Flying columnist – Frank McNally on a lightning visit to Leeside
He studied me a second, as if trying to assess if I was a Dublin jackeen out to make a feck of him
An Irish Diary
An Irish Diary
The Death of Reilly - Frank McNally on the demise of ‘Reilly, Ace of Spies’ 100 years ago
Russian-born intelligence agent who called himself Sidney Reilly, and inspired James Bond, made use of several Irish cover identities
Daily Telegraph’s agony aunt faces a conundrum – a mother worried that her son is turning ‘Irish’
We are well used in this country to visitors outdoing us in the performative aspects of Irishness
‘This is a godforsaken place’: A despairing letter from a garda stationed in Tipperary in 1940
Written in the outpost of Rearcross, the letter is a bleak portrait of human misery worthy of Samuel Beckett
After thousands of years of philosophy, the meaning of life can be summed up in a word
We are hardwired into believing life, like the sentences we utter, must make sense
Regal with a severe ponytail: the six foot tall first lady of Irish ballet
Joan Denise Moriarty’s legacy lives on through Ballet Week in Cork
Camera Obscura: An exhibition of ‘secret’ photography at Kilmainham Gaol
The Prisoners’ Lens shows theatrical staged scenes which remind us that the events of 1916 were inspired by playwrights and actors as well as poets
Why the GAA fell in and out of love with Charles Stewart Parnell
His early patronage of the fledgling organisation could not withstand the Kitty O’Shea scandal
How Nancy Spain became the unlikely heroine of an Irish folk classic
Christy Moore’s haunting song immortalised the woman Nancy Spain
What’s another year? Frank McNally on the rise of a new tautology
Words that were doing a perfectly good job are suddenly deemed to need prefixes
Mountmellick embroidery has helped keep Ireland’s craft heritage alive for 200 years
At a museum in Co Laois, volunteers and visitors continue a 200-year-old tradition of white-on-white needlework
Ireland’s deep cultural connections with the French capital and France itself
A visit to Parisl can be restorative and energising, as it brings to mind so much shared history
Laughing for Ireland? Frank McNally on Bobby Sands and Kneecap
Sands would surely have approved of the rap band’s success in helping make Irish fashionable with the young
Faithful departure: Frank McNally on a belated first visit to Knock Airport, 40 years on
I had to marvel briefly at its location, on a hilltop bog halfway between Charlestown and nowhere
Joseph O’Connor on celebrating a Kerry priest who became a war-time hero
He assembled a network of activists that hid thousands of fugitives, including many escaped Allied prisoners of war
A rock in a hard place: Frank McNally hunts an elusive ancient monument in Mayo
Natural monolith covered with carvings suggests Croagh Patrick was an object of pilgrimage long before Christianity
Frank McNally: A History of Ireland in a Hundred Hyperboles
A catalogue of 100 colourful expressions, myths, legends and sayings
Mother nature: The mystery animal was bright-eyed, bushy-tailed and hanging about for no one
Fionnuala Ward: Encounter may have been influenced by a podcast about the Loch Ness Monster
Old Men of the Canal – Frank McNally on the herons of Percy Place
There is something military-looking about the birds’ appearance
Roots and Branch: Alex Haley’s lesser known Irish heritage
The Roots author’s follow-up novel Queen traces five generations of a second branch of his ancestry back to a town in Co Monaghan
A Feast of Festy: A new lease of life for a colourful Irish name
Festus, from the Latin for ‘joyful’, is a popular boy’s name in Nigeria
Not raising hell: An insight into Limerick-born actor Richard Harris’s lesser known life
His career included playing the part of Dumbledore in the first two Harry Potter movies
Michael Dervan on how opera composer Gioachino Rossini and Ireland are intertwined
From Dublin’s Theatre Royal in 1829 to Wexford’s modern stages, the Italian’s spirit remains woven into Irish operatic history
Up Crockery Mountain, Dungarvan’s smashing monument to too much stuff
Sean Corcoran’s idea of recycling cups and plates into an artwork has become a wall sculpture worthy of the Guggenheim
Lips Sealed - Frank McNally on a mysterious facial feature, the philtrum
Now it’s just a vestige of evolution, with no apparent function.
Cast a Cold Eye – Frank McNally on the monuments, republican and otherwise, of Tipperary
Divorced of importance it later acquired, was original War of Independence event worthy of pride?
Our Man in Havana – Frank McNally on a forgotten Irishman honoured in Cuba
James Joseph O’Kelly was also, for a brief period, a man of two wives
Charlie Tango – Frank McNally on revisiting the Charlie Hebdo massacre 10 years on
In keeping with a low-budget production, the movie was projected onto a make-shift screen
Mutual admiration: Anti-slavery campaigner Frederick Douglass and his connections to Daniel O’Connell and Ireland
O’Connell introduced him as the ‘black O’Connell of the United States’
Ballpark figure: The Irish-American sports entrepreneur who moved Brooklyn Dodgers to LA
Myth endures that casts Walter O’Malley as the ultimate sporting villain
Immaculate reception: How an Irish priest helped turn the Pittsburgh Steelers into winners
Frank McNally: Relationship between Fr John J Duggan and team’s original owner was founded on a misunderstanding
Howya Heid? - Frank McNally on a visit to one of Glasgow’s toughest pubs
We had only dropped in for the proverbial one drink
Off track - Alison Healy on how James Joyce disembarked in the wrong country
When the train pulled into a significant city, they thought they had reached their destination
Waking Dream – Frank McNally on having intimations of mortality at a book launch
There may even have been ghosts present, as I was reminded by the attendance of some of my maternal cousins
Crosswords & Puzzles
Crosswords & puzzles to keep you challenged and entertained
Common Ground
How does a post-Brexit world shape the identity and relationship of these islands
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