An Irishman's Diary | The Irish Times

Detail from a postal first-day cover issued to mark the 50th anniversary of Northern Ireland.

Timing is everything – Ronan McGreevy on the Ulster ’71 festival

Ronan McGreevy
May 10, 2021

An Irishman’s Diary

Austin Clarke: The 125th anniversary of the birth of the poet. Photograph: Jack McManus

Rattling the chains – Gerard Smyth on Austin Clarke

Gerard Smyth
May 9, 2021

An Irishman’s Diary

Heuston Station. “One of Dublin city’s most dramatic panoramas.” Photograph: Frank McNally

A Turn for the Better – Frank McNally on the view from one of Dublin’s most dramatic corners

Frank McNally
May 7, 2021

An Irishman’s Diary

Paddy Rossmore and Marianne Faithfull in June 1970. Photograph: Getty Images

Faithfull Friend – on the late Paddy Rossmore, a reluctant celebrity who revolutionised drug treatment in Ireland

Frank McNally
May 6, 2021

An Irishman’s Diary

James Carey: central to the fateful events at the Phoenix Park on May 6th, 1882

Horsemen, Pass By – Frank McNally on the dramatic backdrop of a Dublin polo match on May 6th, 1882

Frank McNally
May 5, 2021

An Irishman’s Diary

A memorial depicts two soldiers struggling to close the Hougoumont farm’s north gate to save it from being overrun by the French at the Battle of Waterloo

Hinges of History – How Napoleon’s fate may have swung on the closing of a gate at Waterloo

Frank McNally
May 5, 2021

An Irishman’s Diary

The Grosse Île Irish Memorial National Historic Site in Quebec. Photograph: Jeff Greenberg/Getty Images

Quebec’s Famine island – Norman Freeman on Grosse Île

Norman Freeman
May 4, 2021

An Irishman’s Diary

George Bernard Shaw: of his 63 plays, seven saw the light of day at the Malvern Theatre Festival. Photograph: Hulton Archive/Getty Images

5:17 Centre stage – Laurence Foster on George Bernard Shaw and the Malvern Theatre Festival

Laurence Foster
May 3, 2021

An Irishman’s Diary

It is to the French that we owe the use of apostrophes in English, but the word itself comes from ancient Greece

Absent Trends – Frank McNally on the trail of missing apostrophes

Frank McNally
April 30, 2021

An Irishman’s Diary

The writer had been climbing near the summit of Mount Errigal “when I first saw the Brocken Spectre (a curious shadow caused by a trick of mist and sun) as I emerged from the cloud into bright sunshine”. Photograph: Declan Doherty

Fiends in High Places – Frank McNally on Walpurgis Night in New York and Donegal

Frank McNally
April 30, 2021

An Irishman’s Diary

The International Olympic Council is thinking of changing its “Faster, Higher, Stronger” motto to make room for a fourth word, “Together”. Photograph: Getty Images

Ménage à Trois – Frank McNally on the rule of three, hendiatris, and a plan to change the Olympic motto

Frank McNally
April 28, 2021

An Irishman’s Diary

Furze bushes (top right) on the descent into the Phoenix Park’s Furry Glen. Photograph: Frank McNally

Born to Burn – Frank McNally on the ‘phoenix of the plant world’ and its many names

Frank McNally
April 27, 2021

An Irishman’s Diary

Napoleon Bonaparte: had many connections with people born in Ireland

Bonaparte – Denis Fahey on Napoleon’s Irish connections

Denis Fahey
April 26, 2021

An Irishman’s Diary

Daniel O’Doherty: killed alongside Charles Slevin and John Devine in Dromore, Co Tyrone, in April 1921

‘A state of terror’ – Una McCaffrey on the Dromore murders of April 1921

Una McCaffrey
April 25, 2021

An Irishwoman’s Diary

France’s regulations on dog-naming decree that all pure-breds registered in any given year must have names starting with the same letter. Photograph: Getty Images

