Ireland
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…
Hell is a dog café
The dog café had a pretty pink sign describing its many services and I stood outside it mesmerised as I…
My house is devouring me (and my relationship)
The panic of another season bore down on me as the builder boyfriend painted the breakfast room with the green…
My parents have driven us to boiling point
After two weeks of us heating the house to the temperature my nearly 90-year-old father wanted it, the door to…
Why has the National got it in for Oirish peasants?
The Playboy of the Western World is like the state opening of parliament. Worth seeing once. Director Caitriona McLaughlin delivers…
Ireland wants you to forget Chaim Herzog
Now Ireland is erasing its Jewish history. This week Dublin City Council voted to change the name of Herzog Park…
Will Mahmood’s asylum reforms force Ireland’s hand?
Labour’s plans to overhaul Britain’s overstretched asylum system have forced the Irish government to do the same. As the Northern…
Why is Westminster Cathedral leaving Jesus in the dark?
Sitting beneath the looming darkness of the unfinished ceiling of Westminster Cathedral, I found myself praying. I didn’t even know…
