Ireland
My poolside revelations
Lying by the rooftop pool of the Hotel Sun in downtown Lefkosa, I felt like a cowboy about to stir…
Can Trump and Ireland’s President get along?
I realised I was sat next to the Irish President when she sent back her sandwich for being too spicy.…
My dog’s an accident waiting to happen
‘My apologies again for you nearly losing your leg,’ I said to the young Frenchman as he and his family…
The Northern Ireland Troubles Bill only serves the IRA
More British military personnel were killed during the Troubles than in Iraq and Afghanistan combined. As well as soldiers, innocent…
How Ireland succumbed to ‘radical chic’
When a law student from Co. Kildare was stopped this summer on suspicion of transporting a bomb across the Irish…
Help! The Germans are invading
The Germans stampeded into the house, overwhelming me with the element of surprise. ‘Incoming!’ I shouted through the main staircase…
The mawkish madness of Dobby’s ‘grave’
I don’t know how many readers have visited the grave of Dobby the house-elf, but any who have should immediately…
I’m sick of pretending to be Irish
The French socialist must have burst her bladder getting a litre of percolator coffee down her to stop the Dutch…
Will my French guests get revenge for Agincourt?
The French couple did not speak much English so I rattled on in my best French, thinking I was doing…
The past yields up its secrets: The Red Mouth, by Sheila Armstrong, reviewed
The dark power of an Irish peat bog lies at the heart of Armstrong’s story, with ancient bones revealing a mysterious, violent history
Small, skewed pictures that cast a spell: the art of Mollie Douthit
The novelist Sara Baume describes how her admiration for Douthit’s idiosyncratic oil paintings led to a strange, tentative friendship
Portrait of the week: Belfast burns, Sullivan resigns and the Iran ceasefire cracks
Home A horrible video circulated on social media of a man on the ground in a Belfast street being stabbed…
We’ve lost our only anti-vaxxer friend in the village
‘Can I go now?’ said the farmer I was talking to over my gate, and he looked so scared I…
What do the French see in Ireland?
As the eco-tourism season got under way, the confused-looking French people began to arrive. They come to see ‘la nature’,…
The good old bad old days: Prestige Drama, by Seamas O’Reilly, reviewed
Set in 1980s Derry, O’Reilly’s novel vividly captures the rifts and festering resentments within a close-knit community during the Troubles
I wanted to rescue this waiter
‘Something I like to do with all my tables is ask what brings you here today?’ said the young waiter…
Americans think they want the ‘real Ireland’. They don’t
As the first Americans of the season got out of their car I scrunched up my face and groaned. ‘They’re…
‘People are at breaking point’: on the road with the Irish fuel protestors
A fuel protestor stood on top of a tractor waving a tricolor. In Ireland, everything is about nationhood and the…
Has Airbnb just declared war against its hosts?
The Airbnb help centre chatbot kept telling me that she understood how frustrating it must be for me to have…
Zohran Mamdani and the death of Irish New York
When asked about a united Ireland earlier this week, Zohran Mamdani admitted that he “hadn’t thought enough on that question.”…
My mother has become a hostile stranger
‘Do you know who I am?’ said the voice belonging to the lady who used to be my mother, crossly,…
The day Peter Mandelson tried to get me sacked
Assuming it was full of junk, I tried to pull the trunk out of the way but I couldn’t move…
Things still seem oddly disorientating without Seamus Heaney
But at least there’s now a complete edition of the poems, which feels right for a man who never lost himself, but always remained centred, concentrated and uncorrupted
I broke my phone… and then the repairman
The man in the phone repair shop smiled all too confidently and told me that there was nothing I could…
Has Ireland’s tourist board just killed my Airbnb?
The estate agent said that they would send someone round tomorrow and I had to calm them down. Come in…
