Michael Harding: A shower meant for lovers? ‘It was like standing naked in a field on a wet day’‘Two shower heads in a single shower area!’ the General exclaimed, as if it was an affront to decencyThu Nov 17 2022 - 05:00
Michael Harding: I confessed to the English ladies I had never heard of Katie PriceI’m always nervous when English people talk about ‘over here’ when asking about Coronation Street or AsdaThu Nov 10 2022 - 05:00
Michael Harding: I saw the cooker ring was red hot. And then the kitten jumped straight on to itShe ran straight back into the scullery, where she sheltered behind a few biscuit tins in the corner and didn’t come out for daysThu Nov 03 2022 - 05:00
Michael Harding: The pubs were closed so, like three wise men, we headed for BethlehemThey served pizzas, chips and kebabs. We sat with strangers because the place was fullThu Oct 27 2022 - 05:00
Michael Harding: In Creeslough, there will always be 10 stories that remain unfinishedIt struck me that Donegal’s mountains are the very heart of the county — silent witnesses to time and griefThu Oct 20 2022 - 05:00
Michael Harding: Two girls showed me that the misery of my all-boys school could not lastWaking each day to the sound of the two young students’ laughter was a powerful counterbalance to my hang-upsWed Oct 12 2022 - 05:00
Michael Harding: I was waiting for new tyres when God Save the King rinsed Charles’s eardrums. I felt his pain Queen Elizabeth reminded me of my mother. Perhaps that’s why I’ve enormous sympathy for her sonWed Oct 05 2022 - 05:00
Michael Harding: Flinging scurrilous lies across the county boundary is an ancient Irish pastimeBut one person in the company was staring at me with such consternation that I presumed him to be from somewhere remote, like DublinWed Sept 28 2022 - 05:00
Michael Harding: ‘I tried to cook a sausage with a hairdryer,’ he told me. ‘And then I ate it. The pain is terrible’Twenty years ago myself and the General would have laughed it off over roast beef and a few glasses of beer, but age has made us fragileThu Sept 22 2022 - 05:00
Michael Harding: The resilience of the roses was a balm for my melancholy on dark winter daysThe flowers grew like weeds. And after a few years they became a mighty ditch of white petal and dazzling yellow centres, with blackbirds foraging beneathThu Sept 15 2022 - 05:00
Michael Harding: What I never told anyone was that I actually enjoyed Confession‘I confessed the same thing every Saturday night; that I had impure thoughts, and that I took pleasure in them’Thu Sept 08 2022 - 05:00
Michael Harding: The motorbike had been a gift for his son’s 18th birthday. But he had lost his son to suicideSo friends created Midleton Hub, a safe place for people dealing with mental-health issues to connect, gather and comfort each otherThu Sept 01 2022 - 05:00
Michael Harding: I hoped someone would visit during the good weather – but no one darkened the door for a weekThere was a time I would play the flute when the garden was full; at long ago parties until night met the morningThu Aug 25 2022 - 05:00
What disturbed me as I sat on the patio trying to recover from my blunder was the shed full of killing machinesMichael Harding: I had done enough killing for one day. The wren was not my fault, but the helpless frog wasThu Aug 18 2022 - 05:00
Michael Harding: The ram stared at me wondering ‘What the f**k is that gobdaw doing?’When I commenced my routine, a ram with testicles swinging like a pendulum stared at me making furious baa-ing sounds which I think translated as - ‘What the f**k is that gobdaw doing?’Wed Aug 10 2022 - 06:39
Michael Harding: Fiddles fall silent when someone you love comes to the end of the roadMy tin whistle sits in a drawer and if ever I play a few tunes, I’m riddled with guilt because my playing is so poor and I’m haunted by tunes I never bothered to learnThu Aug 04 2022 - 05:00
Michael Harding: The day started badly, with a burst of flame and lots of smoke. It got worseThe General’s day got off to a lively start and a smoking toaster. It simply got worse from thereThu Jul 28 2022 - 05:00
Michael Harding: Sitting out on the street in the middle of any town is an education Duck eggs are everywhere nowadays but I struggled to find someone to educate me on exactly what baby hen eggs wereThu Jul 21 2022 - 06:00
Michael Harding: I have no intention of getting up on a bicycle ever againI gave up football, tennis, chess, scrabble and even Monopoly. It takes extremely low self-esteem to conclude you’re no good at MonopolyThu Jul 14 2022 - 06:00
Michael Harding: He said he was from outside Islamabad. I said I was from outside DrumshanboMy driver with eyes like an ocean of joy concluded that we were all the same because ‘we all live just outside somewhere’Wed Jul 06 2022 - 09:00
Michael Harding: I witnessed the intimacies and exquisite tenderness of mature love in the cafe of a large department storeIt was clear the older couple enjoyed each other’s company and their little world of mischief and curiosities was precious to them, because their faces glowed with a kind of joy that cannot be namedThu Jun 30 2022 - 06:00
