Signifying Nothing - Frank McNally on a new linguistic plagueA little bell had started to ring in my head every time he said ‘very significant’ againWed Feb 12 2025 - 19:00
Hardebeck Edition – Frank McNally on an Anglo-German musician who became the “blind bard of Belfast”He travelled widely in the Gaeltacht areas of Ulster on a mission to save traditional airs from oblivionFri Feb 07 2025 - 18:50
Anti-social climber – Frank McNally on the pioneering cat burglar Robert Augustus DelaneyHandsome, charming, and well-dressed, Delaney was a popular figure in the West End of LondonThu Feb 06 2025 - 18:58
Digging Up History – Frank McNally on the McMahon, and other once-famous spadesYou didn’t call a spade a spade – you called it a “McMahon”Wed Feb 05 2025 - 18:59
In the name of the father – Frank McNally on the waning tradition of family nicknamesThere was a ‘Boss’, a ‘Yankee’, ‘Pipes’, ‘Mick Miley’, ‘Wee Mick’, and ‘Slasher’, among othersTue Feb 04 2025 - 18:59
Power ballad – Frank McNally on the case for an Irish ‘Wichita Lineman’Has anyone ever composed a musical eulogy, country or otherwise, to Ireland’s electrical repair crews?Fri Jan 31 2025 - 18:59
Austrians battle with Irish terrain and ‘local dialect’ in Storm Éowyn relief effortsAustrian crew set out for Ireland on Monday at 5am in their own cars, travelled through the night, sharing driving duties, and arrived 1,900km and 27 hours laterThu Jan 30 2025 - 19:13
Last Poll and Chorus – Frank McNally on the end of 400 years of Trinity College electionsDublin University can claim to have elected Jane Austen’s Mr Darcy, or a bit of himWed Jan 29 2025 - 18:59
Hit (and miss) parade – Frank McNally on the mixed fortunes of a who’s who list from 40 years ago These lists always give hostages to fortuneTue Jan 28 2025 - 18:59
Cardinal Red – Frank McNally on a cultural history of wind colour The concept of a Dulux-style wind-colour catalogue was well established here and elsewhereFri Jan 24 2025 - 18:58
Poison Pen – Frank McNally on the late-blooming Violet Needham, children’s novelist extraordinaire She had spent a long apprenticeship as a storyteller to nieces and nephewsThu Jan 23 2025 - 18:58
Arsenic and Old Books – Frank McNally on a reader’s literary cry for helpAn unusual problemTue Jan 21 2025 - 18:59
Pointed reference – Frank McNally on the importance of being salientPeace explains why the term “Monaghan Salient” has fallen out of useFri Jan 17 2025 - 18:59
Sleeveen and Jackeen: A History of Ireland in 100 diminutivesNumber 70: Drisheen (stuffed small intestines of sheep, considered food in Cork)Fri Jan 17 2025 - 11:27
(Southern) Cross Country – Frank McNally on Argentina’s 150-year-old Irish newspaperThe world’s longest-running Irish newspaper produced outside Ireland, and among the oldest of any kind in ArgentinaWed Jan 15 2025 - 18:59
Funny Peculiar – Frank McNally on the unhilarious St Hilary and the legal term named after himThe ancient Romans used to host Hilaria: public holidays marked by ceremonial rejoicingTue Jan 14 2025 - 18:59
House Private – Frank McNally on the apparent occupation of 15 Usher’s IslandThe short manifesto in the window has more than twice as many full stops – five – as Molly Bloom’s entire soliloquyFri Jan 10 2025 - 18:59
Mapped Out – Frank McNally on a wealthy namesake’s mansion, destroyed in the Los Angeles firesThe house was built in 1887 for the Armagh-born multimillionaire Andrew McNallyThu Jan 09 2025 - 18:58
Sculptor Exculpated – Frank McNally on the forgotten Irish creator of one of England’s most infamous statuesJohn Cassidy’s gravestone, in the Catholic section of Manchester’s Southern Cemetery, makes no mention of his Irish originsWed Jan 08 2025 - 18:58
Just a tweak, mid-winter – Frank McNally on the ups and downs of ChristmasThey say mishaps come in threes so now I’m waiting for the next one, which is the worst partTue Jan 07 2025 - 18:48
Name Shame – Frank McNally on the continuing tragedy of the forename “Kevin” and a bad night for “Shamrock” in LondonA dramatic decline in a name’s prestigeFri Dec 20 2024 - 18:58
Kiss of Death? – Frank McNally on the rise and fall of mistletoeThe plant and its associated kissing custom continue to be rare hereThu Dec 19 2024 - 18:59
O Holy Fright – Frank McNally on an ‘uplifting’ carol serviceThe world premiere of David Stifter’s hymn, set to music by Ryan Molloy, was a triumphWed Dec 18 2024 - 18:58
Keeping it lit – Frank McNally on attending the global premiere of GloomsdayThe chronological aphelion of BloomsdayTue Dec 17 2024 - 18:58
