An Irishman's Diary | The Irish Times

In early summer, knowing I would be at the Rugby World Cup in September, I took up Japanese too. By now, the suspicion arose that I might be developing a Duolingo problem. Photograph: Jayne Russell/Inpho

Long year’s journey into Irish – facing the perils of Duolingo addiction

Frank McNally
December 11, 2019

There is more gender fluidity in Irish lessons these days – John may have a boyfriend

Heinrich Böll’s Irisches Tagebuch (Irish Journal), a eulogy to Ireland in the 1950s that, in the decades since, may have sent 10,000 German tourists here for each of its 100 pages. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill

‘Britishness with a bit of music’ – How a cynical travel writer saw Ireland in 1913

Frank McNally
December 10, 2019

The obscurity of Richard Bermann’s book is the result of catastrophically bad timing

Robert O’Hara Burke (left) and William John Willis, who were first to cross Australia from Melbourne in the south to the Gulf of Carpentaria in the north. They died on their way back as they struggled to reach a rescue party. Images: Getty

How an inexperienced Irishman led expedition from north to south Australia

Norman Freeman
December 9, 2019

Monument in Melbourne recalls Robert O’Hara Burke

Ian Gibson: ‘I feel profoundly identified with Lorca and his work and his message and his attitude to Granada.’ Photograph: Guy Hedgecoe

‘I’ve always maintained that the Irish are basically Spanish’ – Ian Gibson

Guy Hedgecoe
December 8, 2019

Dublin-born Lorca biographer honoured with Granada and Irish awards

There are already outbreaks of the now-annual argument about whether the Pogues really did invent something called the “NYPD Choir” to fit their famous song. Photograph: Alan Betson

O Come All Ye Pedants – Frank McNally on the language of Christmas carols

Frank McNally
December 6, 2019

Fairytale of New York is already inspiring folk etymology

‘I’m reminded of a feature the Observer ran back in 2011 on “Britain’s top 300 intellectuals”. The list notoriously included Seamus Heaney, Colm Tóibín, and this newspaper’s Fintan O’Toole’. Photograph: Brenda Fitzsimons

Brigid over troubled waters: confusions over Anglo-Irish literary identity

Frank McNally
December 5, 2019

Frank McNally: It is only fair to disavow a case of reverse-colonisation

In the words of Mahatma Gandhi: ‘To forget how to dig the earth and to tend the soil is to forget ourselves’. Photograph: Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Digging deep for Macra memories in Rathmines

Frank McNally
December 5, 2019

Flatland central was not short of sons and daughters of the soil

Mitchells GAA club in Magheracloone won the Ulster Intermediate Football championship last week. They lost their pitch last year when a dubhagán opened up in the middle of it. Photograph: Pat Byrne

The new black – Frank McNally on the unsuspected colour of the season

Frank McNally
December 3, 2019

Whatever about its name for the month, Irish is not short of words prefixed by ‘dubh’

The CSO’s book, That was then, This is now: Change in Ireland, 1949-1999, uses statistics to provide a synopsis of the development of the economy and society in Ireland from the founding of the CSO in 1949 to the dawn of the millennium.

How statistics tell the story of children in industrial schools

Finola Kennedy
December 3, 2019

In 1950 there were three reformatories and 51 industrial schools, all run by religious orders

Alice Stopford Green’s three controversial histories, The Making of Ireland and its Undoing (1908), Irish Nationality (1911) and The Old Irish World (1912) became keystones in structuring and re-imagining a national consciousness in preparation for independence.

Alice Stopford Green: A forgotten historian of the Irish people

Angus Mitchell
December 2, 2019

Meetings with Eoin MacNeill, Erskine Childers and Roger Casement were held in her house

The Kerry-born novelist Rebecca West, whose magisterial book on 1930s Yugoslavia, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, I’m still working my way through slowly, had an obvious soft spot for the Serbs too.Photograph: Baron/Getty Images

Frank McNally on why Ireland has unsuspected soul-brothers in the Balkans

Frank McNally
November 29, 2019

Savouring the sweet sounds of Irish Stew on a bus in west Cork

Voluntary readers included the multiple-award-winning Anton Floyd, whose poems have been published in many places including this column. Photograph: Frank McNally

A standing army of poets at Speakeasy session in Skibbereen

Frank McNally
November 28, 2019

Frank Connolly, Anton Floyd and Ian Bailey among the writers who spoke

Alypius the Stylite’s feast-day fell earlier this week. Above, lunette on St Alypius’s arc, mosaic on the facade of St Mark’s Basilica, Venice. Photograph: Getty Images

Up the pole: The strange phenomenon of Stylites, ancient and modern

Frank McNally
November 27, 2019

Kelly managed to sleep on his precarious pitches by hooking his fingers into holes in the flagpoles

Sackville Street (now O’Connell Street) has lots of pedestrians, perhaps walking in the snow, and three trams.

