An Irishman's Diary | The Irish Times

We would get to the Botanic Gardens and then scamper through the Palm House until finally we reached the Tropical Ravine. Photograph: Getty Images

Can Belfast’s Tropical Ravine reclaim the spirit of Tarzan and the jungle?

Dennis Kennedy
August 14, 2018

‘My first memories of the Ravine are of trips to Belfast from our home in Lisburn in the desperately depressing years of the second World War’

‘As I conceded in my MOB speech: when you are as proud as a peacock it’s alright to look as if you need to be plucked’. Photograph: Getty Images

Dos and don’ts for the mother-of-the-bride

Áine Ryan
August 13, 2018

‘A woman of your age – and I am not talking down to you – must wear something subtle on her feet’

Reginald Gray was taken under the art tuition wing of Cecil Ffrench Salkeld, whose daughter Beatrice married Brendan Behan (above) in 1955. Photograph: The Irish Times

The unconventional life and times of artist Reginald Gray

Hugh Oram
August 12, 2018

His portrait subjects ranged from Brendan Behan, Samuel Beckett, Günther Grass to Yves St Laurent and Helena Bonham Carter

Elgy Gillespie: ‘I’ve starting my radiation course this week and am still having problems setting up the transport – no driving – and my sick leave and unemployment pay is a whole other can of worms’

We’re in a state of permanent exhaustion from the barrage of social media

Elgy Gillespie
August 6, 2018

An Irishwoman’s Diary: Are smartphones the new cigarette or are they really the new heroin?

Pastor in a time of upheaval – An Irishman’s Diary on Bishop Patrick McKenna of Clogher

Brian Maye
August 6, 2018

Frank McNally on the hair-raising history of hurling

Frank McNally
August 3, 2018

An Irishman’s Diary on why Irish bogs sometimes cough up hairballs

Statue of St Columba (aka Columbanus) in Luxeuil. Photograph: iStock

Saints and Spinners: Frank McNally on a magical mystery tour of eastern France

Frank McNally
August 2, 2018

An Irishman’s Diary

I found myself in France, in the home town of Humbert, being handed an 18th-century uniform and a gun, and invited to join the army

Frank McNally: My sweaty weekend in the French revolutionary army

Frank McNally
August 1, 2018

An Irishman’s Diary

Christopher Eccleston in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of ‘Macbeth’, directed by Polly Findlay. Photograph: Richard Davenport. Copyright: RSC

All hail the time lord – An Irishwoman’s Diary on Christopher Eccleston in ‘Macbeth’

Lorna Siggins
July 30, 2018

Roderic O’Conor (1860-1940). Self-Portrait, 1903. Courtesy of the National Gallery of Ireland

Drawing the line – An Irishman’s Diary on painter Roderic O’Conor

Jody Moylan
July 30, 2018

Photograph: iStock

Pup, pup and away – An Irishman’s Diary on a small dog and a big beach

Patrick Logue
July 27, 2018

Roussillon: The village of 1,300 will commemorate Samuel Beckett’s 1942-1944 stay with its 19th annual Beckett Festival from July 30th until August 1st

‘A hard and clandestine life’ – An Irishwoman’s Diary on Samuel Beckett in Roussillon

Lara Marlowe
July 26, 2018

“The old Clifden railway line’s bridge piers still stand in the Corrib, crying out to be topped by a new bridge for walking and cycling”

Suburban mindset – An Irishman’s Diary on Galway’s search for a European vision

Frank McDonald
July 25, 2018

Pope Paul VI: national and international sense of shock greeted his encyclical ‘Humanae Vitae’

An Irishman’s Diary on the long shadow of ‘Humanae Vitae’

John Horgan
July 24, 2018

Earlsfort Terrace in the 1960s

The Gentle Revolution – An Irishman’s Diary on UCD and student protest

Deaglán de Bréadún
July 23, 2018

The SS ‘Sirius’: left Passage West bound for New York on April 4th, 1838

Full steam ahead – An Irishman’s Diary on the SS ‘Sirius’, the first steamship to cross the Atlantic from Europe to North America

Oliver O’Hanlon
July 22, 2018

A sign warning of landmines in a former Khmer Rouge stronghold near the Thai border. Photograph: Tang Chhin Sothy/AFP/Getty Images

