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The Irish Times
Fri, Jul 19, 2019
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  • Martyn Turner
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Blindboy Boatclub: listed Flann O’Brien as one of his great heroes, alongside “Bob Dylan and Tom Waits” At Swim-Two-Bobs – Frank McNally on the mysteries of numerology in the work of Bob Dylan and Flann O’Brien
  • Frank McNally
  • July 19, 2019

At Swim-Two-Birds pays extended homage to the number 3 with three beginnings, three ends and a similar number of plots in between

Bob Dylan performing at Nowlan Park, Kilkenny, on Sunday. Photograph: Raphael Pour-Hashemi Tripping out in Kilkenny – Frank McNally on the people you meet at rock concerts
  • Frank McNally
  • July 18, 2019

William Joyce: “Lord Haw-Haw” attracted odium for his wartime radio broadcasts from Nazi Germany Germany Calling: An Irishman’s Diary on William Joyce, ‘Lord Haw-Haw’
  • Deaglán de Bréadún
  • July 16, 2019

Wendon – now called Balnagowan – in Glasnevin is in a sorry state. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw An Irishwoman’s Diary on the sad fate of Wendon, ‘Dublin’s Wonder House’
  • Bernice Harrison
  • July 15, 2019

Fred the Seagull The seagull has landed – An Irishman’s Diary on an unexpected guest
  • Colm Keena
  • July 15, 2019

The Guinness tunnel under James’s Street in Dublin Tunnel vision – Frank McNally gets a tour of Guinness’s brewery
  • Frank McNally
  • July 12, 2019

Robin Berrington was ordered home after some uncomplimentary things he wrote about the Irish became public. Photograph: P Flannagan Dull food and unpredictable people - what a US diplomat thought of Ireland in 1980
  • Conor O’Clery
  • July 12, 2019

’Wild-eyed’ republicans or Anglo-Irish types who spoke as if they were sucking marbles

Poster for the fifth international Flann O’Brien conference, which starts on Tuesday and will involve several days of non-stop talking by academics and other Flannoraks, from at least four continents.  Festival of Flann – Frank McNally on a big homecoming for Dublin’s funniest writer
  • Frank McNally
  • July 10, 2019

You can strut while playing the flute, something much harder to do with bagpipes or accordions. Photograph: iStock The flutes, the flutes are calling – Frank McNally on Ireland’s most politicised musical instrument
  • Frank McNally
  • July 9, 2019

The two ancient stone pillars at the entrance to what was, until last year, Kevin Street Garda station. Photograph: Sara Freund What lies beneath – An Irishman’s Diary on Kevin Street station’s medieval wonders
  • Paddy Murray
  • July 8, 2019

Read all about it: Michael Harding, Christina McHugh and Patsy McGarry focus on local newspapers. Photograph: Gerard O’Loughlin Local newspapers remind us of the importance of a place we call home
  • Christina McHugh
  • July 8, 2019

What would George M Tully think if he were to step inside a modern newsroom?

A battering ram is used to break into a house on the estate of Captain Hector Vandeleur in Co Clare, during an eviction of tenants for the non-payment of rent in 1888. The tenants have stuffed foliage in the doors and windows to hinder entry. Photograph: Sean Sexton/Getty Images Blunt instrument – the Kilrush evictions of 1888 and the ‘Vandeleur ram’
  • Frank McNally
  • July 5, 2019

Evictions combined with advent of photojournalism brought ram under spotlight

Con Ó Drisceoil is among Ireland’s leading practitioners of the comic ballad, an ancient art form. Photograph: from the cover of his book, Hunting the Hair, courtesy of TG4/Gradam Ceoil Clare set: Frank McNally on two new books with a common thread
  • Frank McNally
  • July 4, 2019

Irishman's Diary: Musicians bumped into each other on my desk via respective books

Pulitzer Prize-winning American Poet Laureate Robert Frost: Derry was where Frost wrote much of his early work No dividing wall – Frank McNally on the US neighbouring towns of Derry and Londonderry
  • Frank McNally
  • July 4, 2019

An Irishman’s Diary:

