Howya Heid? - Frank McNally on a visit to one of Glasgow’s toughest pubsWe had only dropped in for the proverbial one drinkThu Oct 02 2025 - 19:00
Waking Dream – Frank McNally on having intimations of mortality at a book launchThere may even have been ghosts present, as I was reminded by the attendance of some of my maternal cousinsTue Sept 30 2025 - 19:00
Frank McNally: My life as a civil servant in 1980s DublinFrank McNally on the Department of Social Welfare in Not Making Hay – The Life and Deadlines of a ‘Diary’ FarmerSat Sept 27 2025 - 06:00
Here it was again, the phantom Yeats quote in an Irish pub in PerpignanThis same legend turned up on the Dublin City Marathon medal two years agoSun Sept 14 2025 - 19:00
Skipping pages – Frank McNally on trawling through the discarded library of a lifetime A full-blown bibliophile, the deceased was said to have had up to 100,000 volumesFri Sept 12 2025 - 19:00
For the Birds – Frank McNally on an encounter with Dublin’s Pigeon ManWhen I got a word in edgeways, finally, I wondered why Dublin’s rapacious seagulls never came near himWed Sept 10 2025 - 19:00
Blades and Fades – Frank McNally on New York’s ‘Lads of Kilkenny’ and a Joycean Fenian in ParisWashington Irving was a native New Yorker who had no known connection with KilkennyTue Sept 09 2025 - 19:00
The Word made fresh: One enlightening billboard outside a church in Mount MerrionA friend from south Dublin suggested I write something about a church billboard where Foster Avenue meets the Stillorgan dual carriagewayFri Sept 05 2025 - 19:00
Tourists beware: supposed new ‘traditions’ at Dublin statues As with tour guides inventing stories, here’s hoping the phenomenon is not on the riseWed Sept 03 2025 - 19:00
A day trip to Electric Picnic does not go as plannedIf you go down to the woods: Frank McNally on a long, dark night of no soul in StradballyTue Sept 02 2025 - 19:00
Eavesdropping on tour guides in Dublin I overheard what sounded like a very dubious story I began to feel some Swiftian indignation on the part of the innocent Americans who were listening to the tour guide’s claimSat Aug 30 2025 - 06:00
Contraceptive crop: How an Irish-American agricultural fortune helped pay for the pillPhilanthropist Katharine McCormick used her riches to help the cause of women’s rights Thu Aug 28 2025 - 19:00
Dedicated to the one I hate: Frank McNally on how a book inscription came back to haunt Patrick KavanaghSigned first American edition of Tarry Flynn is dedicated to ‘poet and painter’ Brendan BehanTue Aug 26 2025 - 19:00
The night a ‘sputnik’ crash-landed in rural WexfordA garda arrived immediately to cordon off a crater in the field, then the Army was called inFri Aug 22 2025 - 19:00
‘A breakthrough in the case of my stolen Dublin Bike and the subsequent €150 fine’ I am no wiser as to where the bicycle spent its long, lost weekendThu Aug 21 2025 - 19:00
A daisy with a doctorate? Frank McNally on the enrolment of ragwort in a rewilded TrinityWho knows how ragwort will evolve with the benefit of a few years in university? It might lose the latter part of its name, Jacobaea vulgaris, for a startThu Aug 21 2025 - 06:00
Ballet Go Backwards – Frank McNally on Patrick Kavanagh’s short-lived career as a dance librettistThis strange incident came about because of another surprising phenomenon little remembered todayTue Aug 19 2025 - 19:00
The Irish caminos: Climbing the ‘passage of the birds’ - a Connemara rival to Croagh PatrickFrank McNally on an ancient Connemara pilgrimage, once suppressed by the church but now happily revivedSun Aug 17 2025 - 06:00
Barns ignoble – Frank McNally on Tom Waits’s barn obsession (and why Macbeth is innocent)Tom Waits seems to have moved the scene to 20th century AmericaFri Aug 15 2025 - 19:00
Long Day’s Journey Into Night – Frank McNally on a heady month for Monaghan GAA supporters, 40 years agoMy namesake and anti-Treaty grandfather may have been among the Monaghan supporters scarred for lifeThu Aug 14 2025 - 19:00
Murder most vulgar: Frank McNally on an infamous case of the 1820sHe was in no doubt about where the blame for such bad taste layWed Aug 13 2025 - 19:00
Boyne Companions – Frank McNally on why the road from Dublin to Slane lies mainly on a plain (allegedly)The loveliness of the setting is matched by that of the village of Slane itselfTue Aug 12 2025 - 19:00
Hot Wheels - Frank McNally on the mystery of why anyone would steal a Dublin BikeI was nevertheless baffled at the turn of eventsThu Aug 07 2025 - 19:00
Belfast Bride - Frank McNally on the Irish wife of man who dropped US atomic bomb on NagasakiBeahan had mixed feelings in later years about his involvement in the missionsWed Aug 06 2025 - 19:00
Special Guest Appearance – Frank McNally on a famous banshee visitation of the 19th centuryAlthough a great storyteller, the author was not the most reliable of narratorsTue Aug 05 2025 - 19:00
