Passing game – Frank McNally on ‘gaslighting’ as word of the year and why some old footballers never dieIn 2022, it seems, everyone is being gaslitTue Nov 29 2022 - 19:15
A to-do list for Ireland: Drain the Shannon, open peace talks with the seagulls and win a rugby World Cup quarter-finalOpen peace talks with the Dublin seagullsFri Nov 18 2022 - 19:00
Three Steps to Heaven - Frank McNally on an ancient Irish funeral customAn old custom but perhaps not unique to this part of the worldThu Nov 17 2022 - 19:00
Collision Course - Frank McNally on the transcontinental railroad’s Irish-Chinese ‘feud’Printing the legendWed Nov 16 2022 - 19:00
Shaking hands with history – Frank McNally on a childhood meeting with Erskine ChildersI shook the hand that shook the handTue Nov 15 2022 - 17:10
Mixing up the Republic - Frank McNally on the sad end of a Blasket heroAll but forgotten today, Brian Kelly’s life story is something of a Greek tragedyFri Nov 11 2022 - 19:30
Martinmas Martyrs - Frank McNally on an ominous legend of November 10thThere is a paradox in St Martin’s association with storms in WexfordWed Nov 09 2022 - 19:04
Duel Citizen – Frank McNally on Larry David and the Irish duelling code‘It is desirable to avoid all hot-headed proceedings’Tue Nov 08 2022 - 19:01
Moving swiftly on - Frank McNally on the rebranding of the Berkeley balcony collapse siteVisiting the site where six young Irish students died in 2015Fri Nov 04 2022 - 19:00
From Bad to Words - Frank McNally on ‘permacrisis’ as word of the yearNew noun sums up the ongoing political and economic debacles in BritainThu Nov 03 2022 - 19:00
Tenters Hooked - Frank McNally on a ground-breaking Dublin housing estate, now 100 years oldIn 1922, builders began turning a 22-acre site near the Liberties into a housing scheme for Dublin’s working classesWed Nov 02 2022 - 19:00
The Problem with Portland – Frank McNally on an American utopia gone wrongCity’s homeless crisis is obvious on every streetTue Nov 01 2022 - 19:00
Season’s Gratings – Frank McNally on American HalloweenThe exaggerated ghoulishness of the US Halloween seems to fill a deep needFri Oct 28 2022 - 19:00
Hard Copy – Frank McNally on “America’s Last Newspaper”The Anderson Valley Advertiser’s feisty commentary has a devoted followingThu Oct 27 2022 - 19:00
A Pretty Pass – Frank McNally on a grim tale of American pioneersDelays proved fatalWed Oct 26 2022 - 19:01
A Group Portrait with the Artist – Frank McNally on the story behind (and in front of) James Joyce’s graduation pictureA class whose members were fated to live in genuinely troubled timesTue Oct 25 2022 - 19:00
Rules of Three – Frank McNally updates the ancient Triads of IrelandWith apologies to the ninth-century monks who wrote the originalFri Oct 21 2022 - 19:00
Breaking Bad – Frank McNally on Irishmen who went over to the dark side during the American Civil WarA gang called the “Raiders” preyed on weaker inmates in Georgia’s Andersonville prison campThu Oct 20 2022 - 19:00
Fatal Frontier – Frank McNally on the sinister origin of deadlinesA notorious Confederate prisonTue Oct 18 2022 - 19:00
Fluther’s Theses – Frank McNally on the curious evolution of a drunken adjectiveIreland’s countless euphemismsFri Oct 14 2022 - 19:00
Kentucky Fried Irish – Frank McNally on the rise and fall of one of America’s greatest small newspapersThe Kentucky Irish American animated US journalism for 70 yearsThu Oct 13 2022 - 19:00
To Russia with love – Frank McNally on the Irish heritage of the ‘father of Russian journalism’Pyotr Vyazemsky had the questionable fortune of outliving most of his contemporariesWed Oct 12 2022 - 19:00
Warped Logic – Frank McNally on how a great Polish philosopher spent his final years in IrelandCentral to Lukasiewicz’s thought was the idea of breaking with Aristotle’s bivalent logicTue Oct 11 2022 - 19:00
