First Look: Inside Ireland’s first Lego store, on Grafton StreetA giant camogie player, the Poolbeg chimneys, the Aviva Stadium... You won’t forget you’re in DublinWed Aug 17 2022 - 13:20
There is always one toy from childhood – random but somehow special – that you never forgetClearing out my family attic, we were sweating and crying and laughing and cursing, sometimes all at the same timeWed Aug 17 2022 - 05:00
That Marty Whelan tattoo? If I were Gay Byrne, up in heaven, I’d be very annoyed Rosita Boland: Phil O’Kelly lost a bet. I’d say he’s paying a high price for itTue Aug 16 2022 - 13:29
The 10 ‘future lights’ of Irish craft, from knife-makers to ceramicistsA new book showcases the work of some of the newer members of the Design and Craft Council of IrelandSat Aug 13 2022 - 05:00
21-degree seawater, blue sky above: A glorious swim in Clontarf Baths, now open to allRosita Boland takes a dip in the beautiful seawater pool, previously accessible only to club membersFri Aug 12 2022 - 05:10
Rosita Boland: On the train to Galway, something happened that I have waited my whole life to see‘The train is moving!’ the Son cried out. It’s weird and endearing to hear a middle-aged man refer to his mother in public as ‘Mammy’Wed Aug 10 2022 - 05:00
36 hours in Kenmare: ‘It’s the opposite of Killarney. People are still very friendly here’Margaret Thatcher’s grandmother came from the town, which is not something the Iron Lady who once proclaimed, 'You can’t trust the Irish, they are all liars', ever advertisedSat Aug 06 2022 - 05:00
36 hours in Galway: It’s the hottest day of the year, and Salthill is stuffedTourists move in slow motion. There are 10,000 people in the sea and on the beachesSun Jul 31 2022 - 05:30
36 hours in Kilkee, Co Clare: It used to take months to sell a house here. Now it’s weeksNovelist Charlotte Brontë spent her honeymoon at this ‘glorious watering place’ in 1854Sat Jul 23 2022 - 06:00
36 hours on Rathlin Island: ‘I like the life here. There is no crime’‘It’s staggering to see so many seabirds so close by, and in such detail. I am absolutely enthralled: it is an astonishing experience’Sat Jul 09 2022 - 11:15
The family of Ireland’s former richest man eludes publicityThe wife of Pallonji Mistry, the businessman who died this week, was born in a Dublin nursing homeThu Jun 30 2022 - 16:47
Remembering Tiggy Hancock: The life and tragic death of a 15-year-old eventing champion‘The pain will never go away’: On the anniversary of the much-missed girl’s tragic death, Rosita Boland meets the Hancock familySat Jun 18 2022 - 06:00
Treasured possession: Queen Elizabeth’s coronation menu from 1953 finds way into Irish homeFestivities took place in Quaglino’s Restaurant in London on this day in 1953Thu Jun 02 2022 - 15:48
Rosita Boland on Dervla Murphy: ‘I never interviewed anyone who lived in such an unusual way’The late writer was ‘a unit of one’, fearless and singular, I learned in our two interviewsTue May 24 2022 - 05:00
‘Would you like to visit my grave?’ The farmer planning a home burialMartin Neary has permission to be buried on his own lands in Co Mayo when he diesSat May 14 2022 - 06:01
Ireland’s oldest family shops: ‘We traded through the Famine’How do you stay open for more than a century? Own your premises, offer excellent customer service and keep up with the timesSat Apr 16 2022 - 06:00
Sara Baume: ‘I’ll never have kids, and I’m lucky to be with a man who feels the same’The writer on moving to a remote place, living precariously and not wanting childrenSat Apr 02 2022 - 05:00
Rosita Boland: I could hear the boss say – ‘She’s Irish, and she’s really stupid’'My wedding had just been cancelled. I had just been publicly humiliated... I felt so worthless'Thu Mar 31 2022 - 06:00
Shoes, then toys, then clothes: The three most popular items for Ukrainian refugeesThe Art of Coffee chain has set up a charity centre in Dublin for refugees from UkraineThu Mar 24 2022 - 17:40
Rosita Boland: When the email went unanswered I felt a rising dreadMy friend of old had given me a gift. She asked the most insightful of questionsThu Mar 24 2022 - 06:00
Rosita Boland: I was only locked out of my hotel. Imagine being locked out of your countryMillions are out in the cold, unable to return to the places they left their thingsThu Mar 17 2022 - 06:00
‘Russian global rocket threat’: Irish Times front pages from St Patrick’s Days pastRosita Boland reads March 17th front pages of The Irish Times from 1942 to 2012Wed Mar 16 2022 - 06:00
Rosita Boland: I never bothered with Mother’s Day before. Now it stabs at meThe death of your mother gradually nibbles into the life you must continue afterwardsThu Mar 10 2022 - 06:00
