An Irishman's Diary | The Irish Times

In April 1943, the Swiss scientist Albert Hofmann accidentally ingested a small amount of a compound he was analysing, LSD

Psychedelic Cyclists – An Irishman’s Diary about Albert Hofmann and Flann O’Brien

Frank McNally
April 21, 2018

The year was 1583, the venue Dublin Castle’s inner courtyard

Seconds Away – An Irishman’s Diary about the once-legal remedy of ‘trial by combat’

Frank McNally
April 20, 2018

Royal Hospital Kilmainham. Photograph: George Munday/ Getty Images

Listed suburb – An Irishman’s Diary about the greatness of Kilmainham

Frank McNally
April 19, 2018

Memory lane – An Irishman’s Diary on Dublin’s vanished streets

Hugh Oram
April 18, 2018

Last November a headstone was finally placed on Julia Morrissey’s grave in Athenry

Women, war and revolution – An Irishwoman’s Diary on Sarah Mellows and Julia Morrissey

Lorna Siggins
April 17, 2018

Artist Brian Lalor

Exhibit A – An Irishwoman’s Diary on the Ballydehob Museum of Treasures

Alannah Hopkin
April 16, 2018

Noel Hill: kicked in the head so hard that his left eye socket was pushed into his skull. Photograph: noelhill.com

An Irishman’s Diary about Noel Hill’s Connemara nightmare

Frank McNally
April 14, 2018

Photograph: Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images

Making an exhibition of ourselves – An Irishman’s Diary about Slow Art Day

Frank McNally
April 13, 2018

Dan Ahearne: born in Limerick 130 years ago today

Great leaps forward – An Irishman’s Diary about our supposed national talent for long-jumping

Frank McNally
April 12, 2018

Former US peace envoy to Northern Ireland George Mitchell at the Hugh Lane Gallery in Dublin on Monday. Photograph: Niall Carson/PA

Pass Process – An Irishman’s Diary about the Belfast Agreement and shibboleths

Frank McNally
April 11, 2018

Albert Cashier: born Jennie Hodgers in Co Louth

When Jennie came marching home – An Irishwoman’s Diary on Albert Cashier and the US civil war

Nora-Ide McAuliffe
April 10, 2018

Battling a wildfire in Anaheim Hills, California, in October. Photograph: Jeff Gritchen/ AP

Fire and brimstone – An Irishwoman’s Diary on Californian catastrophes

Elgy Gillespie
April 9, 2018

Thomas D’Arcy McGee: assassinated by Fenians 150 years ago on April 7th

A father of modern Canada – An Irishman’s Diary on Thomas D’Arcy McGee

Brian Maye
April 7, 2018

‘Woman’s Choice’ magazine was threatened with prosecution under the Obscene Publications Act for publishing a guide to family planning

Taking issue – An Irishwoman’s Diary on ‘Woman’s Choice’ and advice on family planning in an age of censorship

Deirdre McQuillan
April 6, 2018

Amy Johnson: in May 1930, she flew solo from England to Australia, the first woman to do so

‘The Queen of the Air’ – An Irishman’s Diary on aviation pioneer Amy Johnson

Oliver O’Hanlon
April 5, 2018

Founded in 1768 by John Ferrar, a man before his time

Making the papers – An Irishman’s Diary on 250 years of the ‘Limerick Chronicle’

Denis O’Shaughnessy
April 4, 2018

Tourists visiting Slattery’s pub on Capel Street. Photograph: Alan Betson

Capital vision – An Irishman’s Diary on Capel Street

Hugh Oram
April 3, 2018

‘A plan for such a college was discussed by four men as they sat on a cliffside in Corca Dhuibhne in the summer of 1840, looking out on the Blasket Islands.’ Photograph: Getty Images

An Irishman’s Diary on St Columba’s College and the Ventry connection

Bryan MacMahon
April 2, 2018

A Protestant preacher who promoted education through Irish

Like paradise? New Ireland Assurance HQ on Dublin’s Dawson Street

How New Ireland Assurance has its origins in the revolution of 1916

Frank McNally
March 31, 2018

An Irishman’s Diary about one of Dublin’s most distinctive (but now threatened) buildings

Myles Joyce: a perfect symbol of the fate of Ireland under colonial rule.

