'It was as cheerful as a beauty clinic. Everyone except me was wearing a mask'The prostate is one of those things men prefer to hide from women, especially those they loveTue May 01 2012 - 01:00
The power of a bedside mannerI’M GOING into hospital again this week, but I’m not too depressed, because I always meet interesting people on the trolleys…Tue Apr 24 2012 - 01:00
Why my heart burns when the weather forecast is on the radioMY THERAPIST SAYS that there is something divided in each of us. And I agree. There are two parts; at least there are in me.Tue Apr 17 2012 - 01:00
Back in the ballroom for a last danceA visit to the dancehall of my youth reminds me of a time when we were all too busy jiving, quick-stepping and smoking to contemplate…Tue Apr 10 2012 - 01:00
Of mothers and the feminine side of thingsI grew up envying the others – the rough boys and the fearsome whelps who could release their wild inner-self at the drop of …Tue Apr 03 2012 - 01:00
As shifty as drug dealers: a murder of crows on my chimneyA trip to the Burren give me a chance to commune with angels and ghosts - and takes my mind off the cackling intruders trying…Tue Mar 27 2012 - 01:00
Losing your place at the centre of the cosmosSpring brings Chinese poetry, bowls of tea and a new hope of recovery from my depressionTue Mar 20 2012 - 00:00
Benefits of good dung not to be sniffed at‘Make your fortune far away, but marry on the dunghillTue Mar 13 2012 - 00:00
In the perfect focus of the film camera's eyeI WAS IN a community hall in Leitrim last week with a film crewTue Mar 06 2012 - 00:00
Hope for love is always around an Irish cornerI WAS IN the Abbey Theatre last week for a felicitation to celebrate the work of Tom McIntyre, the distinguished poet and playwright…Tue Feb 28 2012 - 00:00
Between a rock and a hard placeWHEN I’M in Eileen McDonagh’s presence, I never doubt the existence of the soulTue Feb 21 2012 - 00:00
Reaching out beyond steamy encountersSomething new and healthy is gathering in my bones like the hint of daffodils pushing themselves up through the gravel beside…Tue Feb 07 2012 - 00:00
A funny thing happened at the Olympia on SaturdayShe bumped into me at the interval in the barTue Jan 31 2012 - 00:00
A coming of age, too early or too lateMales have no reverse gear on their emotions. It comes from thousands of years of charging into battles and playing rugby.Tue Jan 24 2012 - 00:00
Death of a friend raises questions of faith and the consolation of loveI WAS IN London recently for the funeral of a friend who emigrated as a teenager, without much education, and worked with asbestos…Tue Jan 10 2012 - 00:00
I didn't realise that the Lone Ranger was an actorI KNEW MY Granny was not fully in tune with the modern world because when we went to Knock, she sat in the back of the car with…Tue Jan 03 2012 - 00:00
Feeling the heat around the table amid memories of the invisible womanSweating in long johns at a posh dinner while the fire roasts my innardsTue Dec 27 2011 - 00:00
I would like to believe in angels on our rooftops . . .... because this darkness of midwinter could not possibly be all that there is. Could it?Tue Dec 20 2011 - 00:00
The annual ritual of returning to Cavan at ChristmasI WAS IN the upstairs bedroom on the phone. Rain was lashing suburbiaFri Dec 16 2011 - 00:00
I listen to budgets but I don't belong to that world any moreI feel helpless and lonely, lying in bed at 8am, wondering should I turn off the radioFri Dec 09 2011 - 00:00
To me hotels are surreal zones, where rock stars die and women danceWithdrawing from a vibrant world into the solitude of four walls can be dehumanisingFri Dec 02 2011 - 00:00
Canada, China and therapy, all via SkypeMy friend Skyped me from a beautiful woman’s kitchen, north of Toronto, as I lay naked in the bed in LeitrimFri Nov 25 2011 - 00:00
Maybe it's time to paint the house pinkWE WERE out for a drive, me and the wife, like a proper Mr and Mrs, on Sunday morning, meandering around the coast of north Sligo…Fri Nov 18 2011 - 00:00
The long life of a boy born on a rainy farmONCE UPON a time a child was born to elderly parents, on a tiny farmFri Nov 11 2011 - 00:00
Golden Age passes as Cavan man denied ÁrasCavan civilization had enjoyed two great peaks; the All-Ireland final victory over Kerry in 1947, and the arrival of the All-…Fri Nov 04 2011 - 00:00
