The Last Word: gravestone honorifics and epitaphs that get lost in translation
Plus a suspicious detail about a banshee’s ominous cries
An Irish Diary
An Irish Diary
Irony of playing Afghanistan in cricket
The Taliban have banned women’s sport, while Cricket Ireland received €70,000 to promote gender equality
100 not out: Finola Kennedy on the Aga Khan Trophy’s centenary
The competition’s storied past takes in the nascent Irish State, Shergar and changing times
Noises Off: Frank McNally on a famous tale of the banshee
Extraordinary sound – ‘neither voice nor instrument’ – heralded baron’s death in 1801
From Homer to Heaney: Ray Burke on Ireland’s enduring connection to The Odyssey
The Odyssey predates the earliest evidence for Ireland’s Táin Bó Cúailnge by around 1,400 years
Doing time: Colm Keena reflects on how he has spent much of his career in lovely buildings
A felicitous aspect of a reporter’s work is the amount of time spent in the rooms and corridors of Ireland’s architectural treasures
Twin Reeks: Frank McNally on a new, virtual reality Croagh Patrick and the real (but changing) thing
Preparing to climb the old-fashioned way, I am reminded that the modern Reek Sunday is nothing like it was 25 or 30 years ago
Frank McNally: A history of the Mayo football famine in 75 moments
Mayo’s 1952 All-Ireland win was followed by quiet years, rain and the county’s closest neighbours rubbing salt in the wound
St Patrick’s Bed? – Frank McNally on spending All-Ireland final night in a Mayo bridal suite
After hitchhiking back from Craogh Patrick, the celebrations in Westport led to an unexpected ending for the weekend
Perfect confection: Cian Flaherty on that strange Irish concoction called gur cake
Known by many colourful names, a decent slice of it and you were good for the afternoon
To win just once: John Kelly on the All-Ireland and Mayo’s magical performance
My 55th time at a final, but I had never witnessed anything like the outpouring of raw emotion
You Langer: Colette Sheridan on a wonderful new book of Cork’s slang words
Immaculate conception, fine half, electrocution lessons, a fifty and more in professor’s compendium
Paddy Englishman: Frank McNally on a ‘multimillionaire playboy’ namesake with Monaghan roots
The late Paddy McNally spent some of his childhood in Ireland, romanced Sarah Ferguson and had brothers who did unspeakable things to cats
Frank McNally: Dublin is dirtier than ever and badly needs a downpour
The issue is the dried-in grime, accumulated from two months of leaks and spillages, and from the primordial ooze that gathers around the base of bins
Mayo’s Boheh Stone is a national monument, but a new step threatens its 6,000-year-old carvings
Addition of a step to help people onto the stone has hastened the demise of its 6,000-year-old carvings
They call it an epic, but The Odyssey was a harder watch than the woeful World Cup final
I’ll give Christopher Nolan’s film this much: the wooden horse was good
Nipples on My Knee: The world’s oddest book titles
There’s an audience for everything, no matter how niche its topic
Post script: Felix Larkin on Ireland’s stamps celebrating US connections
An Post has not always avoided controversy with its choice of prominent figures
Going Gone – Frank McNally on the rise and fall of Irish go-go dancing
Plus: Diplomacy requires envoys of bad luck to avoid Spain’s and Argentina’s embassies on Sunday
Scuff and tumble: Frank McNally on the art of ageing pubs (also applicable to literature)
In Riga, Paddy Whelan’s pub went to great lengths to ensure it looked authentic
Baltic banter: Frank McNally on taking part in a ‘conversation festival’ in Latvia
Discussions ranged from the philosophical ‘am I who I am?’ to the Pythonesque ‘what has the EU ever done for us?’
All that jazz: Denis McClean on a unique project in Sligo that hits all the right notes
The Sligo Jazz Project was started 20 years ago by Eddie Lee from Sligo rock band Those Nervous Animals
What’s it worth? John Kelly on the ‘currency’ of All-Ireland medals
Cork great Christy Ring ended his career with a grand total of eight of them
The importance of being earnest about afternoon tea
The self-control demanded in this gastronomic experience is aided by the layered structure of the tiered cake stand
Flaming underwear, a chair leg and a plum pudding can: the great Olympic torch hoax
Prank in advance of 1956 Olympics was brainchild of university students in Sydney with Leitrim link
Talking Italian: Frank McNally on Joyce, Beckett and 250 years of language studies in Ireland
Joyce’s studies had been shaped by Giordano Bruno – a man considered a ‘terrible heretic’ in his own lifetime
Ale, St Kilian: Frank McNally on Irish beer evangelism, Canadian modesty and ‘Corke’
Adding an ‘e’ to Cork is baffling, but it makes 'whisky' taste better
From Cillian to Kylian: the unlikely modern popularity of a seventh-century saint
Mbappé bears standard French spelling of forename that has roots in modern-day Cavan
Good going: The horse-training landlord who helped thousands of tenants survive the Famine
Mayo landowner George Henry Moore was a trailblazer who said Charles Trevelyan was a ‘dogmatist that no experience could instruct’
Cover story: Denis McClean on how he ended up on the front of The Phoenix magazine
News reporter was pictured watching criminal Martin ‘The General’ Cahill outside court
You’re Fired: If the US Declaration of Independence had been delivered by Donald Trump
Unalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of cryptocurrency
The banned writer who explored the eroticism in Irish folklore
She wrote about lesbian women’s sexuality and the eroticism of Irish folklore, earning acclaim and a ban in Ireland
‘Blessed are those who don’t send me to the dictionary’
A trio of letters finds humour, irritation and media critique in equal measure
Bad beatitude: the Sermon on the Mount updated for the Gen Z faithful
Never mind the meek and the poor in spirit – here’s a new VIP list of entrants to the kingdom of heaven
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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