Frediano’s fame contributed to the popularity of Lucca as a stop for Irish pilgrims in the medieval era. Above, the old town with the Basilica of San Frediano. Photograph: Phas/Universal Images Group via Getty Images A devout son of an Ulster king is said to have saved Lucca from disaster
  • Tim Fanning
  • July 2, 2019

Those who have visited this part of Italy will understand Frediano’s abrupt decision to relocate

Kuno Meyer complained that Germany had done nothing to manifest its sympathy with Irish separatism since the comradeship in arms inaugurated in 1916 at the instigation of Roger Casement above). Image: Detail from Mick O’Dea’s portrait of Roger Casement (Photograph: Nick Bradshaw) Digitisation could turn Meyer’s dream for ancient Irish poetry and prose into reality
  • Denis Fahey
  • July 1, 2019

An Irishman’s Diary: Celtic scholar praised for his work on old Irish poems and sagas

The “Earl of Rone” is presumed to refer to Hugh O’Neill (c1550–1616), aka the Earl of Ty-rone.  Photograph: Hulton Archive/Getty Images The hunting of the Earl of Rone – and the Irish connection
  • Frank McNally
  • June 28, 2019

An Irishman’s Diary: The festival was banned in 1837 after a man fell to his death during the debauches

‘As for the travails of Monaghan GAA supporters, I would hesitate to compare the seven years we had Malachy O’Rourke (above) as manager –a period that ended last Saturday night – with the time James Stockdale spent in the Hanoi Hilton. Photograph: Tommy Dickson/Inpho A twist of faith – Frank McNally on GAA supporters and the ‘Stockdale Paradox’
  • Frank McNally
  • June 27, 2019

Defining event of Stockdale’s life was the time he spent as a prisoner of war in Vietnam

Michael Davitt (above) named Martin Hanley Carey among inmates who became ‘oblivious to their sufferings from temporary insanity’. Photograph: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images Medical militia – Frank McNally on the Irish presence at the Franco-Prussian war
  • Frank McNally
  • June 26, 2019

The motivation for Irish participation was humanitarian, in large part

Bernard Arnault: Even the man who owns Christian Dior, Louis Vuitton, Dom Pérignon, and other luxury brands must have gone to school post-natally like the rest of us. Photograph: Christophe Archambault / AFP /Getty Images Young man in a hurry (x2): Frank McNally is misled by a ‘dangling modifier’
  • Frank McNally
  • June 25, 2019

When the start of a sentence loses touch with the end

Iris Murdoch at the conferring of honorary degrees by Dublin University in 1985. Photograph: Jack McManus / THE IRISH TIMES How Irish was Iris? The life and times of the first Irish-born Booker Prize-winner
  • Brian Maye
  • June 24, 2019

Iris Murdoch: ‘Being a woman is like being Irish’, one of her characters said

The “big three” at the Paris Peace Conference: French president Paul Clemenceau (far left), US president Woodrow Wilson and British prime minister David Lloyd George. A bitter peace – An Irishman’s Diary on the Treaty of Versailles
  • Ronan McGreevy
  • June 24, 2019

Dr James Deeny, who became chief medical officer of the Department of Health in the late 1940s General Practitioner – Frank McNally on Orangemen, “Blue Men”, and Americans in war-time Armagh
  • Frank McNally
  • June 22, 2019

The official crew portrait of the Apollo 11 astronauts: Neil Armstrong (left), Michael Collins, and Buzz Aldrin. Photograph: Nasa Men on a Mission – Frank McNally on a tale of two Michael Collinses
  • Frank McNally
  • June 20, 2019

“If Brexit ever happens, it will leave Ireland as the European Union’s only officially English-speaking country. Or maybe not.” iStock English Stew – Frank McNally on a meeting of the anglophone world in Limerick
  • Frank McNally
  • June 19, 2019

By the 1920s, the Phibsboro Junction was firmly established as Doyle’s Corner, and is still known as that. Image: Google Street View Turning a corner – Frank McNally on the mysteries of one of Dublin’s more unusual civic honours
  • Frank McNally
  • June 18, 2019