Nom de Grrr – Frank McNally on the rules of dog-naming in France

Frank McNally
April 23, 2021

An Irishman’s Diary

Sir Tyrone Guthrie: theatre director, impresario, philanthropist – and jam maker. Photograph: Courtesy of Thames Television

Drumlin Dramatist – Frank McNally on how Tyrone Guthrie made jam (and Hamlet) among the hills of Monaghan

Frank McNally
April 22, 2021

An Irishman’s Diary

The greatest challenge available to Robert O’Hara Burke was to be the first European to cross Australia’s vast interior. Illustration: Detail from The Death of Burke by Artur Loureiro

Sick Transit – Frank McNally on the doomed Irishmen who were the first Europeans to cross Australia

Frank McNally
April 21, 2021

An Irishman’s Diary

Patrick Bamford: “It’s amazing the amount of uproar that comes into the game when somebody’s pockets are getting hurt.” Photograph: Clive Brunskill / AFP

Patriot Games – Frank McNally on political art theft, football as opera, and Lenin’s Irish accent

Frank McNally
April 20, 2021

An Irishman’s Diary

Detail from Jour d’été (Summer’s Day) by Berthe Morisot (1879). National Gallery, London. An audacious theft 65 years ago this month highlighted the controversy over the Hugh Lane bequest.

Memory Lane – Ray Burke on the audacious theft of Berthe Morisot’s Impressionist masterpiece and the Hugh Lane bequest

Ray Burke
April 19, 2021

An Irishman’s Diary

St Joseph’s, a cemetery where a young man was shot and a botanical garden is buried

What lies beneath – Claire Connolly on St Joseph’s cemetery in Cork and a botanical garden

Claire Connolly
April 19, 2021

An Irishwoman’s Diary

“When all fruits fail, welcome haws.” Photograph: Getty Images

Hedge Schooling – Frank McNally on being given haws for thought

Frank McNally
April 16, 2021

An Irishman’s Diary

John Millington Synge. Drawing by John Butler Yeats, National Gallery of Ireland

Playwright of the Western World – Frank McNally on 150 years of JM Synge

Frank McNally
April 16, 2021

An Irishman’s Diary

Moneypoint: the giant chimneys were built using “continuous pour” concrete. Photograph: Neil Warner/ESB

Moneypoint Memories – Frank McNally on disaffected dockers, Shannon admirals, and the Colleen Bawn

Frank McNally
April 14, 2021

An Irishman’s Diary

Rachael Blackmore: “I just can’t believe I’m after winning the Grand National.” Photograph: Tim Goode/Getty Images

A Bit of Afters – Frank McNally on a cornerstone of Hiberno-English

Frank McNally
April 13, 2021

An Irishman’s Diary

Charles Algernon Parsons: Offaly-born engineer’s work on turbines revolutionised maritime industry

Ruling the waves – Norman Freeman on turbine pioneer Charles Algernon Parsons

Norman Freeman
April 12, 2021

An Irishman’s Diary

“I began to notice them everywhere then. On the river wall, on Daniel O’Connell’s head, on the chimneys of houses. And always with that fixed, alert expression.” Photograph: Tom Honan for The Irish Times

One fell swoop – Fionnuala Ward on seagulls

Fionnuala Ward
April 11, 2021

An Irishwoman’s Diary

“Seamless technological solutions”. Getty Images

Frank McNally on A History of Northern Ireland in 100 Euphemisms

Frank McNally
April 9, 2021

An Irishman’s Diary

“Charles Baudelaire spent 44,500 gold francs in two years. His mother turned off the money tap, or at least fitted a meter.” Photograph: Etienne Carjat/Getty Images

Bard of the Boulevards – Frank McNally on poet Charles Baudelaire, born 200 years ago on this day

Frank McNally
April 9, 2021

An Irishman’s Diary

The Phoenix Park’s “Citadel Pond” owes its origins to the water-filled moat that used to surround a vast construction known variously as the “Citadel”, “Star Fort”, and “Wharton’s Folly”