Cycle of life and death: Frank McNally on an unlikely Flann O’Brien tribute and a tale of two TurnersBrian O’Nolan’s remains have resided in Deansgrange Cemetery since his death in 1966Fri Oct 07 2022 - 19:10
Poison Ivy: Frank McNally on how the deaths of two English monarchs caused legal issues for Joyce‘Vulgar expressions’ in Ivy Day in the Committee Room made publishers nervousThu Oct 06 2022 - 19:07
Rolling in the aisles – Frank McNally on how a ‘bad’ Irish habit conquered AmericaR-rolling was vital to perceptions of social standingWed Oct 05 2022 - 19:05
Metaphorical Manouevres – Frank McNally on Patrick Kavanagh’s all-conquering army of poetsA prize worth fighting forTue Oct 04 2022 - 19:00
In search of lost time - Frank McNally on horology, folk-music, and the campaign to ban ‘iconic’Time for actionFri Sept 30 2022 - 19:00
Through a Glass, Berkeley – Frank McNally on eccentric English pronunciationsWhat’s in a name?Thu Sept 29 2022 - 10:16
How Ireland got Fluthered – Frank McNally on Seán O’Casey’s real and fictional Fluther GoodA day in courtTue Sept 27 2022 - 19:10
Imperfect Recall – Frank McNally on the sad story of a half-remembered neighbourA man we’ll call JoeFri Sept 23 2022 - 19:10
The Height of Vulgarity – Frank McNally on San Francisco’s Nob Hill James Flood, the king of the castleThu Sept 22 2022 - 19:14
Joint Project - Frank McNally on the great Limerick-born engineer MM O’ShaughnessyAs chief engineer in San Francisco at the start of the last century he designed much of that city’s infrastructureWed Sept 21 2022 - 19:00
Quaking in their boots - Frank McNally on one of the world’s most precarious football stadiumsA “tectonic time-bomb”Tue Sept 20 2022 - 19:01
Whistle, stop! Frank McNally on the downside of a great American traditionTrain of thoughtFri Sept 16 2022 - 19:01
Milking It - Frank McNally on the ups and downs of diary farmingIn one way, diary farmers have it worse than dairy onesFri Sept 16 2022 - 14:16
Cross Lines - Frank McNally on a royal wrong number that led to a libel case“Sandringham here. May I speak to Her Royal Highness?”Tue Sept 13 2022 - 19:01
By royal disappointment - Frank McNally on an Irish clergyman who picked the wrong sermon for a change of English monarchThe seeds of Thomas Sheridan’s downfallFri Sept 09 2022 - 19:01
Line mismanagement - Frank McNally on the stresses of trying to catch a Dublin taxi in the rainJoin the queueThu Sept 08 2022 - 19:00
Shelf-raising flour - Frank McNally on a literary facelift for an old Dublin flour millSpeaking volumesWed Sept 07 2022 - 19:00
Shifting Sands - Frank McNally on the dramatic real-life plot twist of Erskine ChildersA personal transformation that even a good spy novelist might struggle to make credibleTue Sept 06 2022 - 19:01
Mobbed – Frank McNally on the image and reality of the Sicilian MafiaA martyred duoFri Sept 02 2022 - 19:10
Port in a Storm – Frank McNally on the strange story of the Sicilian EmmetsA striking resemblanceThu Sept 01 2022 - 19:10
Dead Central Sicily - Frank McNally on the Capuchin Catacombs of PalermoTales from the cryptWed Aug 31 2022 - 19:01
Tyred and Emotional - Frank McNally on the ups and downs of driving in SicilyAn offer I couldn’t refuseTue Aug 30 2022 - 19:15
Madonna è mobile – Frank McNally on a Sicilian tale of two MadonnasMiraculous sightingsFri Aug 19 2022 - 19:01
No Flowers, Please - Frank McNally on the etymological ambush of Beal na BláthDisputes over placenamesThu Aug 18 2022 - 19:01
Frank McNally on the Dublin-born newspaper mogul, Lord Northcliffe, who died 100 years agoThe most successful newspaper publisher of his timeWed Aug 17 2022 - 19:01
Fan Fiction - Frank McNally on football’s fondness for the ‘unbelievable’The thesaurus of incredulityTue Aug 16 2022 - 19:02
Take me to chapel - Frank McNally on why traditional Catholics never went to churchA crucial distinctionFri Aug 12 2022 - 20:01