Between 160 to 200 soldiers of the Waffen SS entered the quiet village of Oradour-sur-Glane 75 years ago this month The women and children were rounded up and locked into the church while the men were machine-gunned down. The church was set alight. An Irishman’s Diary on the Oradour-sur-Glane massacre
  • Michael Foley
  • June 18, 2019

Sir Thomas Lawrence’s portrait of Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh. National Portrait Gallery, London ‘Here lie the bones of Castlereagh’ – An Irishman’s Diary on a political colossus
  • Brian Maye
  • June 17, 2019

Recovering a body from the General Slocum excursion steamer disaster in New York A Nightmare of New York – Frank McNally on the real-life maritime disaster that haunts James Joyce’s Ulysses
  • Frank McNally
  • June 14, 2019

“GK Chesterton was certainly no ascetic, enjoying cigars and alcohol as well as food. Unlike most saints, he was also happily married.” Haloed Fellow Well Met – Frank McNally on GK Chesterton’s claims to sainthood
  • Frank McNally
  • June 14, 2019

An Irishman’s Diary on the English novelist who was a ‘friendly enemy’ to Shaw

Eileen O’Shaughnessy, George Orwell’s first wife. In 1934, the year before the couple met, she had published a poem called “1984” Stop All the Clocks – Frank McNally on the influence of George Orwell’s first wife, Eileen O’Shaughnessy, on 1984
  • Frank McNally
  • June 12, 2019

Éric Tabarly: one of the greatest yachtsmen of his generation Sailing into history – An Irishman’s Diary on French yachtsman Éric Tabarly
  • Oliver O’Hanlon
  • June 11, 2019

The 38th Irish Brigade of the British army on parade in St Peter’s Square on June 12th, 1944 ‘The Wearing of the Green’ – An Irishman’s Diary on the Irish Brigade in Rome in 1944
  • Ronan McGreevy
  • June 10, 2019

Januarius Aloysius MacGahan: one of the most influential journalists of the 19th century ‘Liberator of Bulgaria’ – An Irishman’s Diary on the journalist Januarius Aloysius MacGahan
  • Denis Fahey
  • June 10, 2019

George Orwell: his novel 1984, published 70 years ago today, contains what has been dubbed “one of the strangest coincidences in literature”. Photograph: Getty Images Big Brother’s Long Shadow – Frank McNally on Orwell’s 1984 at 70
  • Frank McNally
  • June 8, 2019

Orwell's 1947 essay 'Towards European Unity' is still relevant today

The variety in question was the well-named “Jazz”, a relatively modern one, from the 1980s Apple Turnover – Frank McNally on the temptations of Forbidden Fruit
  • Frank McNally
  • June 6, 2019

Samuel Beckett: volunteered to aid the town of Saint-Lô, which had been reduced to rubble Down but not out in Saint-Lô: Frank McNally on Samuel Beckett and the Irish Red Cross in postwar France
  • Frank McNally
  • June 5, 2019

The Wellington Monument in the Phoenix Park, Dublin. Photograph: Cyril Byrne Pillar of Society – Frank McNally on giving the Wellington Monument a much-needed lift
  • Frank McNally
  • June 4, 2019

Patrick “Paddy” Gillen was 17 years old when he left home in Galway to join the British army in 1943. The following year, 75 years ago this June 6th, he landed on Sword Beach, Normandy. ‘A Bloody Dawn’ – An Irishwoman’s Diary on the Irish at D-Day
  • Lara Marlowe
  • June 4, 2019

José Salas Subirat in 1926. Photograph: Gentileza Penguin Random House An Irishman’s Diary on José Salas Subirat, the insurance salesman who translated Ulysses
  • Tim Fanning
  • June 3, 2019

Michael Davitt’s grave in Straide, Co Mayo Arms and the Man – Frank McNally on a museum dedicated to reversing the latter-day neglect of Michael Davitt
  • Frank McNally
  • May 31, 2019