Pond Life – Frank McNally on the short but colourful history of the Phoenix Park Star Fort

Frank McNally
April 7, 2021

An Irishman’s Diary

Henry “Box” Brown: born into slavery in Virginia, he hit on the ingenious idea of getting himself posted as dry goods to a state where slavery had been abolished years earlier

Mail privilege – Alison Healy on Henry ‘Box’ Brown

Alison Healy
April 6, 2021

An Irishwoman’s Diary

Lenny: can play your emotions with a skill that Cambridge Analytica can only dream about

Dog days – Colm Keena on Lenny, the lockdown Labrador

Colm Keena
April 6, 2021

An Irishman’s Diary

Getting it down on tape – John Fleming on cassettes

John Fleming
April 4, 2021

An Irishman’s Diary

“I found myself poring over an 1816 map of the Phoenix Park. Some of the features survive today and will be painfully well known to many runners”.

The Hills are Alive – Frank McNally on the ups and downs of Phoenix Park history

Frank McNally
April 2, 2021

An Irishman’s Diary

Bus Éireann: proud sponsors of Dublin GAA

Western Wail – Frank McNally on ‘grigging’, Mayo-baiting bus brands, and John le Carré’s homecoming

Frank McNally
April 1, 2021

An Irishman’s Diary

“Soon I was bogged down, having made barely a dent on the grid.”

Cryptical Elliptical – Frank McNally on the mystery of the 90-second crossword solvers

Frank McNally
March 31, 2021

An Irishman’s Diary

David Stifter, Professor of Old Irish at Maynooth University, favours the argument for the origin of the name Tadhg as deriving from a word meaning “badger”.

Black and white issue – Frank McNally on badgers, balcony scenes, and onomastic recycling

Frank McNally
March 30, 2021

An Irishman’s Diary

The War of Independence came to Britain in November 1920 with attacks on warehouses and hay barns which intensified into 1921. There had been little loss of life in Britain until Vincent Fovargue’s death on April 4th, 1921.

‘Spies and traitors beware’ – the IRA and the death of Vincent Fovargue

Ronan McGreevy
March 29, 2021

An Irishman’s Diary

Kathleen Lonsdale: the pioneering scientist, pacifist and prison reformer was born on January 28th, 1903, in Newbridge, Co Kildare

X-ray vision – Brian Maye on trailblazing scientist Kathleen Lonsdale

Brian Maye
March 28, 2021

An Irishman’s Diary

Sam McAughtry: Born in Belfast on March 24th, 1921, just weeks before the Government of Ireland Act introduced partition, he lived for most of the divided century that followed. Photograph: Eric Luke

Say it again, Sam – Remembering Sam McAughtry, who would have been 100 this week

Frank McNally
March 26, 2021

An Irishman’s Diary

The Duchess of Sussex can be considered a Tadhgeen. Photograph: Jeremy Selwyn/PA

Diminished responsibility – Frank McNally on the lesser-seen Tadhgeen

Frank McNally
March 25, 2021

An Irishman’s Diary

In a futuristic article for Envoy magazine 70 years ago this May, the lesser-known sci-fi writer Patrick Kavanagh imagined an unnamed narrator visiting Dublin in the spring of 2021. Photograph: Getty Images

Future Imperfect – Frank McNally on Patrick Kavanagh’s 1950s vision of the year 2021

Frank McNally
March 24, 2021

An Irishman’s Diary

Tadhg Beirne competes in the air with Mark Wilson of England. Photograph: Inpho/Dan Sheridan

A name to be reckoned with – Frank McNally on the importance of being Tadhg

Frank McNally
March 23, 2021

An Irishman’s Diary

Tom Barry: Emboldened by the escape at Crossbarry, Barry decided to target the RIC barracks in his hometown on March 30th, 1921.