Michael Harding: In my teens I lost a girlfriend, and I cried my eyes out like boys were not supposed to doBundoran is where I go to encounter the ghosts of the past. I can never forget my donkey ride on the beach, my mother by my side, when I was sixThu Jun 23 2022 - 06:00
Michael Harding: I considered myself youthful until a pregnant woman stood up in a tram and offered me her seatPerforming a gig in Dublin with some amazingly talented young artists, I gripped the microphone and gave it socksThu Jun 16 2022 - 06:00
Michael Harding: When I got through the operation people said I was lucky. That’s not how I saw itMy little staples looked like a zip, or sleepers for a tiny trainThu Jun 09 2022 - 01:00
Michael Harding: It may surprise you that I took a passport to fly from Donegal to DublinThe photo was taken when I was recovering from illness. I’ve seen better looking corpsesTue May 31 2022 - 06:00
Michael Harding: How a car crash in Mullingar helped reawaken my soulThe wild edge of Canada was covered in snow and sunlight bounced off the white landWed Mar 17 2021 - 06:00
Michael Harding: I’m afraid of the sea, horses and dense woodsI’m not sentimental about nature. In fact I’ve always been fearful of itWed Mar 10 2021 - 06:00
Michael Harding: ‘Thank you for your love,’ I wrote to a friend. Then I tore it upI tried writing letters, but during lockdown they became too intense and sincereWed Mar 03 2021 - 06:00
Michael Harding: I wear a tie to Zoom meetings. It helps me play a role – myselfLike any good actor, I understand the importance of costumes and propsWed Feb 24 2021 - 06:00
Michael Harding: I have privatised my religious practiceMy only refuge is my father’s bookcase, decked with icons gathered over many yearsWed Feb 17 2021 - 06:00
Michael Harding: I judge a farmer’s character by how he treats his cattleMy late neighbour, Johnny, treated his livestock like petsWed Feb 10 2021 - 06:00
Michael Harding: How I ended up on a Zoom call with a psychotherapistShe was in an embarrassing fix: listening to nonsense from a stranger on the internetWed Feb 03 2021 - 06:00
Michael Harding: Just after Christmas, I began talking to the birdsI imagined myself like Saint Francis, a halo of little birds around me in a cloud of loveWed Jan 27 2021 - 06:00
Michael Harding: Talking to strangers. That’s what I missI ate my soup slowly, to prolong the conversation with the waitressWed Jan 20 2021 - 06:00
Michael Harding: The beloved woke up and I pretended I was doing yoga exercisesShe was curious why I was doing yoga in bed at that hour. I had no plausible answerWed Jan 13 2021 - 06:00
Michael Harding: The dead bee and the woman who lost her sonJanuary is a dangerous month for people inclined towards melancholyWed Jan 06 2021 - 06:00
Michael Harding: In January almost everything seems possibleI often wonder not just where Christmas has gone but where my entire life wentTue Dec 29 2020 - 06:00
Michael Harding: ‘I’m not keeping a social distance from her. She’s deaf’‘We live together. We’re going to see her doctor. We can’t talk to each other if we’re apart’Wed Dec 23 2020 - 06:00
Michael Harding: I drenched the garden with vulgar Christmas lightA red rope of light here, a cluster of dots there. It is garish and I love it like a childWed Dec 16 2020 - 06:00
Michael Harding: I lock myself in, strip naked and take a clipper to my hairThe rush-long tufts behind my ears drive many women insane – but not in a good wayWed Dec 09 2020 - 12:18
Michael Harding: I got up close with a badger one night. I know he’s still out thereI still stand at the window waiting for snow and hoping to catch a glimpse of himWed Dec 02 2020 - 06:00
Michael Harding: Though I cheered for Biden, I was more like Trump than I could admitLike him, I was terrified of vulnerability, terrified of ageing, terrified of being seen as weakWed Nov 25 2020 - 06:00
Michael Harding: One day I couldn’t walk back up to the houseThey told me to put on a gown as short as a miniskirt. Would I get high heels as well?Wed Nov 18 2020 - 06:00
Michael Harding: I used to be so smart. Now I’m a complete gobshiteAn old and familiar tormenting voice inside my head began. ‘What kind of a gobshite are you?’ it inquiredTue Nov 10 2020 - 06:00
Michael Harding: Three reasons you’ll never see a cat in DonegalDriving around Donegal for weeks I didn’t see a cat anywhere. Then one day a man in Crolly told me whyWed Oct 28 2020 - 06:00
Michael Harding: The tree that broke my heart will be born againI’m over 65, I stay at home and I watch the magnolia that represents my own ruinationWed Oct 21 2020 - 06:00
Michael Harding: In time there might be nobody at all left anywhere in rural IrelandI fear a day strangers wander into the hills above Lough Allen and nobody is leftWed Oct 14 2020 - 06:00
Michael Harding: Primed for the worst, I prepare for a phone call with my doctorI was astonished that one solitary bird in the garden could lure me away from all my worriesWed Oct 07 2020 - 06:00
Michael Harding: The woman at the checkout said my mask made me look constipatedI confessed that for a few days I had felt like a washing machine with a blocked hosepipeWed Sept 30 2020 - 06:00
Micheal Harding: The day I stopped killing beesThe bee lurched between the pebbles, like a drunk in a yard of beer kegs, then diedWed Sept 23 2020 - 06:00