Salad days: When rocket came to Ireland Before the peppery sprig entered the national food chain, my leaf knowledge was mostly limited to butterhead and icebergFri Oct 25 2024 - 06:00
Emer McLysaght: I’m a walking, talking example of how driving home the message of the Catholic Church in schools does not workAt a time when school divestment should be ramping up, it seems like boards of management are digging their heels inFri Oct 18 2024 - 06:00
Emer McLysaght: The Inuit may have dozens of words for snow, but in Ireland the vocabulary around rain is bountiful and necessaryThere’s a slim line between the drizzle of a soft day and the heavy yet almost imperceptible precipitation we like to call ‘wet rain’Fri Oct 11 2024 - 06:00
‘High protein’ fad sounds like repackaged diet culture to meEmer McLysaght: Pathologising food to the point of seeing it only as a macro in a calculation is just another reason to obsess and judge and self-sabotageFri Oct 04 2024 - 06:00
Sally Rooney gets photographed with an owl, looking unimpressed. I’m asked to ‘look zany’My comedic, commercial fiction has been described as ‘fluffy’ or ‘an easy read’ more times than my heart and ego can takeFri Sept 27 2024 - 06:00
My friends group finally celebrated our Covid-delayed 40th birthdays in Spain. We swapped tales of air fryers and steam mopsIn our 20s, we were all talk of boys, post-work drinks and feral nights out. Now it’s recipes and magnesium supplementsFri Sept 20 2024 - 05:30
Hamilton in Dublin will be incredible. It has evidence of the Brits being at it again in spadesSeats are already very limited, but if you’re going or thinking of it, here’s a survival guideFri Sept 13 2024 - 06:00
You’ve no right to park outside your home. You buy the house, not the road in front of itDeciding to live in a highly desirable location is always going to have its downfalls but hoarding parking spaces with traffic cones is not onFri Sept 06 2024 - 06:00
I foresee Bono re-enacting that famous photo with David Trimble and John Hume, except with Liam and NoelEmer McLysaght: The cynic in me believes that the revenue generated from the Oasis reunion shows will be more important than any familial riftTue Aug 27 2024 - 19:07
Wedding culture is bananas and I will be dressed in black whether you like it or notI’ve witnessed friendships end over wedding expectations, couples speak about how much cash they’ve made from guests, and homophobic homiliesFri Aug 23 2024 - 06:00
Emer McLysaght: Is your hair flat on top and curly underneath? Commiserations, you have ‘Irish hair’Emer McLysaght: It’s safe at the sinks but being in the hairdresser’s chair is one of life’s more humbling experiences. Even on a good day the salon mirror is confrontingFri Aug 16 2024 - 06:00
Getting a table at Marqette in Dublin Airport in July is a discipline that would test even top athletesEmer McLysaght: I went to the same primary school as Rhasidat Adeleke. Sure I’m practically an OlympianThu Aug 08 2024 - 19:53
Emer McLysaght: Six things that confuse American tourists visiting Ireland and EuropeOur friends across the Atlantic are coming to Ireland and Europe in their droves - and it’s not just wealthy baby boomersFri Aug 02 2024 - 06:00
A middle-class millennial at a Kneecap gig: am I just cosplaying at republicanism?The bilingual west Belfast hip-hop trio take Galway by storm with an act that is in reality more satire than sectarianismFri Jul 26 2024 - 00:00
Holidays with my ‘family’ of 11 involve pooled childcare, cheap villas and red as a lobster insultsMy travel companions often dream of creating a year-round version of our annual trip but it would all fall apart at the four-week markFri Jul 19 2024 - 06:00
Crisis piercings and other classic signs you’re heading towards middle ageI still feel largely like a child who doesn’t really know what they’re doing, but with the freedom of an adult who can do whatever I wantFri Jul 12 2024 - 06:00
Emer McLysaght: My three nights at Taylor Swift cost me €47 an hour. Cheaper than therapyStevie Nicks and Julia Roberts were there, and Swift played ‘my’ surprise song. Who knew one song had such healing powers?Wed Jul 03 2024 - 06:00
Was it Positano or Dubrovnik or Santorini? No, we were in WexfordUs two dopes from Dublin had the time of our lives over 48 hours in the sunny southeastFri Jun 28 2024 - 06:00
The places Taylor Swift needs to visit while she’s in Ireland From Tropical Popical to Karma Nightclub in Athlone, we have combed the country for the sights and experiences Swift should have on her Irish bucket listMon Jun 24 2024 - 06:00
People chat at concerts these days. My advice is to move to a more respectful area of the crowdAs summer concert season gets into full swing it’s vital that you’re prepared for the talkersFri Jun 21 2024 - 06:00
Six Irish cultural touchstones for Barry Keoghan’s popstar girlfriend Sabrina CarpenterSabrina Carpenter needs to be educated in the ways of Mattress Mick, stone-age election recounts and keeping corpses company before the big dayFri Jun 14 2024 - 06:00
I love Nicola Coughlan. She might just be my Princess DianaThe work she’s doing may seem superficial but it is incredibly, incredibly importantFri Jun 07 2024 - 06:00
Our local supermarket had a creche, and I happily survived itEvery Saturday I was faced with the dilemma of the week: go with Mam to do the shopping or go into The Playhouse and play with exotic toysFri May 31 2024 - 06:00
Good riddance Operation Transformation. Here’s what RTÉ should put in its placeIreland’s Best Bungalow, Normal People 2 and Daft on Daft would be perfect to fill a gap in the scheduleFri May 24 2024 - 06:00