Home advantage – Ronan McGreevy on Tom Barry and the Rosscarbery attack

Ronan McGreevy
March 22, 2021

An Irishman’s Diary

In the 1940s, Bill Stapleton started the first Irish traditional label, the Irish Recording Company. Photograph: Getty

Irish Recording Company: Few know of these top-quality 1940s gems

Aidan O'Hara
March 22, 2021

An Irishman’s Diary: Story of the first trad record label under Bill Stapleton

England’s Maro Itoje. Photograph: David Davies/PA Wire.

Decimal coinage – on pedantry, punishment and poems of regret

Frank McNally
March 20, 2021

An Irishman’s Diary: What does decimate really mean now?

Not entirely accurate view from the Phoenix Park by the little-known English artist, JH Hamilton-Marr

Park Life - on war and peace in Dublin’s greatest green space

Frank McNally
March 19, 2021

Searching for the ‘rere of the butts’, finding the Phoenix Park busy in lockdown

Brendan Behan. His reported last words: ‘May all your sons be bishops.’ Photograph: Eddie Kelly

Put a head on that: Croke Park headers and ageing stout

Frank McNally
March 18, 2021

An Irishman’s Diary: On heading the ball in GAA and vintage Brendan Behan

William Ashford’s A View of Dublin from Chapelizod

Lie of the landscape? Frank McNally on trying to put himself in the picture

Frank McNally
March 17, 2021

An Irishman’s Diary: Is it possible to recreate Ashford’s Dublin masterpiece?

Feted in Derry on his way to Chicago in 1933: Italian aviator and politician Count Italo Balbo (1896-1940). Photograph: Topical Press Agency/Getty

When Italo Balbo flew over the Foyle

Norman Freeman
March 15, 2021

An Irishman’s Diary: Italian led fleet of seaplanes to Chicago in 1933, stopping in Derry

“One of the ghosts of the Abbey was going to pull me down . . . I think I screamed” Photograph: Getty Images

The confirmation ghost – Mae Leonard on Abbey returns

Mae Leonard
March 14, 2021

An Irishwoman’s Diary

Roddy Doyle: inspiration from the phone book. Photograph: Alan Betson

‘I’m in the book’ – Alison Healy on the phone book

Alison Healy
March 12, 2021

An Irishwoman’s Diary

The Widow Sammon waged a heroic battle to regain her right to the two-acre holding and the small cottage in which she had borne eight children between 1881 and 1894

Sammon of wisdom – Áine Ryan on the heroic struggles of the Widow Sammon

Áine Ryan
March 11, 2021

An Irishwoman’s Diary

John Canon O’Hanlon (1821-1905): noted historian and writer of 19th-century Ireland was immortalised by James Joyce in Ulysses

Monumental achievement – Tony Delaney on John Canon O’Hanlon

Tony Delaney
March 10, 2021

An Irishman’s Diary

Selton Hill, Co Leitrim. Along with Sean Connolly, one of the ablest guerrilla leaders outside Co Cork, the five other IRA men who died were Seamus Wrynne, Joseph O’Beirne, John Reilly, Joseph Reilly and Michael Baxter

A fateful week – Ronan McGreevy on Leitrim and the War of Independence

Ronan McGreevy
March 9, 2021

An Irishman’s Diary

The only place one could legitimately purchase and consume alcohol on the national saint’s anniversary in that era, apart from hotels, was the Dublin Dog Show in Ballsbridge. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill

Countermeasures – John Horgan on ways around a dry St Patrick’s Day

John Horgan
March 8, 2021

An Irishman’s Diary

Photograph: Courtesy of Lawrence Collection/National Library of Ireland

On track – Norman Freeman on the men who built the railways

Norman Freeman
March 7, 2021

An Irishman’s Diary

Pontius Pilate, as rendered by sculptor Joseph Maria Subirachs on the facade of the Sagrada Família in Barcelona. Photograph: Getty Images

Spring Fall – Frank McNally on the dangers of March, the allure of apples, and Pontius Pilate’s fitness regime

Frank McNally
March 5, 2021

An Irishman’s Diary

Saint Piran’s flag, the standard of Cornwall. Photograph: Getty Images

Forbidding Fruit – Frank McNally on two great but lesser-known Irish exports: St Piran and the Cockagee apple

Frank McNally
March 4, 2021

An Irishman’s Diary

Arthur Griffith: the many lighter pieces he wrote reveal a witty man with a keen sense of humour. Photograph: Hulton Archive/Getty Images

The best medicine – Brian Maye on a lighter side to Arthur Griffith

Brian Maye
March 3, 2021

An Irishman’s Diary

“I owe my new knowledge about geese and cider to Heather Heavenor Swinson, from Midlothian, who on foot of the previous columns, sent me a rather charming card with story attached.”