Inside an album: Picture postcards were the text messages of their day

Owen Dawson
November 26, 2019

An Irishman’s Diary: Collection from circa 1903 offers window into slower, innocent time

‘Yours sincerely’ came into play for someone you had met, properly and formally, in a Jane Austen, ‘Miss Bennett, may I introduce you to Mr Darcy, kind of way. Photograph: iStock

How should you sign off your email?

Fionnuala Ward
November 25, 2019

Sign-off etiquette: Is ‘all the best’ any better than ‘thanks’?

A quick online search will reveal that the ‘amazing’ word has recently been used to describe: mozzarella sticks, a limescale remover, a Christmas wreath, and Cristiano Ronaldo taking a selfie. Photograph: John Thys/AFP via Getty Images

Have you used up your quota of the ‘amazing’ word?

Alison Healy
November 24, 2019

‘Amazing’ has been used to describe mozzarella sticks and Ronaldo taking a selfie

Tomorrow is “Stir-up Sunday”, after which your handiwork will have the requisite four weeks to mature. Photograph: iStock

Stir crazy: A mix of Christmas puddings, lewdly-shaped fruit and Shakespeare

Frank McNally
November 23, 2019

A convergence of food and faith must have inspired many a homily down the decades

Even in the swinging 1960s, the tragic Roman noblewoman was still inspiring musicians. Paul Simon’s Cecilia is a nod in her direction. Photograph: Eric Luke / The Irish Times

How St Cecilia inspired composers from Handel to Paul Simon

Frank McNally
November 21, 2019

An Irishman’s Diary: The bonus of becoming C Sharp

Not even President “Bigly” Trump has ever said “normalness”, to the best of my knowledge, although it’s just the sort of word he could make a virtue of resurrecting. Photograph: TJ Kirkpatrick/The New York Times

The normal scale: From normality to normalcy to normalness

Frank McNally
November 20, 2019

All the president’s words: How a US president pushed the boundaries

Post-match interviews with the winning captain Siya Kolisi were remarkable for several reasons, not least the fact that he was more modest in victory than his opponents were in defeat. Photograph: Grant Pitcher/Gallo Images/Getty Images

Kicking new life into the word 'shebeen' in its true home, South Africa

Frank McNally
November 19, 2019

An Irishman’s Diary: Siya Kolisi would have been well aware of historic importance of the shebeen

Félix Kir: “one of the most colourful characters in French public life”

Priest and Resistance hero who inspired cocktail – An Irishman’s Diary on Félix Kir

Oliver O’Hanlon
November 18, 2019

Bridget Stuart-Houston, who died 50 years ago on November 18th, began life as Bridget Dowling and was for a time sister-in-law to Adolf Hitler

An Irishman’s Diary on Bridget Dowling, Hitler’s sister-in-law

Brian Maye
November 18, 2019

“You’d think Kavanagh’s famous ballad might have warned the DublinTown business group about the risks of what they were attempting. But no.” Photograph: Nick Bradshaw

Sung, Drawn, and Quartered – Frank McNally on the perils of rebranding Grafton Street

Frank McNally
November 15, 2019

Even at the school-bus stop everything was segregated without it ever needing to be said. Photograph: Charles McQuillan/Getty

Them and us – An Irishwoman’s Diary on the unwritten rules of a segregated education

Una McCaffrey
November 14, 2019

The late Jürgen Gottschalk was founder and for many years president of the Irish-German Society in Würzburg, who earlier this autumn donated his vast library – some 4,000 titles – to the University of Limerick

Diplomatic baggage – Frank McNally on a milestone in official relations between Germany and Ireland

Frank McNally
November 14, 2019

Joe Pesci and Robert De Niro in the Martin Scorsese film The Irishman. Photograph: Netflix

An Irishman walks into a cinema – Frank McNally on watching Scorsese’s latest epic

Frank McNally
November 12, 2019

Abraham Lincoln: has been consistently rated in surveys of historians as one of the greatest of US presidents. But what makes a great president? Photograph: Getty Images