Year Zero nostalgia in Cambodia – An Irishwoman’s Diary on the long shadow of the Khmer Rouge

Mary Boland
July 20, 2018

Those tomatoes had the quaintest of qualities, the oddest of attributes, the most surreal of facets. Those tomatoes had flavour. Photograph: iStock

You say tomato – An Irishwoman’s Diary on a matter of taste

Fionnuala Ward
July 19, 2018

Japanese first-graders in Kyoto. Photograph: Davor Lovinic/iStock

Making the grade – An Irishman’s Diary on starting school in Japan

David McNeill
July 18, 2018

The Methuen Arms in Corsham, Wiltshire

The inn crowd – An Irishwoman’s Diary on the Methuen Arms

Margaret Ward
July 17, 2018

Cantonese street signs in Hong Kong. Photograph: iStock

Mind your language – An Irishman’s Diary on learning Cantonese

Oliver Farry
July 17, 2018

Big bang: even the least scientifically minded of us have probably heard of the theory, but not many may be aware that it was a Belgian Catholic priest who first put forward the idea

Fr Georges Lemaître: An Irishman’s Diary about the father of the big bang

Brian Maye
July 17, 2018

“Trust me, the only route to survival is consistent denial and being busy, busy.”

My big bad brain tumour – An Irishwoman’s Diary on surviving a craniotomy

Elgy Gillespie
July 16, 2018

Frank McNally: How the cravat became a global fashion classic, with a bit of help from the French

Frank McNally
July 13, 2018

Collared by the Croats – An Irishman’s Diary

Kinnegad – A warm welcome. Photograph: Bryan O’Brien

Frank McNally: The great Irish tradition of slandering Kinnegad and other midlands towns

Frank McNally
July 12, 2018

Flat but unflattered – An Irishman’s Diary

Playing the blues in Heuston Station in Dublin

Frank McNally: The service now arriving on Platform 1 is a piano

Frank McNally
July 11, 2018

An Irishman’s Diary on the music of trains

Aloys Fleischmann (left) playing chess in Oldcastle Camp, Co Meath. He was interned as an “enemy alien” during the first World War.

Frank McNally: The story of Ireland’s German internment camp of the first World War

Frank McNally
July 10, 2018

Guests of the Nation – An Irishman’s Diary

Jack, an Irish terrier who accompanied King Edward VII on his visit to Ireland in 1903. He is buried in the grounds of Áras an Uachtaráin.

Dog gone – An Irishman’s Diary on Jack, King Edward’s Irish chum

Padraig Yeates
July 9, 2018

Queen of the court – An Irishwoman’s Diary on Lena Rice, Wimbledon champion from Tipperary

Nora-Ide McAuliffe
July 9, 2018

Square hay bales in Carrick-on-Shannon

Frank McNally: how the heatwave has caused a revival of retro hay-making

Frank McNally
July 6, 2018

An Irishman’s Diary: Square bales in a round hole

Frank McNally joins a mad scientist in search of the perfect route

Frank McNally
July 5, 2018

A runner’s road to glory

The sheiling for Deirdre and Naoise in the mountains overlooking Loch Etive

Scotland’s tribute to Deirdre of the Sorrows

Deirdre McQuillan
July 5, 2018

An Irishwoman’s Diary on a new take on an ancient legend

If the Costello Memorial Chapel has any claim to architectural fame, it is as the smallest of its kind in Europe

Frank McNally visits Carrick-on-Shannon

Frank McNally
July 3, 2018

Magaluf of the Midlands or Irish Taj Mahal?