Every time I travel abroad I am gripped by the fear that Ireland is making a fool of meEmer McLysaght: Even Disneyland’s neon lawns seem more affordable than DublinFri May 17 2024 - 05:18
Emer McLysaght: You’re going to see phones at gigs. Suck it upIt was a thrill to accompany a tween and her seven-year-old sister on their rite of passage at Olivia Rodrigo recentlyFri May 10 2024 - 05:50
I’d never wear my big straw hat on the streets of Dublin. Someone would call me JR Ewing Emer McLysaght: Irish people have developed the art of slagging down to the finest line between humour and crueltyFri May 03 2024 - 06:00
I’m all for AI as long as I can have a robot to do all the houseworkEmer McLysaght: I dearly wish it could hang out the clothes and defrost the freezer, but I’ll draw the line at asking it to write my next bookFri Apr 26 2024 - 06:00
Emer McLysaght: The ‘cry laughing’ emoji has been my nemesis for as long as I can rememberEmer McLysaght: This tainted emoji has tormented so many for so long. Why then, do I now find myself softening towards it?Fri Apr 19 2024 - 06:00
The eight people you meet in the posh emergency department, including the minor sports-adjacent celebrityEmer McLysaght: A glorious hospital porter once allayed my fears on the way to theatre with some daring swerves of the bed and jokes about what they might do with my tonsilsFri Apr 12 2024 - 06:00
Emer McLysaght: Dryrobes and Francis Brennan pyjamas – here’s Cillian Murphy’s actual bedtime routineThe New Yorker thinks it knows the Cork actor but, having met him twice – though we didn’t speak – I am best placed to speculate on his sleep preparationsFri Apr 05 2024 - 06:00
Irish people have been doing the Gaelic gasp since the Vikings first landed on our shoresIrish people love talking, and we’re not going to let pesky breathing get in the wayFri Mar 29 2024 - 06:00
All I’m asking is for the bloody Dublin Bus to show up. That’s not too much, is it?Emer McLysaght: Dublin busses regularly vanish into a Bermuda Triangle between app and reality, and nobody seems concernedFri Mar 22 2024 - 06:00
My whole body was engulfed in a shiver of nostalgia when I saw the viral TikTok on David Gray’s BabylonEmer McLysaght: The Welsh singer’s Babylon has the power to make you feel a bit less despondentFri Mar 15 2024 - 06:00
I did a DNA test and guess what? I’m as Irish as a bog bodyEmer McLysaght: I know I should care more about how I might be helping mega-companies to control and predict humansFri Mar 08 2024 - 06:00
The Government has made a dog’s dinner of the whole referendum thing, no?My first Dublin vote will not be an easy one, and the weight of it will sit heavier than in 1999 when the Leaving Cert and getting a summer job trumped who I thought should become a county councillorFri Mar 01 2024 - 06:00
Your week abroad hasn’t begun until you’ve taken in the beauty of the foreign crisps aisleEmer McLysaght: Fancy Dunnes, Big Tesco, regional Supervalu, Mercadona – I love them allFri Feb 23 2024 - 06:00
Taylor Swift has been on high for so long another tumble feels inevitableEmer McLysaght: Her Swifties would fight to the death to defend her. I’d call myself Swiftie-liteFri Feb 16 2024 - 06:00
Emer McLysaght: I’ve never drunk a full pint of GuinnessAt the risk of setting feminism back to the marriage bar, there is a coolness about a woman drinking a pint of the black stuffFri Feb 09 2024 - 06:00
What would St Brigid make of 2024 Ireland? She wouldn’t know what vibes are, but she’d get the driftEmer McLysaght: The saint performed Ireland’s first documented abortion and other things the church don’t want you to know about herFri Feb 02 2024 - 06:00
I’m worried people think Andrew Scott and Paul Mescal have made a gentle, sexy romcom. Prepare to be devastatedEmer McLysaght: I’m comfortable saying All of Us Strangers is one of best films I’ve seen in yearsFri Jan 26 2024 - 06:00
Social media is flooded with influencers drinking water 24-7. How thirsty are these people?When I think back to my childhood, there was nobody drinking waterFri Jan 19 2024 - 06:00
When I first met Barry Keoghan, 10 years ago, he asked my friend for her number. She probably regrets saying noEmer McLysaght: Keoghan carries himself like a man who’ll say no to nothing, and that’s exciting in HollywoodFri Jan 12 2024 - 06:00
‘Vapewrath’ and Ireland’s first ‘she-seach’ – my 2024 word predictionsEmer McLysaght: In that moment I was giving ‘embarrassing millennial with zero rizz’Fri Jan 05 2024 - 06:00
The smell of farts was as unnatural as the metal can hurtling through the air at 30,000ftEmer McLysaght: I’m reminded of the epic journey I made home from Cambodia via Paris with a developing case of dysenteryThu Dec 28 2023 - 06:00
I’m going to a restaurant for Christmas Day, which goes against almost everything in my DNAEmer McLysaght: Is it finally my year to receive the My Little Pony Dream Castle from Santa?Thu Dec 21 2023 - 13:36
Elf on the Shelf? More like touts in the sprouts – we need to freeze out these toxic spiesEmer McLysaght: Do we need cease-and-desist letters to stop these rats in hats?Fri Dec 15 2023 - 06:00
Is the fear of saying unfamiliar words out loud a particularly Irish thing?Emer McLysaght: Also, I for one will continue saying ‘goo-dah’ and be haunted by the unsolicitied knowledge it’s pronounced ‘how-dah’ for the rest of my daysFri Dec 08 2023 - 06:00
The men who delivered my tree were the absolute heads off the Wet Bandits from Home AloneEmer McLysaght: The Christmas trees I’ve known and loved have often been far from perfectFri Dec 01 2023 - 06:00
It’s easy to be cynical about RTÉ, but here’s hoping for a magical Late Late Toy Show for allEmer McLysaght: Let’s get Patrick Kielty the biggest water gun on the market and give him free reignFri Nov 24 2023 - 06:00