Mistranslation once again – An Irishman’s Diary about James Joyce and the Maamtrasna Murders

Frank McNally
March 30, 2018

James Joyce portrayed Myles Joyce as the personification of a nation that could not explain itself to the world

Glazed terra-cotta reliefs by Andrea della Robbia of swaddled babies at the Ospedale degli Innocenti in Florence

Bambino friendly – An Irishwoman’s Diary on the Museo degli Innocenti in Florence

Deirdre McQuillan
March 26, 2018

Turlough Carolan as depicted on the £50 note

Stairway to Carolan – An Irishman’s Diary on the part a blind 18th-century harper played in the ultimate rock anthem

Frank McNally
March 24, 2018

Buckingham Palace may be a tourist magnet, but only the architect’s mother could love it

London Palling – An Irishman’s Diary on my lifelong struggle to love Britain’s capital city

Frank McNally
March 23, 2018

Van Morrison. Photograph: Ed Caraeff/Getty Images

Earthy Words and Astral Weeks – An Irishman’s Diary about Van Morrison, Gaelic swear words, and St Patrick’s little-known sister

Frank McNally
March 22, 2018

“On closer inspection, the bearded Irishman also turned out to be a preacher”

Once More, With Ealing – An Irishman’s Diary about a Patrick’s weekend in London

Frank McNally
March 21, 2018

‘The division has ceased to exist’ – An Irishman’s Diary on the German Spring Offensive

Ronan McGreevy
March 20, 2018

They are talking American about American cars. They speak of fuel injection, chopping, manifolds, injectors, torque, blowers and turbos. Photograph: iStock

Reinventing the wheels – An Irishman’s Diary on cars

Pól Ó Muirí
March 19, 2018

The letters were seized when the Irish vessel was brought to Bristol in March 1757. They were never delivered and have lain in an archive, mostly unopened, ever since

Still in the post after 260 years – An Irishman’s Diary on a treasure trove of undelivered letters

Oliver O’Hanlon
March 17, 2018

Thomas MacDonagh: fell foul of local politics in Kilkenny and was accused by the local newspaper of being a propagator of “West British games” and a “minor poet”. Photograph: National Library of Ireland

Just not cricket – An Irishman’s Diary about why Thomas MacDonagh left Kilkenny in a hurry

Frank McNally
March 16, 2018

Neil Martin: song-cycle based on Seamus Heaney’s ‘Sweeney Astray’

The Sweeney – An Irishman’s Diary about a new version of an ancient epic

Frank McNally
March 15, 2018

Brenda Schad: Choctaw and Cherokee ancestry. Photograph: tribeoftwo.com Brenda Schad: Choctaw and Cherokee ancestry. Photograph: tribeoftwo.com

Indian file – An Irishman’s Diary about the Taoiseach, the Choctaws, and my lunch with a Wonderbra model

Frank McNally
March 14, 2018

Richard Barry O’Brien: prolific author and journalist helped pave the way for Gladstone’s public announcement of his conversion to home rule

The history man – An Irishman’s Diary on Richard Barry O’Brien and Irish nationalism

Brian Maye
March 13, 2018

Sir Richard Wallace aged 70. Photograph: Copyright The Wallace Collection

To have and to hold – An Irishman’s Diary on collector and philanthropist Sir Richard Wallace

Paul Clements
March 12, 2018

Mickey Spillane was a product of the two countries that play in Lansdowne Road today. Photograph: Lou Krasky/AP

Fighting Talk – An Irishman’s Diary about the languages of Ireland, Scotland, and Mickey Spillane

Frank McNally
March 10, 2018

The visitors can expect a céad míle fáilte today but next year in Edinburgh, it’ll be a ceud mìle fàilte in return

“It’s stamped ‘October 2018’, which must be either a best-before date or a half-life”

The best thing since potatoes? – An Irishman’s Diary about bread

Frank McNally
March 9, 2018

“Papers relating to a trial against Sister Benedetta Carlini of Vellano, abbess of the Theatine nuns of Pescia”

Boldly going where no nun had gone before? An Irishman’s Diary about Renaissance astronomy and the strange tale of Benedetta Carlini

Frank McNally
March 8, 2018

While Irish republicans appreciated Gabriele D’Annunzio’s Anglophobia, they rejected his other interests, which included philandering

An Irishman’s Diary on Gabriele D’Annunzio – the ‘John the Baptist of Fascism’ and would-be IRA quartermaster

Mark Phelan
March 7, 2018

Michael, Jim and James Gallagher at home in Burtonport, Co Donegal. The Gallaghers helped to rescue 13 people, mainly young children, off Roaninish in August 1956.