Sauce from the goose – Frank McNally on the colourful history of Cackagay cider

Frank McNally
March 2, 2021

An Irishman’s Diary

John F Kennedy in Ireland in 1963. Photograph: Irish Times

A president of consequence – Felix M Larkin on reassessing Kennedy

Felix M Larkin
March 1, 2021

An Irishman’s Diary

Falkland Islands. “Best of all was the St Patrick’s Day party for which I take total credit.” Photograph: Getty Images

Cruise control – Renagh Holohan on St Patrick’s Day and the Falkland Islands

Renagh Holohan
February 28, 2021

An Irishwoman’s Diary

As the proverb sayeth, a Nphet may never be accepted in its own country

Word Up – Frank McNally with a further (but not farther) reading from the Stylebook of Leviticus

Frank McNally
February 26, 2021

An Irishman’s Diary

Eamonn Breslin: launched himself at the ball from the edge of the square and beat the Laois goalkeeper with a diving header

Ahead of his time – Frank McNally on the day Eamonn Breslin shocked Croke Park

Frank McNally
February 25, 2021

An Irishman’s Diary

“Maybe the Cabinet should consider actual set-dance classes as a team-building exercise? It would be a way to let off steam. It might help improve coordination and prevent solo performances.” Photograph: Eamon Ward

Game, Set, Mismatch – Frank McNally on journalism’s favourite word, Billy Brennan revisited, and a tale of two Zoom events

Frank McNally
February 24, 2021

An Irishman’s Diary

If a Dublin gravestone from 1805 is to be believed, Galway-born writer and MP John Wilson Croker may have contributed to the death of actor John Edwin

Slaughtered by the critics – Frank McNally on a 19th-century actor’s fatally bad review

Frank McNally
February 24, 2021

An Irishman’s Diary

Sir Richard Francis Burton: soldier, explorer, geographer, cartographer, anthropologist, diplomat, polyglot and author

The other Burton – Denis Fahey on Sir Richard Francis Burton’s life of adventure

Denis Fahey
February 22, 2021

An Irishman’s Diary

Detail from a Jacob Lawrence painting showing southern African-Americans at a railway station buying train tickets for Chicago, New York and St Louis. Some six million black southerners in the US had left the land of their birth and moved to the industrial north in search of a better life. Courtesy of the Museum of Modern Art, New York

The Great Migration – Paula Murphy on African-American artist Jacob Lawrence

Paula Murphy
February 21, 2021

An Irishwoman’s Diary

Limerick Gaol. The early 19th century was an era of great political unrest, and public executions were commonplace, none more so than in Limerick, a hotbed of agrarian agitation.

Stretcher case – An Irishman’s Diary on James Ryan, a notorious Limerick hangman

Denis O’Shaughnessy
February 19, 2021

An Irishman’s Diary

The death mask of English poet John Keats. Keats’s friends decided that the prescribed, one-line epitaph needed editorialising. Photograph: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images

Parting Blast – Frank McNally on the contested epitaph of John Keats

Frank McNally
February 18, 2021

An Irishman’s Diary

My tutor was a man named Underwood – a Fleet Street retiree, I think. I never found out if he was anything to the famous typewriter manufacturers. Photograph: Aidan Crawley

London Calling – Frank McNally on the joys of a forgotten education

Frank McNally
February 17, 2021

An Irishman’s Diary

Lola Montez: her surname was pure invention, part of a rebranding in which she became an exotic dancer from Andalusia