Samuel Lover: Self-portrait in pencil. Copyright: National Portrait Gallery, London

Drawing ahead – An Irishman’s Diary on writer and painter Samuel Lover

Brian Maye
July 3, 2018

The “Folkehuset Absalon”, a Danish “living room away from home” in Copenhagen. Photograph: Susanne McIntyre

Tiger founder turns a Lutheran church into a livingroom away from home

Lorna Siggins
July 1, 2018

An Irishwoman’s Diary: The businessman put 10 million Danish kroner on the table when the Danish culture minister decided to close six churches in Copenhagen

‘I told my youngest, Daniel, that I might tag along on the way to his last day in sixth class, seeing how nice the weather was.’ Photograph: Frank McNally

Frank McNally: Goodbye to all that – a fond farewell to the primary school run

Frank McNally
June 29, 2018

An Irishman’s Diary: For the past 15 years I got to walk the kids around the Royal Hospital Kilmainham

‘Depressing as this spectacle was, it also had the strange effect of bringing Behan even more alive than his sculptor, John Coll, had.’ Photograph: Frank McNally

Bingeing with Behan – An Irishman’s Diary about the weekend’s debris by a canal

Frank McNally
June 28, 2018

Brendan Behan gazes forever at a blackbird singing beside him. But on Monday, he seemed to be surveying the rubbish

Bathers at Asnières by George Seurat, National Gallery, London. Critics praised Seurat for this painting which combined “the shifting world of scenes and values created by the interaction of industry and nature”. Photograph: Leemage/Corbis via Getty Images

An Irishman’s Diary on a place par excellence for art and pet-lovers

Oliver O’Hanlon
June 26, 2018

Pet cemetery is the final resting place of the Co Meath-born racehorse, Troytown

The little fellow senses freedom and begins to run. Photograph: iStock

Ready for departure – An Irishwoman’s Diary on comings and goings

Mae Leonard
June 25, 2018

Evening sunlight over Dublin Bay, as seen from the Vico Road, Killiney, Co Dublin. Photograph: Eric Luke

Bella Irlanda – An Irishman’s Diary about Dublin’s Vico Road

Frank McNally
June 23, 2018

William Saroyan: impressively cavalier attitude to money

I’m Your Number One Flann – An Irishman’s Diary about Flann O’Brien and William Saroyan

Frank McNally
June 22, 2018

Howth pier and marina. Photograph: iStock

Sea here – An Irishman’s Diary on Howth

Hugh Oram
June 20, 2018

Cecil Frances Alexander: born in 1818 in Dublin

All Things Bright and Beautiful – An Irishwoman’s Diary on Cecil Frances Alexander

Sarah Gillespie
June 19, 2018

Illustration: iStock

What is it about Irish tenors? – An Irishwoman’s Diary about a singing father

Elgy Gillespie
June 18, 2018

Lucia Joyce

Her father’s daughter – An Irishman’s Diary about the tragic life of Lucia Joyce

Frank McNally
June 16, 2018

Russian dolls of Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal and Lionel Messi of Argentina in a souvenir shop in Moscow. Photograph: Ryan Pierse/Getty Images

The Stars Align for Leo – An Irishman’s Diary about the world’s greatest footballer and the French revolutionary month of Messidor

Frank McNally
June 15, 2018

Photograph: Cyril Byrne

Mere Old Manky Dublin – An Irishman’s Diary on what good weather does to the streets of our capital city

Frank McNally
June 14, 2018

George Bernard Shaw. Photograph: Sasha/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Satanic Verses – An Irishman’s Diary about George Bernard Shaw, the Kennedys, and the Garden of Eden

Frank McNally
June 13, 2018

Seán McSweeney: keen-eyed and unhurried

A painter’s eye – An Irishman’s Diary on Seán McSweeney

Gerard Smyth
June 12, 2018

Trevor McVeagh: represented Ireland in cricket, hockey, tennis and squash

A great sporting all-rounder – An Irishman’s Diary on Trevor McVeagh

Brian Maye
June 11, 2018

Four-Year Cycle – An Irishman’s Diary about cars, bikes, and World Cups

Frank McNally
June 9, 2018

A Brimstone Moth. Photograph: Cyril Byrne

Clothes Horses of the Apocalypse – An Irishman’s Diary about invading moths

Frank McNally
June 8, 2018

James Joyce

Night on the Town – An Irishman’s Diary about James Joyce, Monto, and the Magdalene laundries

Frank McNally
June 7, 2018

Question time in 2009. Photograph: Alan Betson

Marked for life – An Irishman’s Diary about my Leaving Cert English shame

Frank McNally
June 6, 2018

“The old ledger I’m holding in my hand contains the forgotten names of the Irishwomen who marched in Kilkenny on Lá na mBan 1918 in protest against conscription”

