Frank McNally

Frank McNally

Frank McNally is an Irish Times journalist and chief writer of An Irish Diary.

How a 16th-century English failed monk tried to bridge Anglo-Irish linguistic gulf

You wouldn’t want to mistake squish for huff

The nationalist tobacco shop that hosted James Joyce and Arthur Griffith

Its precious visitor books were rescued decades later from a barrow on Dublin’s quays

Dearly imparted: Frank McNally on Paddy the philanthropist, the BBC banning of Clannad, and Beckett’s womb with a view

Might Paddy Dear be persuaded to throw a few million our way, for the relief of distress in dear old Ireland?

Wilde Romantic Way: Frank McNally on the rise and fall of Oscar’s amorous father

Not all of William Wilde’s exploits are commemorated on a plaque

Frank McNally on a Dublin woman’s attempt to assassinate Mussolini, 100 years ago

It’s hard to say for sure what drove Violet Gibson

High on life – Frank McNally on Aldous Huxley, psychedelic drugs and why artists love depicting drapery

For the artist or mescaline taker alike, Huxley concluded, ‘draperies are living hieroglyphs’

Frank McNally: A heart-stopping epitaph on the grave of a little-known teenager

A stone in Rome’s ‘Protestant Cemetery’ commemorates Rosa Bathurst, who drowned in 1824, aged 16

‘That’s the wrong Ireland’: The eternal quest to find a pub showing Czechia v Ireland in Rome

After finding myself lost in translation, it didn’t help that every available TV was showing Italy v Northern Ireland

Plaques broad and narrow – Frank McNally on Dublin street honours big, small and missing

City keen to celebrate citizens and even daft causes, but one omission needs correcting

Born-again poet – Frank McNally on the confused centenary of Frank O’Hara

New Yorker had two ‘birthdays’, one of which was to spare his parents’ blushes

Pidgeon homed – Frank McNally on the repatriation of an Old IRA man from 1970s London

Souvenirs from traditional military salute for veteran at Glasnevin risked an awkward explanation or two

The Irish airman who survived one of the most dangerous jobs of the second World War

O’Dwyer and his colleagues were on the front line of an intelligence war

The mystery of flying ships in ancient Meath that ended up in a Texas newspaper

Perhaps the strangest twist in the tale’s evolution is the one by which it turned up in 1890s Texas

High-level hyperbolics: Frank McNally on the Irish approach to bigging things up

Be it song lyrics about a beautiful place or the fight to rebuild a public toilet, use of language is always key

I was thankful I had filed away the obscure detail of who finished second to Ronnie Delany in 1956

Not that The Irish Times team needed any help crossing the finish line first to claim victory in the annual Dublin Rape Crisis Centre corporate quiz night

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