Dancing Queen – Frank McNally on Lola Montez, born 200 years ago today

Frank McNally
February 17, 2021

An Irishman’s Diary

A memorial at the Upton ambush site mentions the three IRA men who died, but not the civilians who were killed

Signal failure – Ronan McGreevy on the Upton train ambush of February 1921

Ronan McGreevy
February 15, 2021

An Irishman’s Diary

Garth Brooks at Croke Park. Photograph: Niall Carson/PA

Wish upon a star – Alison Healy on unanswered prayers

Alison Healy
February 14, 2021

An Irishwoman’s Diary on agreeing with Garth Brooks

Dorothy L Sayers’s fictional detective Lord Peter Wimsey. “Despite being an Oxford-educated gentleman of the early 20th century, he was always goin’ places, seein’ people, and solvin’ murders.”

No G-Men – Frank McNally on the politics of English accents

Frank McNally
February 12, 2021

An Irishman’s Diary

Douglas Gageby: spikily humorous recollections. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill

Turning an Old Leaf – Frank McNally on the revelations of second-hand books

Frank McNally
February 11, 2021

An Irishman’s Diary

Charles Minthorn “Mile-a-minute” Murphy talked the Long Island Railway company into using one of its locomotives to pace him to a world record

Training session – Frank McNally on the Irish-American cyclist who set a (train) track record

Frank McNally
February 10, 2021

An Irishman’s Diary

I did study Latin briefly in first year at secondary school (just after the fall of the Roman Empire). Photograph: Getty Images

Light-ball Moment – Frank McNally on discos, donkeys, and learning Latin

Frank McNally
February 9, 2021

An Irishman’s Diary

People who had never sauntered further than the distance from the front door to their awaiting automotive vehicle were donning long-neglected boots. Photograph: Don MacMonagle

Walk on by – Éanna Brophy on exercise in the pandemic

Éanna Brophy
February 8, 2021

An Irishman’s Diary

Kay McNulty: had to learn English in the US before attending school as her family had been Irish speaking

Go figure – Brian Maye on Donegal computer pioneer Kay McNulty

Brian Maye
February 7, 2021

An Irishman’s Diary

“Yes, AA Milne, I’m looking at you. For much of my childhood, I wondered at the stupid name you gave that donkey”. Photograph: Getty Images

To ‘er’ is human – Frank McNally on the scourge of rhotic imperialism

Frank McNally
February 5, 2021

An Irishman’s Diary

It may be Hackball who features in the foreground of Joseph Tudor’s panorama of “Sackville Street and Gardiner’s Mall, Dublin” (circa 1750), in the National Gallery

Hacked Off – Frank McNally on the trail of Hackball, King of the Beggars

Frank McNally
February 4, 2021

An Irishman’s Diary

A plaque on Cesca Chenevix Trench’s birthplace records her name in English but describes her as an “Artist and Gaelic Leaguer”.

An Artist Drawn to Ireland – Frank McNally on Cesca Chenevix Trench

Frank McNally
February 3, 2021

An Irishman’s Diary

Is it possible, I wondered, that in calling certain people “head-the-ball”, Dubliners were decades ahead of the neurologists? Photograph: Getty Images

On the Ball, Off the Wall – Frank McNally on the mysterious origins of a Dublin phrase

Frank McNally
February 2, 2021

An Irishman’s Diary

Rumours persisted that the Indian Empire had been sabotaged to prevent Galway challenging Liverpool as the leading transatlantic port. Photograph: Getty Images

Running aground – Ray Burke on the Indian Empire and a Galway conspiracy theory

Ray Burke
February 2, 2021

An Irishman’s Diary

“You know that moment when someone wearing a face mask greets you but you have no idea who they are because you can only see their eyes?” Photograph: Getty Images

Facing up to it – Alison Healy on who is behind the mask

Alison Healy
January 31, 2021

An Irishwoman’s Diary

Switzers in Dublin. Photograph: Paddy Whelan

A Window on the Switzers – Frank McNally’s further reflections on a remarkable Irish-American

Frank McNally
January 29, 2021

An Irishman’s Diary

Huw Edwards. Photograph: Jeff Overs/BBC/Getty Images

Hear Here, There – Frank McNally on the news where you are

Frank McNally
January 28, 2021

An Irishman’s Diary

Mary E Switzer: her ancestors were Protestant refugees from Germany who fled to Ireland. By her retirement in 1970, she was the highest-ranking female bureaucrat in US government.