Peter Doyle and Walt Whitman, circa 1869. Photograph: Courtesy of William R. Perkins Library, Duke University, Trent Collection. Walt’s Partner – a Limerick man beloved of Walt Whitman
  • Frank McNally
  • May 31, 2019

Irishman's Diary: Born 200 years ago, Peter Doyle was poet's lifelong companion

Ring-tailed lemur: stunned reaction. Photograph: Natalia Bubochkina/iStock Stun the crows – Frank McNally on an overused S-word
  • Frank McNally
  • May 29, 2019

May 29th was celebrated (by royalists at least) as Oak Apple Day, the purported anniversary of an event in which King Charles II avoided capture by Cromwellians. Photograph: iStock Out of his tree – Frank McNally on Royal Oak Day and the pub name it inspired
  • Frank McNally
  • May 28, 2019

Illustration to sheet music published in the US in 1906 that was inspired by the story of the Colleen Bawn, Ellen Hanley, who was murdered in 1819 The Colleen Bawn – An Irishman’s Diary on the tragic fate of Ellen Hanley
  • Brian Maye
  • May 27, 2019

“What was once a street full of interesting locally owned shops has become an identikit Main Street, with some 40 multinational retailers” Memory lane – An Irishman’s Diary on Grafton Street
  • Hugh Oram
  • May 27, 2019

Commemorative bronze bust and sculpture of Brother Walfrid in his birthplace of Ballymote, Co Sligo Celtic’s founder – An Irishman’s Diary on Brother Walfrid
  • Oliver O’Hanlon
  • May 24, 2019

Seamus Mallon in 1984 holding up a picture taken of the bugging equipment found in the house in Dublin where he stayed occasionally. Photograph: Kevin McMahon Moyna Transgression – Frank McNally on the Seamus Mallon memoirs and hitchhiking in the 1980s
  • Frank McNally
  • May 23, 2019

“The science is still in large part a mystery, because there are so many variables involved and because the trees themselves cannot be interviewed” Cavorting Buds of May – Frank McNally on a spectacular year for hawthorn blossoms
  • Frank McNally
  • May 22, 2019

“It had been several years since my last half marathon but unjustified optimism springs eternal” Going the Distance – Frank McNally on performing the Ballina and Breffni Park biathlon
  • Frank McNally
  • May 21, 2019

“You find yourself standing at an unanswered door, with a leaflet in your hand, and there is a dog the size of a small pony growling at you through the glass panel on the side.” Photograph: iStock On the canvass – An Irishwoman’s Diary on the perils of electioneering
  • Fionnuala Ward
  • May 20, 2019

The wedding photograph of Dan Breen shows him with his Luger pistol on his lap. With him is his wife, Bridget Malone. In background: Seán Hogan and Bridget’s sister, Áine Malone. Knocklong ambush, on May 13th, 1919 involved a 14-minute gun battle
  • Ronan McGreevy
  • May 20, 2019

Irishman's Diary: Action may have saved Seán Hogan from execution, but came at terrible price

Yumi Katsura: ‘When I met Grace Kelly (above), I understood the real meaning of “elegant” as a verb.’ Photograph: Getty Images Why elegant should never be put to work as a verb in car sales
  • Frank McNally
  • May 17, 2019

Antimeria sounds like a female relative of a certain age who bosses everyone around

Exiled in Paris, Joseph Roth foresaw the grim future, writing to his friend and benefactor Stefan Zweig: ‘It will have become clear to you now that we are drifting towards a great catastrophe.’ Photograph: Getty Images  Living in the dark shadow of the Battle of Solferino
  • Frank McNally
  • May 16, 2019

An Irishman’s Diary: Geneva Convention and Radetsky March are part of its legacy

Crack/craic: William Shakespeare would have put a K in it. Image: Painting known as the ‘Chandos portrait’/Hulton Archive/Getty Images How to spell the word craic (or crack?) and what Shakespeare would have said
  • Frank McNally
  • May 15, 2019

An Irishman’s Diary: The bard’s ‘cracker’ was somebody who talked big

The remains of a D-Day Mulberry harbour at Arromanches, Normandy. Photograph: iStock A Portaferry Man in a Storm – Frank McNally on the Irish marine salvage specialist who helped save D-Day
  • Frank McNally
  • May 14, 2019