‘If we keep knocking down places like Smyth’s, soon there’ll be nothing interesting left for tourists to visit’Customers at the celebrated Dublin 4 pub express concern as it faces threat of demolitionMon Aug 04 2025 - 06:00
Rites and Wrongs: Examining the rise and fall of the ‘Portiuncula Indulgence’What started out as the Pardon of Assisi required a visit to Italy, but now Westmeath will sufficeFri Aug 01 2025 - 19:00
Odds and Ends - Frank McNally on the vagaries of Galway Race WeekIt was as if I’d asked if his house had a late bar, or a chauffeured limousine serviceThu Jul 31 2025 - 19:00
Galway Races: Heart-warmingly bad start for bookies at Ballybrit Week-long festival begins with Davy Crockett staying on strongly to oblige punters Mon Jul 28 2025 - 21:27
Jung at Heart – Frank McNally on the Irish legacies of a Swiss psychologistHe suggested among other insults that Ulysses could be as easily read backwards as forwardsFri Jul 25 2025 - 19:00
Baked into a Corner – Frank McNally on the demise of a Dublin landmarkBrian O’Nolan frequented the pub in his younger daysThu Jul 24 2025 - 19:00
What unhygienic object do teams always need someone to clean up? – Frank McNally’s guide to the GAA clicheWhich undesirable qualities relating to the time-space continuum featured in that challenge by the corner back? It was late and highThu Jul 24 2025 - 06:00
Hot Tickets – Frank McNally on watching a steamy Molière and how Barry Lyndon became a TikTok hitA Misanthrope features a choreographed sex scene that for technical difficulty (9.9) and artistic merit (10.0) would rival any gymnastics routineWed Jul 23 2025 - 06:00
No sympathy for Cork as Tipp faithful descend on Thurles in their thousands Munster neighbours may have got more points from the speed cameras than in second half, one fan saysMon Jul 21 2025 - 21:41
‘They would not venture out that day’: Why Galway fishermen dread foxesBefore the captain had a chance to revisit the island, he went down in a shipwreckFri Jul 18 2025 - 19:00
Behind Enemy Lines - Frank McNally on a little piece of Cork that is forever TipperaryAlthough a first-class cricketer in his prime, he was probably never much of a hurling fan Thu Jul 17 2025 - 19:00
July Jeopardy - Frank McNally on this month’s ominous reputationMen were at risk of attacks by rabid dogs and the wantonness of women, according to ancient philosophers Wed Jul 16 2025 - 19:00
Publican Cause - Frank McNally on the Spanish celebrity of Paddy O’ConnellSoon afterwards, the Dubliner – born close to what is now Croke Park - was captaining Manchester United Tue Jul 15 2025 - 19:00
Spanish Steps – Frank McNally on a sweaty tour of Alicante and ValenciaThe visit turned out to be anything but quickFri Jul 11 2025 - 19:00
Culture Clash of the Ash – Frank McNally on watching the hurling in BarcelonaI sought asylum in the nearest Irish pubThu Jul 10 2025 - 19:00
Surreal-Life Experience - Frank McNally on Salvador Dali, cosmogonic ecstasy, and the far-right government of PerpignanSomehow, the doors of perception failed to open for meWed Jul 09 2025 - 19:00
My French trip had no shortage of Beckett-style waiting, with Marseille Airport at 2.30am about as lively as KnockYou wouldn’t start from Marseille to get to SpainTue Jul 08 2025 - 19:00
Poor Mouth, Rich Reputation – Frank McNally on fellow Flannorak and pioneering publican, Mick GleesonHe bought the pub for a mere £58,000Fri Jun 27 2025 - 19:00
A Hill to Die On - Frank McNally on celebrating the summer solstice at TaraSome had been there since dawn, or earlierThu Jun 26 2025 - 19:00
‘He counted himself blessed to be an Irishman’: Henry Mount Charles remembered at SlaneAlex Conyngham said his father ‘truly loved’ Ireland despite initially struggling with Anglo-Irish identityWed Jun 25 2025 - 14:38
Manhattan Transfer – Frank McNally on Skin-the-Goat Fitzharris in New York Although in his late 60s by then, he was back in the job marketTue Jun 24 2025 - 19:00
Scotch Broth – Frank McNally on Michael Cusack’s frustrated hope for a pan-Celtic sports allianceIn fact, like others in the book, the character was a composite of different peopleFri Jun 20 2025 - 19:00
Voice from the Grave – Frank McNally on a debut poetry collection from Niall Montgomery, 38 years after his death.A man of many talents he was not only an architect, but a newspaper columnist as wellThu Jun 19 2025 - 19:00
Frank McNally on the Bloomsday fitness progamme (and why Virginia Woolf will never be as popular as Joyce)As readers of Ulysses will know, Bloom had a bit of a bellyWed Jun 18 2025 - 19:00
Bloomsday: Aficionados enjoy a Full Joyce for breakfast then devour extra helpings of UlyssesBut Dorset Street is still too busy being itself to celebrate being immortalised in fictionMon Jun 16 2025 - 20:27
