Seán Moncrieff: Tote bags offer a lesson on our imperfect responses to the climate crisisIf you’re feeling down about carbon emissions, take that feeling and stuff it into a tote bagSun Oct 13 2024 - 05:00
Seán Moncrieff: The woman in the car rental office was a black hole of emotion, sucking up feelings but giving nothing in return She told us the bill for the damage would be, rather neatly, €300 - plus a €50 ‘damage processing’ feeSun Oct 06 2024 - 05:00
My approach to college resulted in a just-about-scraped-a-pass degree. I regret nothingI regarded university as a resource to be used, not a place to be told what to doSun Sept 29 2024 - 05:00
Why do Irish people slather everything with insincere positivity?I’m far from the first person to notice this. Trying to be happy all the time will make you unhappySun Sept 22 2024 - 05:00
Daughter Number Two and partner finally found an apartment to rent. People keep asking what their secret isSeán Moncrieff: After an eight-month search to find a place pretty close to Dublin city centre Number Two and partner are thrilled beyond wordsSun Sept 15 2024 - 05:00
We wanted Daughter Number Four to experience something a bit more foreign. We got more than we bargained forNo one glared disapprovingly. Any looks we got were kindly, but perhaps tinged with: you didn’t know?Sun Sept 08 2024 - 05:00
Kids’ lives are being constrained by their parents’ fearsI’m wary of mythologising the past but still: children having the freedom to just go outside to play is better than driving them to playdatesSun Sept 01 2024 - 06:00
Why is everyone lugging huge water bottles about? Perhaps I’m gifted with an astonishing ability to resist thirstWhy is everyone lugging huge water bottles about? Perhaps I’m gifted with an astonishing ability to resist thirstSun Aug 25 2024 - 05:00
Misogyny is not wired into our DNA – it is something to be overcomeI like women now. Misogyny is not wired into our DNA – it is something to be overcomeSun Aug 18 2024 - 05:00
Too often our emotions – anger, frustration, fear – propel us to search for ‘facts’ to fit how we are feelingThere was a time – not too long ago – that we might roll our eyes and even feel a bit superior to Americans, given all the stupid things so many of them believeSun Aug 11 2024 - 05:00
Seán Moncrieff: Things in Ireland have got better. So why doesn’t it feel better? Seán Moncrieff: There is a human tendency to believe that things were better in the past. Not just in relation to pubs, but life in generalSun Aug 04 2024 - 05:00
My generation didn’t talk about mental health. We could be oblivious, or in denial, about the damage doneThe realisation dawns eventually that overthinking can derail joy, obscuring the fact that every day is preciousSun Jul 28 2024 - 05:00
It’s startling to see the towering regard so many Independent politicians have for themselvesSeán Moncrieff: It’s a neat trick: simultaneously criticising the ‘corrupt’ system while trying to become part of itSun Jul 21 2024 - 05:00
Seán Moncrieff: Day two of parental leave and we’ve already learned something newDay two of parental leave and we’d already learned something new. I’m looking forward to the rest of itSun Jul 14 2024 - 05:00
I’ve got sucked into stupid rows online and regretted it afterwards. So why keep going back for more?When social media first took off, it was presented as a public commons, where people could exchange ideas and interests. What it eventually became couldn’t be further from that civilised conceptSun Jul 07 2024 - 05:00
I come from a generation where it’s a given that the man will always have a toolboxThis is one aspect of being a man that can be benign and useful; even an expression of loveSun Jun 30 2024 - 05:00
Seán Moncrieff: I have no idea why a woman at a dinner party decided to tell this untrue story about meNothing brings people together like knowing another person who is a bit of a meltSun Jun 23 2024 - 05:00
A large swathe of the country looks at the 2 Johnnies and sees themselvesOn their last 2FM show, a notable theme emerged from listeners' voice notes: it was great to hear culchies on the radioSun Jun 16 2024 - 05:00
Passion overload: Is everyone really that excited about everything?The dawn of the passion-industrial complex has brought with it a sort of tyranny, especially for young peopleSun Jun 09 2024 - 05:00
Seán Moncrieff: Back in the day, the church had a role in making people feel better about themselvesWe’re better off now so less in need of supernatural explanations, but a family First Communion still felt significantSun Jun 02 2024 - 06:00
I have my reasons for not wanting to celebrate 20 years of my radio showSeán Moncrieff: I have a job which explicitly involves drawing attention to myself, but I don’t enjoy drawing attention to myselfSun May 26 2024 - 05:00
Seán Moncrieff: The day my daughter went into surgery is the day I failed herYou have to accept that at some point, you will fail your children, sometimes spectacularlySun May 19 2024 - 05:00
Seán Moncrieff: The gift of having the whole house to myself wasn’t really a gift at allI drank wine, played loud music and watched a movie in space where nobody talks about their feelings. Weirdly, it felt like something was missingSun May 12 2024 - 05:00
Seán Moncrieff: We all need some degree of privacy so we can quietly define ourselvesThe danger with this – whether you’re Taylor Swift or you have a dozen followers on Instagram – is that it can quickly become performativeSun May 05 2024 - 05:00
What does the word ‘woke’ really mean?The word now routinely comes out of the mouths of people from Kerry or Offaly. It’s like if you met Willie O’Dea and he said YoSun Apr 28 2024 - 05:00
