Ireland

Will the Irish ever forgive the English?

5 July 2025 9:00 am

Leaving home is the best way to find out who you are. In my case, it’s a muddle. Welsh dad.…

I’ve become a slave to my Airbnb star rating

5 July 2025 9:00 am

‘Right, we’re going to book into Pauline’s B&B and give her a four-star rating and that will drop her down…

The past is another country: Ripeness, by Sarah Moss, reviewed

14 June 2025 9:00 am

The voice of teenage Edith caring for her pregnant sister in Italy alternates with that of her elderly self in contemporary Ireland in a story of identity, belonging and consent

The Airbnb guest from hell

3 May 2025 9:00 am

‘Is there a secret passageway behind that door?’ said the weirdly difficult Kiwi as she eyed a door marked ‘private’…

Pure gold: My Master Builder, at Wyndham’s Theatre, reviewed

3 May 2025 9:00 am

My Master Builder is a new version of Ibsen’s classic with a tweaked title and a transformed storyline. Henry and…

The two young women who blazed a trail for modernism in Ireland

3 May 2025 9:00 am

In 1921, the sternly abstract cubist Albert Gleizes opened the door of his Parisian apartment to two young women in…

I’m more convinced than ever that Ian Bailey was innocent

12 April 2025 9:00 am

Over coffee in a seafood restaurant in the harbour, I talked with the most notorious accused man in Ireland and,…

William Blake still weaves his mystic spell

12 April 2025 9:00 am

Philip Hoare considers the ageless, hypnotic appeal of the painter, poet, visionary and ‘one-man utopia’

Three’s a crowd: The City Changes its Face, by Eimear McBride, reviewed

1 March 2025 9:00 am

Tension mounts between young Eily and her 40-year-old partner, Stephen, when Stephen’s daughter, Grace, appears, underlining the couple’s different ages and experiences

Reversing our economic decline is not easy, but it is simple

15 February 2025 9:00 am

We are becoming poorer because we keep choosing to increase spending, taxes and debt, rather than incurring any short-term discomfort, argues Jon Moynihan

A painful homecoming: The Visitor, by Maeve Brennan, reviewed

25 January 2025 9:00 am

Returning to the family house in Dublin after the death of her mother in Paris, 22-year-old Anastasia expects a warm welcome – only to be steadily spurned by her embittered grandmother

The Irish laugh in the face of EU regulations

11 January 2025 9:00 am

Our house was suddenly shrouded in a thick, grey mass of cloud and it felt like a sea fog had…

Ireland is not ready for Trump

4 January 2025 4:30 pm

It will be an uncertain year for Ireland. The Irish economy has for a long time been artificially propped up…

How working-class Dublin turned on Conor McGregor

8 December 2024 11:00 am

When Conor McGregor stood in the dock for his civil rape trial last week, the controversial MMA fighter was receiving…

Tenerife is a soap opera in the sun

7 December 2024 9:00 am

A warm Sahara wind was blowing and by late afternoon the western sky where it met the sea was the…

In defence of first past the post

7 December 2024 9:00 am

Here comes a new law in political science: Joe’s Law. As I write, the Republic of Ireland is still working…

Ireland’s centre has held

3 December 2024 4:30 pm

Two years ago, I secured an apartment in Dublin through a gay dating app. I was desperate and there was…

Kneecap are basic but thrilling

30 November 2024 9:00 am

It was Irish week in London, with one group from the north and one from the south. Guinness was sold…

‘We want to put common sense into Irish politics’: inside Ireland’s new populist party

23 November 2024 9:00 am

When the Taoiseach Simon Harris called a snap election for 29 November, Ireland’s electricity board asked political parties not to…

Hands off my empty plastic bottles!

2 November 2024 9:00 am

‘Where are my empty plastic bottles?’ I ran around the house screaming, after discovering my stash had disappeared. The government…

Out of the depths: Dante’s Purgatorio, by Philip Terry, reviewed

2 November 2024 9:00 am

Having toured the infernal campus of the University of Essex, Terry arrives at the coast, to be confronted by a strange artificial mountain which he now must climb

Doctor in trouble: Time of the Child, by Niall Williams, reviewed

26 October 2024 9:00 am

In the early 1960s, glimmers of change start to appear in the Irish ‘backwater’ parish of Faha. A smuggled copy…

How I found Love on Airbnb

19 October 2024 9:00 am

‘My name is Love,’ typed the help assistant, ‘and I’m a member of the Airbnb community support team.’ I was…

Why is it so hard to hire a car?

5 October 2024 9:00 am

My passport and driving licence sat on the counter but the girl stared back at me, repeating her demand. ‘I…