You can still visit San Quentin as a tourist but you can’t actually go inside the gas chamber as before Death row – An Irishwoman’s Diary on California’s moratorium on the death penalty
  • Elgy Gillespie
  • May 14, 2019

An Irishman’s Diary on James Joyce and 15 Usher’s Island
  • Deaglán de Bréadún
  • May 13, 2019

Joe Biden on the campaign trail in Los Angeles this week. Photograph: Mario Tama/Getty Images Holy Orders – Frank McNally on biblical Joe Biden, James Joyce’s Dublin, and pubs with no beer
  • Frank McNally
  • May 10, 2019

Pawel Strzelecki: At the scheme’s height, 200,000 children benefitted. They were fed an eastern European staple, rye bread Strzelecki’s List – Frank McNally on a Polish hero of the Great Famine
  • Frank McNally
  • May 9, 2019

Thomas Blood: “very well spoken and dangerously insinuating”, said one contemporary Bad Blood – Frank McNally on the Irish man who nearly stole England’s crown jewels
  • Frank McNally
  • May 8, 2019

The small, gravel-strewn cross, carved into the grass where Lord Frederick Cavendish and Thomas Burke were assassinated in 1882 Frank McNally on a forgotten song about the Phoenix Park Murders
  • Frank McNally
  • May 7, 2019

The mayoral chain with the smaller sheriff’s chain. Photograph: City of Limerick Libraries Chain of command – An Irishwoman’s Diary on the mayors of Limerick
  • Mae Leonard
  • May 7, 2019

The Long Stone Pub on Townsend Street, Dublin. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill So long, Long Stone – An Irishman’s Diary on the changing face of Dublin
  • Denis Fahey
  • May 6, 2019

Tottenham Hotspur manager Mauricio Pochettino: Oedipal struggle. Photograph: Will Oliver/EPA A whole different ballgame – Frank McNally on the literature of football
  • Frank McNally
  • May 3, 2019

Tripe and drisheen in the English Market in Cork Coming clean on Drisheen – Frank McNally on the mysterious pleasures of a Cork culinary classic
  • Frank McNally
  • May 2, 2019

A drawing in red chalk widely accepted as a self-portrait of Leonardo da Vinci. Biblioteca Reale, Turin. Machiavelli collaborated with Leonardo on a plan to steal the river Arno from the Pisans, bringing them to their senses, or their knees, or both. Rolling up the river – Frank McNally on an unlikely partnership between Leonardo da Vinci and Niccolò Machiavelli
  • Frank McNally
  • May 2, 2019

A newer, brasher breed of seagull – “gulliers” – who preferred hanging around the city. Photograph: Cyril Byrne Jonathan Irishtown Seagull – A Fable (with apologies to Richard Bach)
  • Frank McNally
  • April 30, 2019

The Duke of Wellington was born 250 years ago on May 1st. Painting: Thomas Lawrence The Iron Duke – An Irishman’s Diary on the Duke of Wellington
  • Brian Maye
  • April 29, 2019

A spice market in Kerala, India. Photograph: iStock Spice of life – An Irishman’s Diary on the Indian state of Kerala
  • Norman Freeman
  • April 29, 2019

Welsh-born poet Arthur Symons visited the west of Ireland with his friend WB Yeats in 1896 Poetry in motion – An Irishman’s Diary on Arthur Symons and a visit to the Aran Islands in 1896
  • Oliver O’Hanlon
  • April 26, 2019

Newmills corn and flax mills in Co Donegal An Irishman’s Diary on mills and millers
  • Hugh Oram
  • April 25, 2019

Soda bread is a bread secure in its own identity, content with its lot in life. Photograph: Luca Trovato/Getty Images Rising to the occasion – An Irishwoman’s Diary on soda bread
  • Fionnuala Ward
  • April 24, 2019

We waited for teenage soldiers, often from the north of England, to decide on how long it should take for us to continue our journey into the South. Photograph: Alan Betson Staccato questions and insistent torchlight – An Irishwoman’s Diary on Border memories
  • Una McCaffrey
  • April 23, 2019