Visiting memories by the lake of shadowsTHERE WAS A Loreto girl in my youth who abides with me yetFri Oct 28 2011 - 01:00
I was in the jacuzzi of a Nama hotel talking to a beautiful woman from near BallymoteI was having a good soak because I had to see the doctor, and I never know what part of my anatomy is going to come under scrutiny…Fri Oct 21 2011 - 01:00
Hard lives and rag dolls are long forgottenThe same Leitrim telegraph poles with posters of Martin McGuinness were festooned with black flags 30 years ago as Bobby Sands…Fri Oct 14 2011 - 01:00
The serenity of turning away from the busy worldI WAS in the D4 Berkeley one night last week, in a room on the 4th floor, gazing out at the tips of trees that stand in the forecourt…Fri Oct 07 2011 - 01:00
It's so hard at home now mother has goneI’VE BEEN doing a lot of walking recently and since it rains a lot in Leitrim, I decided to buy a rainproof trousers and a jacket…Fri Sept 30 2011 - 01:00
A glitch in the fairy tale of meeting the princessWhile waiting for important people he would compose tales with happy endings – but the lines between daydreams and reality sometimes…Fri Sept 23 2011 - 01:00
The merits of knitting in treating depressionIt’s amazing how many people are depressed and alone, on the slopes of mountains around the country, enduring insomnia, or walking…Fri Sept 16 2011 - 01:00
Between the devil and the deep bluesEven during the day, I get ambushed by sadness; it gnaws at my emotions, like a demonic bird come from the deep to pluck me to…Fri Sept 09 2011 - 01:00
Great place for an imaginary argument, the chipperAn African man being harassed in a queue by a garda? Thank heaven it’s only fictionFri Jul 08 2011 - 01:00
Incarcerated Catholic statues and global warmingAs I get older I playmy cards too close to the chest, which is why I now need psychotherapyFri Jul 01 2011 - 01:00
Together when the silence is goldenWe didn’t say much, because after years there’s nothing to sayFri Jun 24 2011 - 01:00
Saturdays make me panic at the thought of being aloneI’VE BEEN LYING in bed listening to the BBC a lot recently. I love their accents, their vowels and their soft voicesFri Jun 17 2011 - 01:00
Strangers on a train find France too FrenchNot being allowed to drink in the Louvre and a native's failure to speak English prove too much for one visitor.Fri Jun 10 2011 - 01:00
A loneliness so far from the heart of darknessWHEN I’M travelling with a theatre show, I stay in different hotels. I move about the country like a shadowFri Jun 03 2011 - 01:00
In Mullingar, people talk because there is no seaWatching Queen Elizabeth on TV, the mind drifts to the sea, to a vanished friend and memories of an encounter with a real lady…Fri May 27 2011 - 01:00
Chips were down until fish came to the rescueThe Chinese woman in the fishmonger seemed to have the answer to a back problem but in the end it was a fish in the wild that…Fri May 20 2011 - 01:00
The best hiding place is under the lightIreland is a small place - the local sergeant could hardly insult the old grieving widow by saying he was there to search for…Fri May 13 2011 - 01:00
Dreaming of a queen and buddhaTHE GENERAL was on the verge of tears all day Saturday after the weddingFri May 06 2011 - 01:00
Afterglow of love evokes silence of resurrectionAS A CHILD I used to love the weeks after Easter, when the ditches were flush with primroses, and the sun shone through the apple…Fri Apr 29 2011 - 01:00
Fresh fish and gossip, from Korea to MullingarI WAS IN an internet cafe during the week, surfing the net, when suddenly I came across Main Street, Cavan, on a live webcamFri Apr 22 2011 - 01:00
There's quite a difference between 'dismount' and 'go down'In Mullingar, the mind gets bombarded with fresh information every time one walks out the doorFri Apr 08 2011 - 01:00
We were getting on so well, but how did she know I was from Cavan?From a woman who has the cure for whooping cough to a website launch in Tullamore... the midlands have so much to offerFri Apr 01 2011 - 01:00
'I don't know why a dog's testicles should have had such an effect on me'I’VE HAD strange urges this past few weeks for a dogFri Mar 18 2011 - 00:00
'The human species is unreasonably optimistic'THE GENERAL has taken to the bed, because, according to him, a schoolteacher has taken over the countryFri Mar 04 2011 - 00:00