Hail to the Chiefs – An Irishman’s Diary on rating the US presidents

Felix M Larkin
November 11, 2019

The coach of the lord mayor of Dublin. Photograph: Courtesy of Dublin City Council

Wheels of fortune – An Irishman’s Diary on the coach of the lord mayor of Dublin

Hugh Oram
November 11, 2019

Gay Byrne was probably the last Irish broadcaster who could be routinely referred to by the term “himself”

Himself Portrait – Frank McNally on a quintessential Irish pronoun

Frank McNally
November 8, 2019

For jays, the crucial thing is acorn-harvesting, so they gather wherever oak trees do. Photograph: iStock

A bird to look up to – Frank McNally on a lesser-spotted but gifted member of the crow family, the jay

Frank McNally
November 7, 2019

Tory Island. A notorious shipwreck happened there 125 years ago this autumn. It involved a gunboat, the HMS Wasp

Tory with a Twist – Frank McNally on the sinking of the HMS Wasp

Frank McNally
November 6, 2019

“This classic musical account of an Irish wake, so accidentally influential on modernist literature, was a product of the Big Apple, in an era when one-third of that city’s population was newly arrived from Ireland”

Manhattan Transfer – Frank McNally on the surprise origins of a classic Irish drinking ballad, Finnegan’s Wake

Frank McNally
November 6, 2019

Tulsa, Oklahoma: the weather was quite a challenge, at least for someone used to the moderate Irish climate

Oh, Oklahoma – An Irishman’s Diary on Tulsa

Deaglán de Bréadún
November 5, 2019

Since we all know that recessionary times are just around the corner, it doesn’t make financial sense to let a decent meal go to waste. Photograph: Getty Images

Why I’m declaring 2019 the Year of the Leftover

Steve Coronella
November 4, 2019

An Irishman’s Diary: My wife is the undisputed queen of expiry dates

When hosting re-enactments of the Christmas dinner described in Joyce’s most famous short story, the former owner liked to tell guests they were in “the most important dining room in world literature”. Above, Brendan Kilty, John Sheahan, John Gallagher, Mark Lawler and Oisin Quinn. Photograph: David Sleator/The Irish Times

Rising from The Dead? Frank McNally on the fate of No 15 Usher’s Island

Frank McNally
November 1, 2019

If No 15 were to be preserved and extended it could be a win-win

Harry Ferguson: ‘The man who toils for mere wealth in gold is as bad as the idler because he toils for his own happiness alone. To work for the greatest happiness of the greatest number is the ideal, and when the world realises the happiness that lies there, we will care less about the next world and be happier in this’. Photograph: Fred Ramage/Keystone Features/Getty Images)

Tractor inventor Harry Ferguson quietly rolled out feminist and egalitarian views

Frank McNally
October 31, 2019

An Irishman’s Diary: He laments ‘the terrible conditions now existing in Ireland’

Georgie Hyde-Lees with her husband William Butler Yeats. She became the most influential of his muses. He described the leanhaun shee as the Gaelic muse, giving inspiration to those she persecutes. Photograph: Keystone/Getty Images

In search of the banshee and the elusive lennanshee

Frank McNally
October 30, 2019

An Irishman’s Diary: ‘Leanhaun Shee’ is the Gaelic muse, giving inspiration to those she persecutes

My fortune was headlined “regular”, so I brought that home. In keeping with the description, it wasn’t very exciting. Prospects for marriage, employment, and starting a trip were only “all right”.

Fortune told in a Tokyo temple, and a fortune lost on an Irish train

Frank McNally
October 30, 2019

An Irishman’s Diary: Written on a sheet of paper, the O-mikuji (sacred lot) can be bad or good

The Mussolini family crypt in Predappio

Tale from the crypt – An Irishman’s Diary on Mussolini and Predappio

Wesley Boyd
October 28, 2019

Launt Thompson: left Ireland as a teenager during the Famine and became one of America’s most sought-after sculptors

Larger than life: An Irishman’s Diary on Launt Thompson, the Irish-born sculptor who charmed America

Oliver O’Hanlon
October 25, 2019

Laurence Olivier in Henry V

Last Post – Frank McNally on St Crispin’s Day, English patriotism, and shoe-making

Frank McNally
October 25, 2019

Crowds on Wall Street on “Black Thursday”, October 24th, 1929

The Crash is 90 – Frank McNally on ‘Black Thursday’ 1929

Frank McNally
October 23, 2019

“The pedestrian light on Kildare Street used to work instantly every time. This was vital to democracy, because those using the light included public representatives, often rushing back to Leinster House to impersonate each other in important Dáil votes.”