Rosita Boland: Is the Van Gogh Museum one enormous shop masquerading as a gallery?At what point does the frantic volume of the merchandise begin to cheapen the work it represents?Thu Mar 03 2022 - 06:00
The Irish-born girl flying gliders solo: ‘Going to Mars is my dream’Irish-born teen Ishitha Arekapudi is flying solo in the US, but wants to go higherFri Feb 25 2022 - 06:00
Rosita Boland: My friend’s elderly mother had her dog stolen – it’s haunted me ever sinceGiven that so many of us have pets, Irish society should be more dog-friendlyThu Feb 24 2022 - 06:00
The late summer murders: Two men on a mission to kill Irish womenIn 1976, the career criminals travelled around Ireland, abducting, raping and murdering womenSat Feb 19 2022 - 06:00
Rosita Boland: ‘You’re single now, but you’ll meet someone,’ the mortgage adviser saidAs I sat there in front of this man, I felt rage, humiliation and amazementThu Feb 17 2022 - 06:00
Rosita Boland: Want to keep your husband alive? Stop demanding new sofasAccording to a 1962 guide, women should stop placing ‘burdens’ on men to buy thingsThu Feb 10 2022 - 06:00
Rosita Boland: I broke the rules. And it all worked out perfectlyGreen shoots of hope as Micheál Martin told us – rightly – ‘Today is a good day’Thu Feb 03 2022 - 06:00
An open secret: Ireland’s lunatic asylums and mental hospitalsTens of thousands of people were resident in institutions – often for decadesSat Jan 29 2022 - 06:00
Rosita Boland: I’ll be spending the long bank holiday weekend travelling everywhereThe ability to travel has never seemed more of a privilegeThu Jan 27 2022 - 06:00
Rosita Boland: I sincerely hope my terrifying panic attacks never returnFor six months, I experienced severe and prolonged panic attacks, night and dayTue Jan 25 2022 - 06:01
In praise of the new ‘bank holiday’ on March 18thRosita Boland: The day, making for a fantastically long weekend, has finally been announcedThu Jan 20 2022 - 11:52
Rosita Boland: The odd feeling of staying in a hotel in the town where you grew upHotel excels in friendly customer service when a stray cat is offered a four-star homeThu Jan 20 2022 - 06:00
Prince Andrew now has three options, none of them goodThe reputation of Queen Elizabeth’s second-eldest son seems unlikely to recoverSat Jan 15 2022 - 06:00
Rosita Boland: Heads roll over a shared love of kitschA Marie Antoinette doll, a plastic cow head, a Jesus money box form are the glue that binds a firm friendshipThu Jan 13 2022 - 06:00
The crash of Rescue 111: ‘The worst silence I ever heard in all my life’Four men died when an Air Corps helicopter struck dunes in Tramore in 1999. This is their storySat Jan 08 2022 - 06:00
Rosita Boland: ‘Am I annoying you, love?’ If you’re asking, you already knowDon’t call me love, and other maddening conversations with strangersThu Jan 06 2022 - 06:00
Death during Covid: My father said goodbye to his wife of 65 years from the doorstepThe call came from the hospital: ‘One family member can go in for 10 minutes, in full PPE’Sat Jan 01 2022 - 06:00
Rosita Boland: Two things I am grateful for this yearMy iPad and audiobooks are two wonderful things salvaged from a year I’d prefer to forgetThu Dec 30 2021 - 06:00
Rosita Boland: I swore I’d never get a dog for Christmas. Then I got oneBoo took one look at me and hid under the Christmas tree, a bauble in her mouthThu Dec 23 2021 - 06:00
Rosita Boland: I just couldn’t order a sandwich called the Italian StallionHow about a Porn Star Martini? No thanks. Normalising sexual innuendoes on menus is not okayThu Dec 16 2021 - 06:00
The right way to ensure a farm inheritance doesn’t go wrongKeeping the contents of a will secret only increases the conflict later, experts warnSat Dec 11 2021 - 06:00
Rosita Boland: A case of the customer being clearly in the wrongThe customer is said to be always right but sometimes that’s just untrueThu Dec 09 2021 - 06:00
Airport Covid checks: I followed the rules and had a test. Not a single official looked at it todayFirst we couldn’t upload our test results. Then only ‘one passenger in 20’ was being checkedMon Dec 06 2021 - 16:15
Rosita Boland: ‘I was phoning Cat. Don’t tell anyone,’ my aunt saidMy aunt used to telephone her pet to keep it company, and I kept her secretThu Dec 02 2021 - 06:00
Rosita Boland: Our defunct corner shop wasn’t fancy but it has left a gaping holeA derelict building in any city is a building with no soulThu Nov 25 2021 - 06:00
I’ve eaten roadkill, kangaroo and cormorant, but there’s one meat I won’t touchRosita Boland: I went feral while hitching across Australia, but still couldn’t stomach some foodsMon Nov 22 2021 - 13:00
Rosita Boland: The road trip that turned me into a born-again foragerHow shamefully ignorant we are about the free, wild larder around us in IrelandThu Nov 18 2021 - 06:00