John Pentland Mahaffy: classicist and provost of Trinity College Dublin died 100 years ago on April 30th Battle of wits – An Irishman’s Diary on Trinity and John Pentland Mahaffy
  • Brian Maye
  • April 23, 2019

A flick through old guide books throws up the faded ticket of admission to the Uffizi Gallery in Florence and keepsakes such as a postcard from a visit to the Hermitage Museum in Leningrad. Photograph: Getty Images Finding the source of the binge – and other hidden delights
  • Paul Clements
  • April 21, 2019

An Irishman’s Diary on the joys of a paper travel guidebook

In his book on the life of V V Giri (above), Irish Days, Indian Memories, Conor Mulvagh notes that the cafe on Dublin’s Henry Street was watched closely by police and their agents. Photograph from the cover of the book, published by Irish Academic Press From a vegetarian restaurant in Dublin to the presidency of India
  • Frank McNally
  • April 19, 2019

An Irishman’s Diary on a historic Henry Street premises

The sign over Dublin’s Lord Edward Pub (a fine old establishment itself, by the way), opposite Christchurch, is considered by Paddy Cullivan considered to be a crime against art. Photograph: Bryan O’Brien An ‘iconic’ Lord Edward and the resurrection of Thomas Street
  • Frank McNally
  • April 18, 2019

An Irishman’s Diary takes a sideways look at 1798 commemorations

Flowers at the site of a mass grave for children who died in the Tuam mother and baby home. File photograph: Niall Carson/PA Wire Irish Times view on the Mother and Baby homes report: concealment, past and present
  • April 18, 2019

Greater public cooperation is required to expose the truth and confront old prejudices

As for the general pandemic of I-word abuse, its effect on us allergy sufferers is grievous, even in the context of a story like the one from Paris, where the adjective would ordinarily have been useful. Above, a damaged section of Notre-Dame Cathedral after Monday’s fire. Photograph: Gonzalo Fuentes/Reuters Iconic inferno – Frank McNally on this week’s unavoidable word
  • Frank McNally
  • April 17, 2019

‘It didn’t help that the Notre Dame fire was an event unusually worthy of the word’

If there is any consolation in this week’s disaster, it’s that much of what was destroyed, including the spire, dated only from the reconstruction that started in 1841. Photograph: Yoan Valat/ EPA Sanctuary in Notre Dame and a brush with a second Quasimodo
  • Frank McNally
  • April 16, 2019

I watched the sad TV pictures as if from the bookstore Shakespeare & Co, on the Seine’s left bank

Bord na Móna steam engine, No 2, shunts a single wagon full of turf at Clonsast, Co Offaly on September 26th, 1950. Photograph: Robin N Clements/ Irish Railway Record Society Archive An Irishman’s Diary on the steam engines of Bord na Móna
  • Glen Murphy
  • April 16, 2019

Flashback to days of experimentation and a look at those who preserve its heritage today

In Strokestown Park, in the local library, the secondary school, the Percy French Hotel, and on the streets, the sound of pentameters and rap, haiku and ballads, has enchanted audiences with soulful and humorous testaments of love, beauty, nature, death – the great themes of poetry – and everything else in between. Photograph: Tourism Ireland Rhyme and reason – An Irishman’s Diary on the Strokestown poetry festival
  • James Harpur
  • April 15, 2019

God Save the Queen strikes a discordant note

If any songbird deserves a joint writing credit for Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, the ortolan bunting is the one. Photograph: Getty Images Ortolan’s symphony: Frank McNally on Beethoven’s feathered friend
  • Frank McNally
  • April 13, 2019

The Brexit Yellowhammer connection and a bird of a different feather

Members of the Odorikko dance group enjoy a walk on the grounds of Farmleigh House ahead of their show at the Japanese Hanami festival in Dublin’s Phoenix Park. Photograph: Brian Lawless/PA Bones of convention – Frank McNally on a dying Japanese custom
  • Frank McNally
  • April 11, 2019