Political Footpath – Frank McNally wonders why pedestrians and cyclists can’t just get along (on the same pavement if necessary)

Frank McNally
October 22, 2019

Aren’t manners going out of fashion? Photograph: iStock

Rude awakening – An Irishman’s Diary on minding your manners

Paddy Murray
October 21, 2019

Photograph of Reg “Crash” Kavanagh from a 1962 Australian advertisement for Falcon tyres.

An Irishman’s Diary on Reg ‘Crash’ Kavanagh – global superstar of the stunt world

Tim Fanning
October 21, 2019

From the cover of The Way of the Runner – A Journey into the Obsessive World of Japanese Running, by Adharanand Finn

Legging It – Frank McNally on the Japanese obsession with running in relays

Frank McNally
October 18, 2019

Ida Mayfield Wood: her frank application to become Ben Wood’s mistress succeeded more spectacularly than she could have hoped

Fascinating Ida – Frank McNally on the continued story of Ida Wood, a rich recluse who hid her humble Irish origins

Frank McNally
October 17, 2019

Ida Mayfield Wood: rich, beautiful, and famous

A Southern Belle, Unwrung – Frank McNally on the ‘magnificent hoax’ of Ida Mayfield Wood

Frank McNally
October 16, 2019

New Zealand’s anthem God Defend New Zealand was written by Meath-born Thomas Bracken

National song contest – Frank McNally on New Zealand’s Irish anthem

Frank McNally
October 15, 2019

“Next to me was an infant of around 18 months in a stroller. She was busy playing Angry Birds on her mother’s mobile. It was unclear if she could walk or talk – probably not.” Photograph: iStock

An Irishwoman’s Diary on Generation Z, the last letter in generational angst

Elgy Gillespie
October 15, 2019

The Samuel Beckett Bridge in Dublin. Photograph: iStock

Boston v Dublin: An Irishman’s Diary on the liveability stakes

Steve Coronella
October 14, 2019

St Mary’s cathedral in Nagasaki was once the biggest Christian church in the Far East

Frank McNally on Jonathan Swift, Japanese Christians, and the bombing of Nagasaki

Frank McNally
October 11, 2019

James Joyce: no escaping him, even in Japan. Photograph: Hulton Archive/Getty

Found in Translation – Frank McNally on echoes of James Joyce in Japan and a rediscovered ‘Ulysses in Irish’

Frank McNally
October 10, 2019

Bram Stoker: exhibition focuses on books and pamphlets he consulted at Marsh’s Library. Photograph: Hulton-Deutsch Collection/Getty Images

Anglo-Vampirish – Frank McNally on Bram Stoker and the politics of Dracula

Frank McNally
October 9, 2019

Ulick O’Connor: a top-class pole vaulter. Photograph: David Sleator

No-vault compensation – Frank McNally on the many talents of Ulick O’Connor

Frank McNally
October 8, 2019

Alexander Bain: found that a signal current could be used to impress numerals and letters on chemically soaked paper

Electricity, rivalry and patents – An Irishman’s Diary on Henry O’Reilly and Alexander Bain

Norman Freeman
October 7, 2019

Louise Gavan Duffy: died 50 years ago on October 12th

An Irishman’s Diary on Louise Gavan Duffy – nationalist, suffragist and educator

Brian Maye
October 7, 2019

South Korea has an estimated 30,000 dolmens, and North Korea half that again, accounting for a combined 40 per cent of the world’s total. Photograph: Korean Culture and Information Service

Seoul mates – Frank McNally on some surprising similarities between Ireland and Korea

Frank McNally
October 4, 2019

Sign in an Irish bar in Tokyo. “The sign’s most egregious myth is the suggestion that Myles ever wrote An Irishman’s Diary.”

