is an interesting one.

It’s not just in Ireland that citizens are being urged to take a utilitarian view and prioritise what they need over what they’d like – in the UK, co-living communities are being touted as the solution for single millennials struggling to get on the property ladder.

But a worrying note of fingerwagging is creeping into the debate. There’s a barely-concealed anger that older people dare to stay on in their big houses while young families languish on housing list.

But houses have never simply been living spaces. The rich don’t choose mansions because their families are bigger than yours or mine, but because they are a status symbol.

And older people don’t stay in their homes out of sheer pigheadedness, but to enjoy the comfort of familiar surroundings and the bank of family memories built up over decades.

In theory, the Government’s proposals are excellent, but will they work in real life?

Take the rocky road to see Luke Kelly’s statue

I TOOK advantage of the beautiful weather to pay a lunchtime visit down the quays to the new Luke Kelly statue on Sherriff Street.

Much has been made of its unusual design – it’s a sort of floating head on a plinth. But against a huge blue Dublin sky, Luke’s vibrant red hair, twisted out of metal, and the milky pale of his skin was genuinely otherworldly.

Pay a visit if you haven’t already and make up your own mind.