Seán Moncrieff: As dull as it is, queuing isn’t just a cultural habit – it says something about society Even among kids, queue-jumping is frowned upon. They understand that the queue is essentially egalitarianSun Apr 21 2024 - 05:00
‘I’ve come to regard Psoriasis as a barometer on my general well-being’Seán Moncrieff: For some years I had a vague hope that it might go away forever. But I’m past that now. Psoriasis is part of meSun Apr 14 2024 - 05:00
Seán Moncrieff: To the British, the Irish aren’t really foreignThe British – or more specifically, the English – think of us as their fun cousins. The ones you want to sit with at weddingsSun Apr 07 2024 - 06:00
Sean Moncrieff: Why are Irish novelists so successful? Perhaps because they’re telling us the story of ourselvesThe family drama, particularly in the Irish context, can also operate as a powerful metaphorSun Mar 31 2024 - 05:00
Seán Moncrieff: We would prefer to destroy the world rather than stop being ourselvesIt’s only a few decades old, but our reliance on the internet is almost total: financially, structurally and emotionallySun Mar 24 2024 - 06:00
Seán Moncrieff: Marriages have ended because of this kind of thing, so we both know we have to take it seriouslyApparently, it gets worse the older you getSun Mar 17 2024 - 05:00
Seán Moncrieff: I’ve always liked the idea of prayer, even if I’m not sure whySometimes I talk to people, now dead, who made an imprint on my lifeSun Mar 10 2024 - 05:00
Sean Moncrieff: I’m trying to get to grips with Daughter Number Four’s sassy slangDaughter Number Four’s sassy slang is the start of a realisation that her generation is different to that of her embarrassing parentsSun Mar 03 2024 - 05:00
Seán Moncrieff: If you want to age well, have as much sex as possibleIf anything, older people should think more about their sex lives than the youngSun Feb 25 2024 - 05:00
Seán Moncrieff: I’m going to say goodbye to New York while I’m there – just in caseI love the city, as it is now – but I fear that might change. Pray that Prophet Song remains a work of fictionSun Feb 18 2024 - 04:00
Eurovision isn’t usually a synonym for subtle, yet it presents a surprisingly nuanced picture of our worldSean Moncrieff: Singers represent a country, but all too often they are of mixed heritage, of uncertain gender or no gender at all, yet still attract votes from competing countriesSun Feb 11 2024 - 05:00
Seán Moncrieff: Self-service tills are not quicker - could they actually be bad for our health?Every time – every single time – I get the 'approval needed' announcement and hear myself saying to some 20-year-old: I am desperate for your approvalSun Feb 04 2024 - 05:00
Seán Moncrieff: Parents don’t mould their children as much as they might like to thinkDaughter Number Four’s birthday became more of a birthday week, not with the usual play centre party, but a pampering sessionSun Jan 28 2024 - 05:00
Seán Moncrieff: This is a delicate matter, but Herself needs a sharp knife to feed her addictionsOurs are full of fancy corkscrews that don’t work, a slow cooker we never got the point of, a block of blunt knives – will we ever learn?Sun Jan 21 2024 - 06:00
Seán Moncrieff: ‘Centrist dads’ are the political version of the missionary position but they offer something valuableSeán Moncrieff: The centre ground can be a dull place but without it there’s less chance of change happeningSun Jan 14 2024 - 05:00
Seán Moncrieff: There’s a crushing pressure to be happy at ChristmasTry to remember many people aren’t Christmassy. So if they are a bit withdrawn or quiet, leave them beSat Dec 23 2023 - 05:00
Seán Moncrieff: What is it with young people wearing shorts in the cold and rain?They obviously don’t watch the nine o’clock news. They’re all TikTok and Instagram and think the stuff the old people look at is irrelevantSun Dec 17 2023 - 05:00
Seán Moncrieff: My cousin was cremated on the day of the riots. He’d have found a joke in there somewhereMy three cousins, all brothers, didn’t curse their genetic ill-fortune when cancer struck. They opted to remain themselves, to be funny and charming and tell storiesSun Dec 10 2023 - 05:00
Seán Moncrieff: In Somalia, the creepy crawlies are the least of their worriesWith climate change having a catastrophic effect on the region, it is no wonder Somalis aren’t bothered by insects. It’s people they should be scared ofSun Dec 03 2023 - 05:00
Seán Moncrieff: You’ve seen pictures of starving kids. But nothing prepares you for the up-close realityDid I have the mental fortitude to witness human depravity visited upon children in Somalia?Sun Nov 26 2023 - 05:00
Seán Moncrieff: The only time I met Gerry Adams he told me he likes to trampoline nakedSinn Féin's former president is happy to project an image of cheerful dottiness these days. How much this island has changedSun Nov 19 2023 - 10:30
Seán Moncrieff: I don’t want to have hobbies. Even the word makes me shudderIt’s too jolly hockey sticks; it smells of organised fun, it’s prescriptive: a way of filling up the time between work and sleep, to keep your mind off the screaming pointlessness of existenceSun Nov 12 2023 - 05:00
Seán Moncrieff: Myself and Herself look like quitting Netflix. Daughter Number Four may be the only reason it staysNetflix may survive our streaming cull. But a reckoning is comingSun Nov 05 2023 - 05:00
Seán Moncrieff: I wasn’t one of the victimised boys in my school. I was luckyIn the all-boys schools I attended, all the teachers – overwhelmingly male and often priests – would be rated for their teaching ability and inclination for viciousnessSun Oct 29 2023 - 05:00
Seán Moncrieff: We are like any other country now. Our difficulties are not specific to being IrishThat lack of self-confidence has dogged Ireland, not just in sport but in many aspects of our public lifeSun Oct 22 2023 - 05:00