Profiles in courage – An Irishwoman’s Diary on unsung heroes of a daring rescue in Burtonport

Lorna Siggins
March 6, 2018

A Dublin friend who moved to a Kerry town a decade ago soon gave up on British weekly magazines “because the local gossip is far better”. Photograph: iStock

Pssst, pass it on – An Irishman’s Diary on gossiping neighbours and ‘The Valley of the Squinting Windows ’

Derek Scally
March 5, 2018

A weather-hardened local at the Civil Service Cricket Club, Phoenix Park, Dublin. Photograph: Frank McNally

Frosty Welcome – An Irishman’s Diary about the contrasting experiences of visitors to Hibernia, the Land of Winter

Frank McNally
March 3, 2018

In common with other hard liquors, gin doesn’t freeze in mere Beast-from-the-East temperatures

Do you want ice with that? An Irishman’s Diary about wintry literature and drink

Frank McNally
March 2, 2018

Augustus Saint-Gaudens’s statue of Parnell. Photograph: Kate Geraghty

Under-covered agents – An Irishman’s Diary about the decline of the male overcoat

Frank McNally
March 1, 2018

Tullybuck in my native Co Monaghan is home to a gold-mine, or a potential gold-mine anyway. Photograph: iStock

Gold in Them There Placenames – An Irishman’s Diary about Tullybuck, Toponymy, and the Schools Folklore Collection

Frank McNally
February 28, 2018

Using the chairlift to deliver Coca Cola to the Eagle’s Nest restaurant on Bray Head in 1963

Head for heights – An Irishman’s Diary on the Eagle’s Nest chairlift in Bray

Hugh Oram
February 27, 2018

Michael Maurice O’Shaughnessy

The Limerick man who built San Francisco – An Irishwoman’s Diary on Michael Maurice O’Shaughnessy

Nora-Ide McAuliffe
February 26, 2018

Flann O’Brien: prescient

Hors-série sorcery – An Irishman’s Diary about Myles na gCopaleen, Julian Barnes, and limited-edition books

Frank McNally
February 24, 2018

David Power. Photograph: Con Kelleher

Pitch Battles – An Irishman’s Diary about an ancient tune given new life, via a marriage between uilleann pipes and orchestra

Frank McNally
February 23, 2018

Janet Davies as Mrs Pike in ‘Dad’s Army’

Mrs Pike in the Thatch – An Irishman’s Diary about Brexit

Frank McNally
February 22, 2018

Patrick J Tuohy’s portrait of John Stanislaus Joyce

Step-down facility – An Irishman’s Diary about the Joycean property ladder

Frank McNally
February 21, 2018

“I’ve never felt sorrier for anyone than one new Uber driver the other night”

‘Dude, where’s my Uber?’ – An Irishwoman’s Diary on the gig economy in San Francisco

Elgy Gillespie
February 20, 2018

St Mary Magdalen in Oxford St Mary Magdalen in Oxford

The High Road – An Irishman’s Diary on Anglo-Catholicism

Frank McDonald
February 19, 2018

Clare Island

Isle be back – An Irishwoman’s Diary on Clare Island

Áine Ryan
February 17, 2018

John McGough: he grew up fast

All-Star (and Ulster) Scot – An Irishman’s Diary about The Runner McGough

Frank McNally
February 16, 2018

“The squelching was interrupted only by the occasional splash, where the rains had not yet found a vacancy in the soil”

Soft Day in South Galway – An Irishman’s Diary about cross-country running and mud

Frank McNally
February 15, 2018

St Valentine’s shrine at Whitefriar Street Church in Dublin. Photograph: Cyril Byrne

Relics of romance – An Irishman’s Diary about convict love tokens and St Valentine’s Dublin exile

Frank McNally
February 14, 2018

Mount Athos: the goal of John Joyce’s journey

Travelling right – An Irishman’s Diary on John Joyce’s journey

Terence Killeen
February 13, 2018

The Lost Brothers: their blend of country-tinged ballads, folk and blues has an immediately appealing quality

Commonwealth of songsters – An Irishman’s Diary on The Lost Brothers

Gerard Smyth
February 12, 2018

With the Winter Olympics under way, many of us are receiving our quadrennial reminder of the existence of a sport called “curling”

Verbing on the ridiculous – An Irishman’s Diary about bad English, overprotective parents, and the Winter Olympics

Frank McNally
February 10, 2018

Presents from the Past – An Irishman’s Diary about mutant verbs and moving statues

Frank McNally
February 9, 2018

Lost in translation – An Irishman’s Diary on the hidden depths of Hiberno-English

Frank McNally
February 8, 2018

The Portland Vase (detail)