A star (in a bar) in the East – Frank McNally on Myles na gCopaleen and Japan

Frank McNally
October 4, 2019

For the first time I noticed my hotel reservation contained the chilling words: “lower bunk”

Room at the Bottom – Frank McNally spends the weekend in a Japanese capsule hotel

Frank McNally
October 2, 2019

“It struck me that when the Tokyo metro service finished for the night, the train wouldn’t need cleaners.” Photograph: iStock

Manners maketh Japan – Frank McNally on the unparalleled politeness of Tokyo

Frank McNally
October 1, 2019

Archbishop John Charles McQuaid: confined his most biting commentary to the notes he appended to internal diocesan communications

Watchful eye – An Irishman’s Diary on John Charles McQuaid, Edna O’Brien and journalists

John Horgan
September 30, 2019

Alfred E Smith: the Democratic Party’s candidate for US president in the election of 1928

The ‘happy warrior’ – An Irishman’s Diary on Al Smith and the 1928 US presidential campaign

Denis Fahey
September 30, 2019

Jacques Chirac greeting President Mary Robinson at the EU summit in Dublin Castle in October 1996. Photograph: Paddy Whelan

A man of singular faults and extraordinary virtues – An Irishwoman’s Diary on Jacques Chirac

Lara Marlowe
September 27, 2019

Molly Malone’s breasts have been rubbed to a bright sheen against the ageing bronze patina of the rest of her

Shining example – An Irishwoman’s Diary on the Molly Malone statue and inventing a tradition

Bernice Harrison
September 26, 2019

Sir Robert McAlpine: pioneered the use of concrete in construction. It was 150 years ago that the 22-year-old bricklayer won his first contract – the repair of a mine chimney, for two pounds and nine shillings. Photograph: H Walter Barnett. Copyright: National Portrait Gallery, London

Building on success – An Irishman’s Diary on 150 years of McAlpine & Co

UItan Cowley
September 25, 2019

Hector Berlioz: his accounts of dissection in the anatomy rooms catch some of the fevered and heightened sensibility of his music

A cut above – An Irishman’s Diary on Hector Berlioz and medicine

Des O’Neill
September 24, 2019

Adrian Dunbar: his character’s sayings in Line of Duty have become known as Tedisms, such as “I didn’t float up the Lagan in a bubble”. Photograph: Brian McEvoy

Now we’re sucking diesel – An Irishman’s Diary on colloquialisms and old sayings

Paul Clements
September 24, 2019

Mary Mallon, who became known as “Typhoid Mary”, was born 150 years ago on September 23rd

Media frenzy – An Irishman’s Diary on Mary Mallon, ‘Typhoid Mary’

Brian Maye
September 24, 2019

“Other tear-triggers include children singing Christmas hymns, and Olympic highlights set to music – and I’m not even a sports fan.” Photograph: iStock

Read it and weep – An Irishwoman’s Diary on tearjerkers

Alison Healy
September 20, 2019

“Wounded whales could be dangerous, threshing about, charging. Their huge tails could come slapping down on boats and rowers.” Photograph: iStock

There she blows – An Irishman’s Diary on whales, Moby Dick and Youghal

Norman Freeman
September 19, 2019

Portrait of the Irish actress Harriet Smithson by Claude-Marie Dubufe

Berlioz’s Siege of Ennis – Frank McNally on the French composer’s love of Ireland, Robert Emmet, and a Shakespearean actress from Clare

Frank McNally
September 18, 2019

Cornelius Ryan: launched a phrase still used whenever people overreach themselves with disastrous results: “a bridge too far”

Bridge of Sighs – Frank McNally on the contrasting role of two Dubliners in an infamous battle of the second World War

Frank McNally
September 17, 2019

Rev Dr Donald Caskie: known as the Tartan Pimpernel for his wartime activities in occupied France

An Irishman’s Diary on Donald Caskie, the ‘Tartan Pimpernel’

Oliver O’Hanlon
September 16, 2019

“Of course the inner-city community had it worst in Derry, but the Troubles brought terror to the suburbs and beyond too.” Photograph: Julian Dewert/iStock

Checkpoint Derry – An Irishwoman’s Diary on growing up amid the watchtowers

Mary Minihan
September 14, 2019

Mary Minihan: 'I suppose I had a kid’s-eye view of the Troubles from the back seat of the car'

An artist’s impression of the proposed new bridge at Islandbridge

Knees and the Man – Frank McNally on 1,000 years of war and peace in Islandbridge

Frank McNally
September 13, 2019

Clara Schumann: visited Ireland at least once, to play concerts in Dublin in 1856

Channelling Clara – Frank McNally on the story of a celebrity German piano in Donegal

Frank McNally
September 12, 2019

Statue of Edmund Burke at Trinity College Dublin. Photograph: Brenda Fitzsimons

Of Berks and Burkeans – Frank McNally on foxhunting, the French Revolution, and Brexit