Decayed Centenary - Frank McNally on the history of Irish brain rotA rather uninspired choice as Oxford University Press word of the year? Maybe notFri Dec 13 2024 - 19:00
The Eyes Have It - Frank McNally on the feast day of St LucyThe name Lucy shares its origins with the word lux, Latin for light, so it’s no coincidence her feast day coincides with the darkest time of the yearThu Dec 12 2024 - 19:00
No Bloom at the Inn – Frank McNally on the delayed debut of a new (and old) Dublin pubI just hope the ghost of Burton’s most famous non-customer has not entered an objectionWed Dec 11 2024 - 19:00
Leap in the dark — Frank McNally on the obscure origins of an Irish religious insult Religious ‘jumpers’ seem to have been largely associated with the far west of IrelandFri Dec 06 2024 - 18:57
Prose and Con — Frank McNally on the rise and fall of a famous local newspaperIn its brief existence, The Taxpayers’ News achieved the distinction of giving John B Keane his print debutThu Dec 05 2024 - 18:59
Souper imposed - Frank McNally on Famine insults and Flann O’Brien’s debt to Con HoulihanUnder the influenceWed Dec 04 2024 - 18:59
Pint of order – Frank McNally on getting to the ballot box At 9.30pm, mid-pint – and mid-point too – I tore myself away to voteTue Dec 03 2024 - 18:59
For the birds — Frank McNally on folklorist and freedom fighter Ernie O’MalleyAn evocative writerFri Nov 29 2024 - 18:58
Swift justice – Frank McNally on the height of the Drapier’s Letters controversy Jonathan Swift also fanned the flames with songs and poems written for a popular audienceThu Nov 28 2024 - 18:58
Parallel projection – Frank McNally on watching Gladiator II and Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat back-to-backExtreme violence and European imperialismWed Nov 27 2024 - 18:59
When hospitality begins at home – Frank McNally on having a great welcome for yourselfThe great self-extended welcome seems relatively modernTue Nov 26 2024 - 18:58
Conflict of many colours – Frank McNally on a finely illustrated atlas of the Civil WarOn a colour-coded map, Kerry’s grim ratio of deaths is represented by a shade that looks like dried bloodFri Nov 15 2024 - 18:59
Lunar quest – Frank McNally on moon missions, misinformed quiz questions, and mountweazelsRevenge of the anoraksThu Nov 14 2024 - 18:59
The Dromcollogher cinema fire disaster – Frank McNally on a fateful day in 1926The death toll of 48 represented a tenth of the village’s populationThu Nov 14 2024 - 10:18
A Head of its time – Frank McNally on the bicentenary of Howth Road and more about wakesI now belatedly realise that the road starts in LondonFri Nov 08 2024 - 18:58
Alive and kicking – Frank McNally on the continued survival of the great Irish wakeThere were of course mountains of food brought by friends and neighboursThu Nov 07 2024 - 18:59
Ogham thoughts – Frank McNally on a new artwork, an old alphabet, and the longest word in IrishThe scribes of medieval Ireland, unlike Sinatra, never found their regrets too few to mentionWed Nov 06 2024 - 18:58
Imposter Boy – Frank McNally on another appearance of the Flann O’Brien who wasn’tA case of mistaken identity in the Devonshire ArmsMon Nov 04 2024 - 14:47
Push notification — Frank McNally on an “offensive” cycling term that refuses to dieThere is, for some cyclists, a principled objection to the term “push-bikes”Thu Oct 31 2024 - 18:58
Pork scratchings – Frank McNally on racist piggy banks, the decline of thrift, and the joy of building playgroundsAs he swallowed the money, Paddy rolled his eyes in delightWed Oct 30 2024 - 18:59
Anyone for Tennyson? Frank McNally on the lesser-known Charge of the Heavy Brigade, 170 years ago this weekendUnlike the celebrated catastrophe later the same morning, that was a success, although whether it was a charge at all is debatableFri Oct 25 2024 - 19:00
Skeleton service - Frank McNally on why horses’ heads (and the occasional saint) used to be buried under buildingsThe foundation sacrificeThu Oct 24 2024 - 19:00
Red Letter Day — Frank McNally on the Zinoviev Letter, an ‘October Surprise’ of 1924How decisive the letter really was is still debatedWed Oct 23 2024 - 18:58
Schmuck spreader – Frank McNally on the unholy resonance of an old Christian hymnSchmuck was once considered so offensive that people had to invent a politer alternativeTue Oct 22 2024 - 18:59
Old Haunt - Frank McNally on the sinister past of a Dublin street gardenA part of Ballybough that was once shunned by superstitious localsFri Oct 18 2024 - 18:58
Going Undercover – Frank McNally on an exhibition about the Irish of the French RésistanceA fitting venueWed Oct 16 2024 - 18:59
