I read somewhere that the early Christians used the letter X to identify themselves in early graffiti when they were members of an underground organisation outlawed by Rome and it is thought to refer to how Jesus was crucified in the shape of an X rather than a Cross (+). Citizen X, Mister X, The X Men and such are used by secretive or unnamed persons and is the nomenclature of all who are otherwise unable to write their names. The term Crisscross comes from Christs Cross so don’t be thinking I am just being lazy using the word Xmas.

We’re coming to the end of our 25th year and we have had an eventful 12 months. We celebrated the milestone with a reception at the Irish embassy in September and would like to thank Ambassador O’Neill and his wife Aisling as well as Ruairidh and Rachel for making it a great success.

We also had a great comedy night to mark the occasion of which more elsewhere.

The seasonal picture is of the chandelier from the reception at Croke Park, which we visited as guests of the London GAA board in September. I am being a bit lazy here because we used the image once before but we have flipped it on it’s head this time so it more resembles an Xmas tree. The globes are Gaelic footballs and sliothairs.

All the best from all at Aisling.

AleX