Brianna Parkins

Brianna Parkins columns

Dee Devlin is not Conor McGregor’s moral keeper. That’s his responsibility alone

I am quietly awed by Nikita Hand and others like her who stand up outside a courthouse to address the media

Fri Nov 29 2024 - 05:48

Many Irish have voted with their feet but can’t vote in the election. The reason is plain

What are opponents to voting abroad so afraid of? The explanations of ‘it’s too hard’ or ‘it’s too risky’ feel threadbare and lazy

Fri Nov 22 2024 - 05:28

Brianna Parkins: ‘The Irish have a natural instinct for nosiness’

What better way to spend a hot sunny day than in the park, staking out two strange couples’ proposals?

Fri Nov 15 2024 - 05:00

Dublin Bus drivers are practised in the art of soundness. Sydney could learn from them

The girl sprinting for the ferry in Sydney late on a Saturday night was meanly cut off, prompting an unusual display of social solidarity

Fri Oct 18 2024 - 05:47

Brianna Parkins: ‘The cat popped into my life when grief had knocked me off my feet’

Our relationship, one of the happiest of my life, was largely contingent on the fact we have the radiators on all day

Fri Oct 11 2024 - 05:00

I feel like I’ve hit the lottery with my partner: I make the money, he makes me lunches

Is this how it feels to have been a man for the best part of the 20th century? Because it’s been pretty great

Thu Oct 03 2024 - 15:00

My exam marks or a fancy university didn’t get me into the career I love

If you’re the only person you know who’s gone to university it can be isolating trying to find your way with no one to guide you

Fri Sept 27 2024 - 05:00

Ice baths and 5am Clubs: have people become so adrift from their bodies they will do mad things just to feel something?

There’s an odd sort of morality tied to doing hard things, even if they are entirely unnecessary

Fri Sept 20 2024 - 05:00

Hiberno-English just does so many things that standard English can’t and I am clinging to it

A rake of pints. Sure look, you know yourself. Yer man. The unique joy of Hiberno-English should be celebrated, never taken for granted

Fri Sept 13 2024 - 05:00

House flippers are a curse, tarting up homes as cheaply as possible and selling for maximum profit

Home improvement TV breathes undeserved confidence into a generation of flippers

Fri Sept 06 2024 - 05:00

I’ve moved to a Sydney suburb so posh, it makes me uneasy

I’ll have to introduce my neighbours to fluffy house socks, squirty cream in a can and the cultural importance of the Real Housewives series

Fri Aug 30 2024 - 05:00

If we expect a competition once held in a Kerry car park to laud all deserving Irish women, we might be asking a bit too much

The Rose of Tralee is all well and good, but expecting one competition to laud all deserving Irish women might be asking a bit too much

Fri Aug 23 2024 - 06:00

After years living in Ireland, everything in Australia feels suspiciously easy

Young Irish people don’t need an insulting €750 tax break; they need reasons to feel hopeful again

Fri Aug 16 2024 - 05:00

I’ve yet to meet a woman who has regretted not getting married but plenty of married ones who have

I have seen so many good women drained by men who could not or would not meet them at their level

Fri Aug 02 2024 - 05:00

The Irish spice bag has arrived in Australia and not everyone is happy

Brianna Parkins: Sometimes, when you’re a big distance from home, it’s the small things that give you comfort

Fri Jul 26 2024 - 05:00

My relationship is just like Princess Diana’s. There are three of us in it

It is very crowded between me, my partner and the GAA but I’ll still be in a pub wearing an ugly bucket hat at 2am next week, watching my partner’s mistress on telly

Fri Jul 19 2024 - 05:45

Everyone under the age of 25 should have to work a year in hospitality or retail

You will need patience, resilience and the self-control required not to headbutt the public

Fri Jul 12 2024 - 05:00

I’m glad I never got the things my younger self thought I wanted

It’s rarely a good idea to get what your young heart desires. I would have been negative craic with terrible tattoos and a vacuous existence

Fri Jul 05 2024 - 05:00

The bar is so low for violent men they are ‘to be given credit’ when they admit their guilt

Case of Natasha O’Brien shows up keyboard warriors who want to frighten women, to shut us up, to stop us from calling men out on their behaviour

Fri Jun 28 2024 - 05:00

Brianna Parkins: ‘That doesn’t work for me actually’. Unapologetically saying ‘no’ is mesmerising

I recently overheard a woman utter a magic incantation that would banish having to put myself out against my own will. It changed me forever

Fri Jun 21 2024 - 05:00

Brianna Parkins: I’m leaving Ireland. I don’t have the energy for life here

This country teased a lightness out of me. But so many people leaving Ireland for Australia is down to more than sunshine

Fri Jun 14 2024 - 05:45

How to know when it’s summer in Ireland: The signs are subtle so pay close attention

Brianna Parkins: You have to pay close attention to nature: young women shivering in dresses, people milling awkwardly outside pubs, lads with their tops off

Fri Jun 07 2024 - 05:00

Bagged and abandoned dog poo should be the cornerstone of all local election policy platforms

Footpath etiquette and turning coworking spaces into libraries should also feature in manifestos

Fri May 31 2024 - 05:00

The Dublin Portal: There’s no room for pretenders in Dublin and, like New York, it refuses to be sanitised

Brianna Parkins: Since the invention of cameras, people have been acting badly in front of them and this project was never going to be the exception

Fri May 24 2024 - 05:45

Here’s hoping household chores don’t include having to ask men to do them ‘properly’

How one word can become a battle line of domestic warfare between the sexes

Sat May 18 2024 - 05:00

She’s a felt maker. He has a food truck. How did they get a home loan?

Scant resources and a housing crisis have made us narrow our eyes in suspicion at each other

Fri May 10 2024 - 10:10

Here’s some of the best life advice I’ve ever received

Opportunities can come from realising that no one knows what they’re doing a lot of the time

Sat May 04 2024 - 05:00

What’s infuriating about neurotypicals? Here’s a list

A professional ADHD-haver offers a guide for the neurodiverse on how to deal with everyone else

Sat Apr 27 2024 - 05:00

Taylor Swift isn’t the first to monetise her heartbreak. Here are five of the best examples

This list will make you ponder what you could have done after a break-up instead of sitting around the house moping

Tue Apr 23 2024 - 14:09

Brianna Parkins: I’m sick of being asked why I don’t have kids

Brianna Parkins: The kid question is not really a straight request for information. It’s asking someone ‘please justify to me why your life does not look like mine’

Sat Apr 13 2024 - 05:00

Cillian Murphy would like us all to know that’s just his face. Okay!

His face remains unimpressed on the red carpet, in press interviews and meeting members of the British royal family

Tue Apr 09 2024 - 14:41

Brianna Parkins: I fantasise about moving back in with my parents

Home might not be quiet or relaxing or emotionally stable but it’s still where I sleep best

Sat Apr 06 2024 - 05:00

Brianna Parkins: Marie Kondo has fallen. Tidying up is out and wall-to-wall tat is in

The cleaning guru has given up on her teachings since becoming a mother. It’s time we bring back display cabinets filled with treasures

Wed Apr 03 2024 - 16:04

‘My brother-in-law loves the Zoo, Milky Way stars and big diggers: yes, he’s six’

He doesn’t pull out his phone at a family gathering and subject the room to videos about cryptocurrency or his golf swing, but he will happily share his favourite YouTube clips about how planes land

Sat Mar 30 2024 - 05:00