Frank McNally
September 11, 2019

“I had been warned by experts that chafing can be a big problem”

Year of the Drench – Frank McNally channels the 1798 invaders on a damp trek through Mayo

Frank McNally
September 10, 2019

The first German officials moved into the Irish College building on July 19th, 1937, a year to the day after the military coup had taken place in Salamanca

An Irishman’s Diary on the Irish College in Salamanca and the Spanish Civil War

Tim Fanning
September 9, 2019

Raymond McGrath’s unbuilt design for the John F Kennedy Memorial Hall at Beggar’s Bush in Dublin. Courtesy of Archiseek.com

Grand designs – An Irishman’s Diary on Dublin’s unbuilt architectural plans

Hugh Oram
September 9, 2019

The monastery of Ostrog in Montenegro

A Home from Homer – Frank McNally on an epic experience in Montenegro

Frank McNally
September 6, 2019

Daniel McNally navigates the Sarajevo tunnel

Tunnel vision – Frank McNally on the highs and lows of Sarajevo

Frank McNally
September 5, 2019

The Sarajevo street corner, where on June 28th, 1914, the Archduke Franz Ferdinand’s driver took a cataclysmic wrong turn

A turn for the worse – Frank McNally on a street corner that changed the course of history

Frank McNally
September 4, 2019

“We forgot all about borders because, God knows, the roads were enough to be worried about”

At The Border, Cross – Frank McNally on the stresses of driving through the former Yugoslavia

Frank McNally
September 3, 2019

Pilgrims at the holy city of Mecca. Photograph: iStock

An Irishman’s Diary on a pilgrim ship to Jeddah

Norman Freeman
September 2, 2019

The teardrop motif was used on the borders of clothing in Kashmir and the East India Company brought examples of this pattern back to Britain

Fabric of society – An Irishwoman’s Diary on the Paisley shawl

Mae Leonard
September 2, 2019

Read all over – An Irishman’s Diary on the Sunday Press

Ray Burke
August 30, 2019

William Dunlea: sang in some of the most celebrated concert halls in these islands and America. Photograph: Courtesy of Cork City Libraries

An Irishman’s Diary on tenor William Dunlea, the ‘voice of Erin’

Oliver O’Hanlon
August 29, 2019

“As I sat in front of my PC recently, trying to book three day-return tickets to Belfast, I wasn’t feeling the love from Bus Éireann.” Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill

Commuter technology – An Irishwoman’s Diary on Bus Éireann and customer service

Therese Caherty
August 28, 2019

An Irishman’s Diary on Timor-Leste’s joyous liberation

David Shanks
August 27, 2019

The Yeats International Summer School is still going strong after 60 years

An Irishman’s Diary on the Yeats International Summer School

Deaglán de Bréadún
August 27, 2019

“Like greed, the mighty abacus never sleeps.” Photograph: iStock

Let me count the ways – An Irishman’s Diary on the abacus

John Fleming
August 26, 2019

A seagull swoops to snatch a sandwich outside the National Library of Ireland, Dublin. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill / The Irish Times

Why it is time for a cull of seagulls in Dublin

Frank McDonald
August 24, 2019

Anyone who has had a sandwich snatched out of their hand has surely wished for a shotgun

“After I commented on the size of a pothole on a country lane recently, a small voice from the back seat wondered what a pothole was.“ Photograph: Cyril Byrne

Potholes, ashtrays and other things I’m glad my children don’t know about

Alison Healy
August 22, 2019

An Irishwoman’s Diary on how a chance encounter lead to an unexpected question

Photograph: iStock

Taking it on the chin – An Irishman’s Diary on beards

Steve Coronella
August 21, 2019

Benedict Kiely: as well as being a superb literary craftsman, he was also a working journalist of the highest calibre. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill

Urgent copy – An Irishman’s Diary on Ben Kiely’s journalism

John Horgan
August 20, 2019

Fr Aidan Troy: “You can’t just put plastic over violence and say it’s done. The trauma remains.” Photograph: Emmanuel Fradin

From Wicklow to Paris via Belfast: An Irishwoman’s Diary on Fr Aidan Troy and St Joseph’s

Lara Marlowe
August 19, 2019

Gunther Kress: arguably best known for the 1996 book, Reading Images – The Grammar of Visual Design

From writing to image: how Gunter Kress helped change the way we think

Joe Breen
August 19, 2019

I like to think Kress would have liked Leiria’s story and way in which it was told

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