First Family – Frank McNally on the surprising origins of Ireland’s original soap opera, The Kennedys of CastlerossAn Irishman’s DiaryThu Sept 03 2020 - 19:30
How a Belfast prisoner of war used Irish language to defy Japanese captorsIrishman’s Diary: Belfast GP Frank Murray’s diary used Irish to hide sensitive materialThu Sept 03 2020 - 00:01
Kingdom Come (and Gone) – Frank McNally on holidays in Kerry, the myth of Tír na nÓg, and the demise of Big PhilTue Sept 01 2020 - 20:28
Ladies First – Frank McNally on holy wells, unholy riots, and a landmark in literary lesbianismFri Aug 14 2020 - 19:01
Great Mines – Frank McNally on how a schoolboy war helped launch the ‘father of seismology’, Robert MalletWed Aug 12 2020 - 19:01
A meander from a gloomy Orwellian summer to James Gandon’s graveAn already sad week was made worse by the death of the great American journalist Pete HamillFri Aug 07 2020 - 20:00
Unholy war: Frank McNally on controversial memorials of a Dublin cathedralInside St Patrick’s cathedral lie monuments that if they stood elsewhere might have been consigned to the LiffeyThu Aug 06 2020 - 20:01
Sticky wicket: Frank McNally on Ireland’s love-hate relationship with cricketPerhaps somewhere, in an Irish political heaven, the Derry man is discussing this with another great former leader of nationalismWed Aug 05 2020 - 20:00
Flying pickets: A pandemic-inspired relocation of the great American fenceThis mixture of classic Americana, chalked outlines and a picnic area is a like some Lynch-directed dream-sequence: a bunfight at the RHK corralTue Aug 04 2020 - 20:00
Noises off (and on again): Listening out for the sounds of a new normal‘It seemed like an overreaction to have the WHO intervene, although it being Geneva, I suppose, it could just as easily have been the UN’Fri Jul 31 2020 - 20:00
Blue shirts are out as Richard 'Vladimir' Bruton sets tone for men’s autumn fashionFrank McNally on a fashion for sticks, fear of statues and the craze of politicians taking shirts offThu Jul 30 2020 - 20:00
Brat’s tale: Frank McNally on the curious evolution of the Irish word for ‘flag’How ‘brat’ worked its way down in the worldWed Jul 29 2020 - 20:00
Sole rebel: Frank McNally on the joys of running in bare feetIt’s as if we think of our feet as footwear in themselves, which they areTue Jul 28 2020 - 20:00
Thermidorian Conditions Apply – Frank McNally on the lingering influence of a revolutionary monthFri Jul 24 2020 - 19:45
Red in the Head – Frank McNally on Ireland’s strange love affair with English football clubsThu Jul 23 2020 - 19:30
The Leaving of Limerick – Frank McNally on Robert Graves’s uneasy relationship with his ancestral cityWed Jul 22 2020 - 19:01
Joining the Heard – Frank McNally on how Ireland became an international success story (told by us)Tue Jul 21 2020 - 19:45
Four-Dimensional Green Fields – Frank McNally on unified field theory, de Valera’s Ireland, and a new GAA club in BelfastFri Jul 17 2020 - 19:01
Field of Dreams – Frank McNally on the heady days when Jack Charlton’s Ireland turned up in his back garden (or near enough)Wed Jul 15 2020 - 19:01
Poetic Licence (Provisional) – Frank McNally on the woes of Mary Kenny and Barry CowenTue Jul 14 2020 - 19:30
Jack Charlton’s own grievances endeared him to Irish fans‘He was the sporting father figure we needed - and wore a peaked cap, like our actual fathers’Sat Jul 11 2020 - 18:48
Here Comes the Bridey – Frank McNally on an Irishwoman’s reincarnation in 1950s AmericaFri Jul 10 2020 - 19:20
Dimly lit interior? Frank McNally on the notion that midlanders may be below sea-level, in more ways than oneTue Jul 07 2020 - 18:35
The Full Monte – Frank McNally on tackling a 1,100-page classic of lockdown readingThu Jul 02 2020 - 19:15
Two-Story Building – Frank McNally on a classic of 20th-century Irish architecture, foreshadowed by James JoyceWed Jul 01 2020 - 19:40
Arts and minds – Frank McNally on the uneasy relationship between Irish politics and artTue Jun 30 2020 - 19:15
Begob and Begorrah – Frank McNally on a red-letter week for Hiberno-English swear wordsSat Jun 27 2020 - 09:53
Name and R-Number – Frank McNally on typos, tour guides, unusual baby names, and digging up the Hill of TaraFri Jun 26 2020 - 00:01
Italia 90: Returning from a squat in London to a new DublinFrank McNally: Memories of Dublin pubs, chippers and pre-scrappage-scheme carsWed Jun 24 2020 - 06:00
Digging Deep in Dublin – Frank McNally on a dingy alley’s exotic origins and the strange story of an artist who mailed himselfWed Jun 24 2020 - 00:01
A midsummer like no other, with a nod to St John and flash of Star TrekAn Irishman’s Diary with the theme of a classic Irish ballad for this time of yearSat Jun 20 2020 - 20:01
How you can share in Patrick Kavanagh’s isolation at Inniskeen this yearFrank McNally: Refurbished Kavanagh centre due to have a low-key opening in JulyThu Jun 18 2020 - 20:01
Zoom and Bloom: How I tried to fill Pete Buttigieg’s shoes on BloomsdayFrank McNally: On a Ulysses talk that brought him virtually from Phoenix Park to New YorkWed Jun 17 2020 - 20:01
Royal flush: Frank McNally plumbs the depths of Ascot, Bloomsday and GBSIrish writers have done more to promote Royal Ascot, surely, than English writers ever didTue Jun 16 2020 - 20:01
A day to mark Anthony – Frank McNally on middle-aged running, the Mafia, and the enduring cult of an Italian saintFri Jun 12 2020 - 19:15
Glossed in translation – Frank McNally on ambivalent statues, Flann O’Brien rebranded, and the plan to move Nelson’s PillarThu Jun 11 2020 - 18:45
And the man became word – Frank McNally on the nicotine-stained history of eponymsWed Jun 10 2020 - 18:40
Unfit to Plinth? – Frank McNally on Ireland’s uneasy – and sometimes violent – relationship with statuesTue Jun 09 2020 - 19:15
Paris on a shoestring – Frank McNally on James Joyce, TS Eliot, and the art of revenge hospitalityFri Jun 05 2020 - 19:30
View from the Gods – Frank McNally on how the pandemic has been a golden age of balconiesFri Jun 05 2020 - 00:01
From Leningrad to Louth – Frank McNally on a little piece of Ireland that is forever RussiaWed Jun 03 2020 - 19:01
A Man You Could Count On – Frank McNally on Richard Taaffe, aka ‘Uncle Yaxy’, who brought Austrian imperial secrets to DublinTue Jun 02 2020 - 18:45
A year with an R in it – Frank McNally on a consonant with a colourful historyFri May 29 2020 - 19:01
Dating Game – Frank McNally on writers getting their datelines crossed, from Joyce to Elmore LeonardThu May 28 2020 - 19:15