Portland stoned – An Irishman’s Diary about the Dubliner who broke one of the world’s most famous vases

Frank McNally
February 7, 2018

RC Sherriff: survived the war and wrote ‘Journey’s End’ in 1928

Theatre of war – An Irishman’s Diary on RC Sherriff and ‘Journey’s End’

Ronan McGreevy
February 6, 2018

Aleen Cust: first woman to become a veterinary surgeon in the UK and Ireland

Making tracks – An Irishman’s Diary on Aleen Cust, pioneering veterinary surgeon

Brian Maye
February 5, 2018

M.M. O’Shaughnessy: presided over a series of epic infrastructural projects

Joint custody – An Irishman’s Diary about cannabis, civil engineering, and two famous O’Shaughnessys from Limerick

Frank McNally
February 3, 2018

James Joyce. Photograph: Lipnitzki/Roger Viollet/Getty Images

Old flames – An Irishman’s Diary about Groundhog Day, Candlemas, and James Joyce

Frank McNally
February 2, 2018

Johnny Doran: master uilleann piper

Piper’s lament – An Irishman’s Diary about Johnny Doran and the fall and rise of uilleann piping

Frank McNally
February 1, 2018

A sizeable section of the internet, myself included, was googling Irish Peat Wine to learn what exactly it involved

Smoke and teroirs – An Irishman’s Diary about peat wine

Frank McNally
January 31, 2018

The people in the typically conservative and non-political area best known for Roquefort cheese were spurred into action

War and cheese – An Irishwoman’s Diary on a French struggle for rural recognition

Lorna Siggins
January 30, 2018

Sir Alfred Chester Beatty

Honorary citizen and philanthropist – An Irishman’s Diary on Sir Alfred Chester Beatty

Denis Fahey
January 29, 2018

Canadian poet John McCrae: “In Flanders fields the poppies blow/Between the crosses, row on row”

Widow’s weeds – An Irishman’s Diary about poppies, war, and John McCrae

Frank McNally
January 27, 2018

Penal cause – An Irishman’s Diary about Australia Day

Frank McNally
January 26, 2018

Yes, children, they used to put poetry on cigarette packets. But only in small, safe amounts, of course, because packets were small.

Feel the Burns – An Irishman’s Diary about Scotland’s national poet

Frank McNally
January 25, 2018

“Sir”, a one-word honorific that, outside commercial contexts where it doesn’t mean anything, had never been applied to me before

Sore Subject – An Irishman’s Diary about unwelcome forms of address

Frank McNally
January 24, 2018

Maj Robert Gregory: Yeats’s ‘Airman’ was one of the most famous Irish casualties of the first World War

‘Those that I fight I do not hate’ – An Irishman’s Diary on Robert Gregory

Ronan McGreevy
January 23, 2018

Eleanor Shackleton on the occasion of a visit to Kilkea House in 1959

Sisters in Endurance: An Irishwoman’s Diary on Eleanor and Kathleen Shackleton

Sharon A Greene
January 22, 2018

Kevin Street Garda station weathervane. Photograph: Dave Meehan

The wind that caused a parley – An Irishman’s Diary about Storm Fionn

Frank McNally
January 20, 2018

Billboard at the old Guinness Power Station, with an artist’s impression of the new distillery

Spirit Duality – An Irishman’s Diary on the quasi-religious revival of Irish whiskey

Frank McNally
January 19, 2018

Rowan Gillespie’s “The Victim”, from the Quinnipiac Ireland’s Great Hunger Museum

An Irishman’s Diary: Connecticut’s Great Hunger Museum and the bagel maker who made it possible

Frank McNally
January 18, 2018

St Ives in Cornwall St Ives in Cornwall

Glowing Terms – An Irishman’s Diary about light connoisseurs

Frank McNally
January 17, 2018

Robert Gibbings at work in his studio in 1933. Copyright: Estate of Robert Gibbings

Making his mark – An Irishwoman’s Diary on writer and artist Robert Gibbings

Alannah Hopkin
January 16, 2018

PT Barnum and Tom Thumb, who was by far the most successful touring celebrity on earth

A beautiful friendship – General Tom Thumb and PT Barnum

Turtle Bunbury
January 15, 2018

Flu may have been at least indirectly responsible for the still-mysterious demise of Maj Robert Gregory, the ‘Irish Airman’ who, in the title of a famous poem by WB Yeats, foresaw his death