Lá na mBan 1918 – An Irishwoman’s Diary on Kilkenny’s protest against conscription

Margaret Ward
June 5, 2018

Ignatius O’Brien. Photograph: National Portrait Gallery, London

From journalist to Lord Chancellor – An Irishman’s Diary on Ignatius O’Brien

Daire Hogan
June 4, 2018

Alexander Zverev: “Where you from, buddy?” Photograph: Gonzalo Fuentes/Reuters

Backhanded compliment – An Irishman’s Diary about accents

Frank McNally
June 2, 2018

Lough Derg: among the pilgrims in June 1940 was Patrick Kavanagh. Photograph: loughderg.org

The Pilgrimage’s Progress – An Irishman’s Diary about literary Lough Derg

Frank McNally
June 1, 2018

Glendalough, Co Wicklow. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw

The Birdman of Glendalough – An Irishman’s Diary about St Kevin

Frank McNally
May 31, 2018

There is a strong implication in the New York Times’s piece that Mary Lou McDonald’s being “5 foot 4” is some kind of policy position, rather than a mere height. Photograph: Cyril Byrne

Short circuit – An Irishman’s Diary about diminutive politicians and dangling modifiers

Frank McNally
May 30, 2018

Seeing is believing

‘Frogs’ of Valencia hop to it – An Irishman’s Diary on Levante’s giant leap

Noel Costello
May 29, 2018

A 1968 Gaullist election poster

An Irishman’s Diary on ‘les événements’ 1968

David Shanks
May 28, 2018

Cathal McNaughton/PA

Shellfish Politics – An Irishman’s Diary about the diplomatic complications of Lough Foyle

Frank McNally
May 26, 2018

Donogh O’Malley with a portrait of Eamon de Valera. Photograph: Eddie Kelly

Hoor You To Talk? – An Irishman’s Diary about unparliamentary language

Frank McNally
May 25, 2018

My commemorative T-shirt – been there, earned that

Race War – An Irishman’s Diary about running on the borders of Meath and Kildare

Frank McNally
May 24, 2018

The solemn exchange of handshakes between rival supporters at the end of a game

The sign of peace – An Irishman’s Diary about GAA fans’ post-match handshake

Frank McNally
May 23, 2018

John Henry Foley in 1863. Photograph: Ernest Edwards

On a pedestal – An Irishman’s Diary on the sculptor John Henry Foley

Brian Maye
May 22, 2018

Spike Milligan in Dublin in 1982. Photograph: Eddie Kelly

Green room – An Irishman’s Diary on Spike Milligan

John Horgan
May 21, 2018

On the coronation of Queen Mary, her representative in Ireland appealed for donations towards the present of a gown On the coronation of Queen Mary, her representative in Ireland appealed for donations towards the present of a gown

The Empress’s New Clothes – An Irishman’s Diary about Queen Mary and the costs of being a female royalist in 1911

Frank McNally
May 19, 2018

Kate Middleton wore Carrickmacross lace on her wedding day. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

Royal Threading – An Irishman’s Diary about Carrickmacross Lace

Frank McNally
May 18, 2018

In Dublin, “hazard” used to be the actual term for a taxi-rank, or its forerunner, the cab-stand. Photograph: Kai Pfaffenbach/Reuters

Pubic transport – An Irishman’s Diary on the dangers of taxi ranks

Frank McNally
May 17, 2018

Even for urban ducks, they seem extraordinarily relaxed around humans

The Quack of Doom – An Irishman’s Diary about WB Yeats, the Sopranos, and wild ducks

Frank McNally
May 16, 2018

The Butter Market Exchange in Cork, with the Firkin Crane premises on left, circa 1900. Photograph: National Library of Ireland/Lawrence Collection

Butter days – An Irishman’s Diary on the Cork Butter Exchange and the world’s largest butter market

Oliver O’Hanlon
May 15, 2018

Come spring, exams done, we got the call. Guillemots and gannets and Manx shearwaters dove and dodged through the light swell, as we headed west on his rigid inflatable.