Ritual of Senkotsu requires the family to reassemble, disinter the body, and wash the bones

Photograph: Bryan O’Brien The Rime of the Ancient Brexiter – An Irishman’s Diary
  • Frank McNally
  • April 11, 2019

While the Troubles were considered a terrible aberration, the road carnage seemed to be tolerated as a regrettable but inevitable result of progress The accidental death of an insurrectionist – Frank McNally on Ireland’s other Troubles
  • Frank McNally
  • April 9, 2019

Jan Lukasiewicz: Polish logician, mathematician and philosopher was invited to Ireland by Éamon de Valera Home from home – An Irishman’s Diary on Polish logician, mathematician and philosopher Jan Lukasiewicz
  • Oliver O’Hanlon
  • April 8, 2019

Despite its origins and multinational usage, the dollar sign remains quintessentially American. Photograph: IStock Top dollar – An Irishman’s Diary on Oliver Pollock and the creation of the dollar sign
  • Tim Fanning
  • April 8, 2019

George Michael had found an unlikely ally in the protagonist from McEllistrim V Ballymacelligott Co-operative Agricultural and Dairy Society Ltd. Photograph: Neil Munns/PA Kerry cows have long precedent – Frank McNally on a 100-year-old legal judgment with far-reaching results
  • Frank McNally
  • April 5, 2019

“The young man was at first puzzled. Then he realised he had become just the latest recipient of a ‘Corner House Letter’, a sort of news-bulletin on local events, issued to those who had left.” A Letter to the Galwegians – Frank McNally on an old Glenamaddy custom aimed at keeping emigrants in touch
  • Frank McNally
  • April 4, 2019

A carved stone head at what is now Pearse Street Garda station, formerly the Great Brunswick Street DMP barracks. Photograph: Frank Miller A night on the files – Michael Collins’s undercover intelligence mission of April 1919
  • Frank McNally
  • April 3, 2019

None of the reconstruction team asked for any payment, only a regular supply of tea The house that neighbourliness built – a heart-warming story from Co Galway
  • Frank McNally
  • April 2, 2019

An Irishman's Diary by Frank McNally on a community’s good deed

Joe McGowan: rare indeed for property developers to write memoirs. Photograph: Frank Miller Clearing the Hurdles: An Irishman’s Diary on property developer Joe McGowan
  • Frank McDonald
  • April 2, 2019

‘I used to have the utmost sympathy for the huge entry in the annual Liffey swim.’ Photograph: Cyril Byrne An Irishman’s Diary on the story of the bear in the Liffey
  • Frank Kilfeather
  • April 1, 2019

It all started when I was in a phone conversation with a Dublin City Council official

Sir Michael O’Dwyer: key figure in the Amritsar massacre of 100 years ago was not the usual picture of a colonial overlord Down the Junction – Frank McNally on three very contrasting figures from the same corner of South Tipperary
  • Frank McNally
  • March 29, 2019

A police boat on the Chicago river dyed green for St Patrick’s Day. Photograph: iStock/Steve Geer Fiddler on the Hoof – Frank McNally on the making of a Chicago betting tycoon, ‘Big Jim’ O’Leary
  • Frank McNally
  • March 28, 2019

Leo Rowsome Some Man for a Row? Not Really – Frank McNally on a hero of the uilleann pipes, Leo Rowsome
  • Frank McNally
  • March 27, 2019

Sunlight illuminating the Cairn T Neolithic burial chamber at Loughcrew. Photograph: Alan Betson Light work, dark matter – Frank McNally on a day spent with Neolithic astronomers and Samuel Beckett
  • Frank McNally
  • March 26, 2019

Editorials

Irish Times view on Dublin’s water supply

Irish Water’s Shannon mega-project is being independently reviewed and rightly so

Irish Times view on imprisoning people who are mentally ill

Minister of State Jim Daly was advised it was “wholly inappropriate” to send people with severe mental illness to Cloverhill Prison

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Institutional investors have been attracted by high rents, not vice versa. Photograph: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg Foreign investors have been made scapegoats for Ireland's housing crisis

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