An Irishman's Diary | The Irish Times

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

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

Editorials

The Irish Times view on Ireland’s climate policy: A shameful record of inaction

The Government is moving far too slowly to mitigate the causes of global warming

The Irish Times view on the Brexit talks: A lesson in solidarity

Jean-Claude Juncker’s emphatic support for the Irish position is reassuring

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