An Irishwoman’s Diary on laughter and Irish lighthouses

Lorna Siggins
May 14, 2018

On a night passage from the Aran Islands east, it took all our energies to maintain a compass bearing

Marsh’s Library: Hardened scholars know where it is, and have been poring over its contents since 1707. Photograph: Bryan O’Brien

An Irishman’s Diary about the hidden gems of Dublin

Frank McNally
May 11, 2018

Marsh’s Library has the world’s sole surviving sample of at least 387 books and pamphlets

Count Eduard Taaffe was Austria’s prime minister at the time of the Materling incident. Photograph: Adèle/Getty Images

Baggotonian rhapsody – An Irishman’s Diary about colourful Dublin residents

Frank McNally
May 10, 2018

The Austro-Hibernian Count Taaffe was among those who lived in that part of Dublin

Playing ducks and drakes: An Irishman’s Diary about some unexpected guests

Frank McNally
May 9, 2018

The way she went involves negotiating a 30-foot escarpment, steep and densely overgrown

Sir John French. Photograph: Hulton Archive/Getty Images

The wrong man in the wrong place: An Irishman’s Diary about John French

Ronan McGreevy
May 8, 2018

In May 1918, French was appointed Lord Lieutenant in Ireland

Keith Richards and Mick Jagger at a press conference before performing at the Adelphi in Dublin in 1965. Photograph: Dermot Barry

‘I Was There’ – An Irishman’s Diary on the Rolling Stones in Dublin in 1965

Deaglán de Bréadún
May 7, 2018

Goya’s ‘Third of May’, now in Madrid’s Prado Museum

Ready, aim, duck – An Irishman’s Diary about misfiring metaphors

Frank McNally
May 5, 2018

Ifs and Butties and Old Segotias – An Irishman’s Diary about Dublin words for ‘friend’

Frank McNally
May 4, 2018

Mick Moloney: concert at Dublin Castle’s Printworks Building on May 21st

Songs of Laughter and Forgetting – An Irishman’s Diary about the emigrant music of Mick Moloney

Frank McNally
May 3, 2018

Moore Hall: grounds have recently been acquired by Mayo County Council

Moore’s Maladies – An Irishman’s Diary on the short-lived ‘Republic of Connacht’ and the man who was its president

Frank McNally
May 2, 2018

“Then there’s the photographer, videographer, DJ, fake tan, shellac nails, selfie mirror, clown, and cartoonist for the kids”

For richer, for poorer – An Irishwoman’s Diary on the modern wedding

Áine Ryan
May 1, 2018

Tea time – An Irishman’s Diary on Oliver St John Gogarty and a picnic at Lough Bray

Michael Fewer
April 30, 2018

Saint Augustine of Hippo. Illustration: istock

Offensive to the Nth Degree – An Irishman’s Diary about racist language and Flann O’Brien

Frank McNally
April 28, 2018

The artefacts exhibited at the “The Pageant of the Celt” at the 1934 Chicago World Fair were selected to express “the genius of the old Celtic race”

Celtic Spotlight – An Irishman’s Diary about the Harvard Archaeological Mission to 1930s Ireland

Frank McNally
April 27, 2018

Illustration: iStock

At Home and Away with the Fairies – An Irishman’s Diary on the globalisation of a Hiberno-English phrase

Frank McNally
April 26, 2018

Statue of Oliver Goldsmith at Trinity College Dublin. Photograph: iStock

Monument men – An Irishman’s Diary on the Earl of Carlisle, Goldsmith and Burke

Denis Fahey
April 25, 2018

As growing numbers of children swap Mozart for Minecraft, a new boom is under way: adults learning, or returning to, the piano

Bach for more – An Irishman’s Diary on returning to the piano

Derek Scally
April 24, 2018

The “Principessa Mafalda”: sank in 1927 with the loss of 314 out of 1,250 passengers and crew

A maritime disaster – An Irishman’s Diary on the fate of the ‘Principessa Mafalda’

Norman Freeman
April 23, 2018

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

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The Irish Times view on non-performing loans: delay, indecision and deferral

The Government and the regulator need to ensure that the current rules are fully enforceable as ownership moves offshore

The Irish Times view on hospital infections: preventive action is vital

A warning from the Rotunda Hospital that patients will face serious health risks unless interim facilities are built cannot be ignored

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