Daughters of Destiny – Frank McNally on a forgotten immigrant community, the Irish Palatines

Frank McNally
January 27, 2021

An Irishman’s Diary

Denise Chaila: her song Anseo got a recent airing on BBC 6 Radio. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill

Present and Incorrect – Frank McNally on the importance of being “Anseo”

Frank McNally
January 26, 2021

An Irishman’s Diary

Mary (Maria Georgina) Lindsay was abducted and executed by the IRA in 1921

‘She never blinked an eye’ – An Irishman’s Diary on the IRA’s killing of Mary Lindsay in 1921

Ronan McGreevy
January 25, 2021

Lindsay was killed along with her chauffeur James Clarke

Joe Biden’s reference to James Joyce as an Irish poet, and not as novelist or short-story writer, may have taken some by surprise. Photograph: Hulton Getty

A portrait of the artist as poet – An Irishman’s Diary on James Joyce

Gerard Smyth
January 25, 2021

Biden saluted Joyce the poet

WC Minor: an American of great learning who murdered a man in London in 1871, was found guilty but insane, and spent the rest of his life incarcerated while, via correspondence, becoming a major contributor to the Oxford English Dictionary. Photograph: from the book The Surgeon of Crowthorne by Simon Winchester

Men of Letters – the extraordinary story of lexicographer and hibernophobe WC Minor

Frank McNally
January 22, 2021

An Irishman’s Diary

“As to whether the ‘I suppose’ usage is waning or waxing, I’m not sure.” Photograph: Getty Images

Supposition position – Frank McNally on ‘I suppose’

Frank McNally
January 21, 2021

An Irishman’s Diary

US president Joe Biden, standing alongside his wife Jill Biden, takes the oath of office. Photograph: Michael Reynolds/EPA

Holy Joe – Frank McNally on more Biden relatives and lessons for the president from a seventh-century saint

Frank McNally
January 20, 2021

An Irishman’s Diary

15 Usher’s Island – the house has been empty for several years now, its future uncertain

Mean, Green Grass of Home – Frank McNally on the greatest of all Irish curses

Frank McNally
January 20, 2021

‘May the grass grow before your door’

In the Seanad in 1974, Mary Robinson tackled the personal and legal limbo of children born out of wedlock

Pragmatism v Principle – how the Seanad attempted to tackle the issue of children born out of wedlock

John Horgan
January 18, 2021

An Irishman’s Diary

Childhood came with a barrage of warnings. You couldn’t pull a funny face without being warned that the wind would change, and your face would stay like that forever. Photograph: Alan Betson

A cautionary tale – Alison Healy on childhood’s rich barrage of warnings

Alison Healy
January 17, 2021

An Irishwoman’s Diary

“Getting back to ‘So’, and my speculation about whether Seamus Heaney or Mark Zuckerberg was to blame for the phenomenon, perhaps I should also have included Julie Andrews on the list of suspects.” Photograph: 20th Century Fox/Getty Images

In terms of ‘in terms of’ – Frank McNally on a linguistic plague

Frank McNally
January 15, 2021

An Irishman’s Diary

Editorials

The Irish Times view on antigen testing: A study in mixed messaging

People would be forgiven for concluding the State has two co-existing views on antigen testing: it is for and against it

The Irish Times view on the clashes in Jerusalem: Fuel to the fire

For Palestinians, who hope to see East Jerusalem as capital of their state, the march and evictions are expressions of the one issue: Israel’s determination to make that aspiration impossible

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