After the Bondi attack: ‘We would love to feel some love from Ireland,’ says Rabbi
Laura Kennedy meets Jewish community in Sydney: ‘We feel so hated by so many people across the world. The Irish … it’s painful’
Christmas can be a dissonant experience, like feeling miserable at Disneyland
It’s a strange time of year. We experience a lot of ‘how things ought to be’ clashing with ‘how things are’
The Christmas tree looks like the sort you slowly slide down a wall beside to have a cry
Christmas has the learned anticipation of childhood blended with adult disappointment that nothing magical has happened
My ‘neutral’ accent is now just another foreign voice from a country far away
We cringe at Irish people who develop a ‘twang’ and their yearning to belong
From snake bites to moth colonies: There’s shocking intensity to Australia’s natural world
I try to nurture a sense of awe in the face of Australia’s alien (to me) natural world. But I miss the wet ferns in the Kerry rain
‘Bondi is crumbling under the weight of Irish accents, I’ve heard more than I can count’
‘Nobody pays attention to how naked everybody is. Being Irish, I’m wearing jeans’
Visa changes mean leaving Ireland for a life in the US is suddenly much less feasible
Big changes in the US mean educated and professional workers must confront what working-class migrants have long endured
We need a more nuanced conversation about autism
Unthinkable: What was at one time a narrow, strictly medical diagnosis has shifted to encompass a cultural identity, an activists' cause and, apparently, a political talking point
Birds in Australia are like birds in Ireland, except almost certainly on cocaine
For the majority of the year, Australian magpies are good neighbours - in September and October, things change
Loving Ireland is easy. Living in it, not so much
Many Irish emigrants feel drawn to home. We need to give them more reasons to return
I am too negative about Ireland and too positive about Australia. I can’t please everyone
When you choose to move abroad, you accept the reality that life at home moves on without you
Awareness of your own biases is the best defence against misinformation
‘Much of what is thought of as the misinformation problem is really a mistrust problem’
Beware of the AI therapist. It tells us what we want to hear
Are you being flattered into fragility by your AI app?
Irish in Australia: ‘Assimilating isn’t easy, take this minor cultural difference when paying’
It’s easy for an Irish person to presume assimilating in Australia will be straightforward, but this isn’t always the case
The trouble with always having to be right
Unthinkable: Open-mindedness is a quality we claim to value. In reality, we discourage it