Germ warfare – An Irishman’s Diary about Maj Robert Gregory and the Spanish flu

Frank McNally
January 13, 2018

Photograph: Nick Bradshaw

More power to your elbow – An Irishman’s Diary about uilleann pipes

Frank McNally
January 12, 2018

The Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir: hoping for a warm reception in Dublin

Songs of Freedom – An Irishman’s Diary about the remarkable singing tradition behind Estonia’s centenary of independence

Frank McNally
January 11, 2018

The flashpoint seemed to arrive near Booterstown, when the man began to wonder aloud where the money he had spent his day begging for was. Photograph: Bryan O’Brien

It was Christmas Eve, babe – An Irishman’s Diary about a traumatic encounter on the Dart

Frank McNally
January 10, 2018

Oscar MacCarthy spent 14 years as a desert vagabond, travelling the Maghreb extensively and surveying its landscape

Sahara explorer – An Irishman’s Diary on Oscar MacCarthy

Fergus O’Farrell
January 9, 2018

Mary Sheehy Kettle in 1905. She endeavoured to vindicate the reputation of her late husband, Tom Kettle, and assert herself in her own right in post-1916 Ireland.

‘Dear wife and comrade’ – An Irishwoman’s Diary on Mary Sheehy Kettle

Niamh Reilly
January 8, 2018

Dedicated Irish ascetics appreciated Benito Mussolini’s campaign against suggestive fashions

Modesty forbids – An Irishman’s Diary on the crusade against ‘immodest’ fashion in a newly independent Ireland

Mark Phelan
January 6, 2018

Gen Francisco Franco. Newspapers in Ireland held competing views on the Spanish conflict.

‘Faith or Antichrist’ – An Irishman’s Diary on Irish newspapers and Franco

William Burton
January 5, 2018

‘The Lion and The Mouse’ by John Doyle

Drawn to satire – An Irishman’s Diary on artist John Doyle

Brian Maye
January 4, 2018

James McGregor. In the spring of 1718, more than 500 people, ranging from babies to a couple aged 90, were preparing to leave their homes in the Bann Valley to resettle in New England. Illustration: Rosalind Giuffrida Hartley James McGregor. In the spring of 1718, more than 500 people, ranging from babies to a couple aged 90, were preparing to leave their homes in the Bann Valley to resettle in New England. Illustration: Rosalind Giuffrida Hartley

An Irishman’s Diary on James McGregor, ‘the Moses of the Scotch-Irish in America’

Paul Clements
January 3, 2018

Fritz Senn. Photograph: Christian Scholz

Happy returns – An Irishman’s Diary on Joyce scholar Fritz Senn

Terence Killeen
January 2, 2018

Hanna Greally: wrote courageously of her time in St Loman’s psychiatric institution, Mullingar

‘Lunatic, There I Go’ – An Irishwoman’s Diary on Hanna Greally

Gill McCaw
December 30, 2017

As bricklayers’ wages increased, bricks were made taller, so that by mid-Victorian times, one foot of wall required just four courses, saving on construction costs

Brick by brick – An Irishman’s Diary on the brickworks of Ireland

Hugh Oram
December 29, 2017

Sr Majella McCarron. Photograph: Alan Monahan

‘Silence Would Be Treason’ – An Irishwoman’s Diary on Ken Saro-Wiwa and Sr Majella McCarron

Lorna Siggins
December 28, 2017

Brian Friel: “In short I am getting a salary that is not earned. And I feel all the more sensitive about this when I see the great work that many of the senators do.’ Photograph: Brenda Fitzsimons

An Irishman’s Diary on Brian Friel and Dev

Deaglán de Bréadún
December 27, 2017

Deaglán de Bréadún: Brian Friel told me ‘I wanted my political career to be like Dev’s sex life’

You would often find Milo peeping out from under blankets or other womb-substitutes

An Irishman’s Diary in which two cats disappear and another appears

Frank McNally
December 23, 2017

My neighbours’ cat has started visiting and I can't decide how I feel about it

An Béal Bocht debut: TG4, on Christmas Day

Blasket cases – An Irishman’s Diary on the national talent for stoicism in the face of misfortune

Frank McNally
December 22, 2017

Like all Flannoraks, I look forward to An Béal Bocht’s imminent TV debut, via TG4, on Christmas Day

Heinrich Böll: Best remembered in Ireland for his Irish Journal. Photograph: Gordon Standing / THE IRISH TIMES

Guests of the nation – An Irishman’s Diary about two German visitors who had contrasting experiences of Ireland: Ludwig Hopf and Heinrich Böll

Frank McNally
December 21, 2017

Today marks the 100th birthday of writer Heinrich Böll

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