Here are my worst Christmases to help you feel better about your own
I worked in festive retail for many years and have a few tales to tell
Brianna Parkins columns
I worked in festive retail for many years and have a few tales to tell
Danny Dyer becoming the sex symbol of 2025 was not on anyone’s bingo card but it proves how radically the female gaze swerves from its male counterpart
Top of the list are people who don’t vote. How dare they whinge about how things are run if they haven’t done the one thing that could have influenced it?
I am quietly awed by Nikita Hand and others like her who stand up outside a courthouse to address the media
What are opponents to voting abroad so afraid of? The explanations of ‘it’s too hard’ or ‘it’s too risky’ feel threadbare and lazy
What better way to spend a hot sunny day than in the park, staking out two strange couples’ proposals?
The girl sprinting for the ferry in Sydney late on a Saturday night was meanly cut off, prompting an unusual display of social solidarity
Our relationship, one of the happiest of my life, was largely contingent on the fact we have the radiators on all day
Is this how it feels to have been a man for the best part of the 20th century? Because it’s been pretty great
If you’re the only person you know who’s gone to university it can be isolating trying to find your way with no one to guide you
There’s an odd sort of morality tied to doing hard things, even if they are entirely unnecessary
A rake of pints. Sure look, you know yourself. Yer man. The unique joy of Hiberno-English should be celebrated, never taken for granted
Home improvement TV breathes undeserved confidence into a generation of flippers
I’ll have to introduce my neighbours to fluffy house socks, squirty cream in a can and the cultural importance of the Real Housewives series
The Rose of Tralee is all well and good, but expecting one competition to laud all deserving Irish women might be asking a bit too much
Young Irish people don’t need an insulting €750 tax break; they need reasons to feel hopeful again
I have seen so many good women drained by men who could not or would not meet them at their level
Brianna Parkins: Sometimes, when you’re a big distance from home, it’s the small things that give you comfort
It is very crowded between me, my partner and the GAA but I’ll still be in a pub wearing an ugly bucket hat at 2am next week, watching my partner’s mistress on telly
You will need patience, resilience and the self-control required not to headbutt the public
It’s rarely a good idea to get what your young heart desires. I would have been negative craic with terrible tattoos and a vacuous existence
Case of Natasha O’Brien shows up keyboard warriors who want to frighten women, to shut us up, to stop us from calling men out on their behaviour
I recently overheard a woman utter a magic incantation that would banish having to put myself out against my own will. It changed me forever
This country teased a lightness out of me. But so many people leaving Ireland for Australia is down to more than sunshine
Brianna Parkins: You have to pay close attention to nature: young women shivering in dresses, people milling awkwardly outside pubs, lads with their tops off
Footpath etiquette and turning coworking spaces into libraries should also feature in manifestos
Brianna Parkins: Since the invention of cameras, people have been acting badly in front of them and this project was never going to be the exception
How one word can become a battle line of domestic warfare between the sexes
Scant resources and a housing crisis have made us narrow our eyes in suspicion at each other
Opportunities can come from realising that no one knows what they’re doing a lot of the time
A professional ADHD-haver offers a guide for the neurodiverse on how to deal with everyone else
This list will make you ponder what you could have done after a break-up instead of sitting around the house moping
Brianna Parkins: The kid question is not really a straight request for information. It’s asking someone ‘please justify to me why your life does not look like mine’
His face remains unimpressed on the red carpet, in press interviews and meeting members of the British royal family
Home might not be quiet or relaxing or emotionally stable but it’s still where I sleep best
The cleaning guru has given up on her teachings since becoming a mother. It’s time we bring back display cabinets filled with treasures
He doesn’t pull out his phone at a family gathering and subject the room to videos about cryptocurrency or his golf swing, but he will happily share his favourite YouTube clips about how planes land
Brianna Parkins: It’s any wonder women aren’t all screaming them into the void over the situation
It feels there’s been a gradual shift away from challenging bad behaviour in person
The best news, analysis and comment from The Irish Times business desk
Beware of the constant fear in Ireland of telling someone bad news. For example, instead of saying a restaurant is overbooked a manager might tell you they can find a table ‘in a bit’
Brianna Parkins: I’m on a slippery slope to becoming my grandmother, who has both her own room and a fierce loyalty to Lady Di
We already have a plausible explanation for Kate Middleton’s absence from UK public life: she’s playing drums with Slipknot
The usual research has been trotted out to back up marriage as the superior family structure, blurring the lines between causation and correlation
Brianna Parkins: It’s tiring hearing your inner voice say ‘do better’ every time you see a fitness blogger’s fridge or someone you went to school with go on a fancy holiday
One financial advice columnist didn’t think it could happen to her. Then it did
It might hurt to discover you’re a placeholder in a relationship, but who wants to waste years of their life not getting the partner they deserve?
Even though many have observed us up close in our natural habitat, they still don’t get our true ‘boganity’
I would once have argued for sending my hypothetical future daughter to an all-girls school. Not any more
Unlike Queen Mary, the rest of us won’t ‘marry up’ - no matter how many etiquette classes we take
Young girls on TikTok are terrified of getting older, but they have no idea how good the crone years can be
Surprise, surprise, it turns out more stuff is not what you need in your life
Like a lot of Irish people past and present, my family felt emigration was their best hope at a better life. They were right
Owning a sunbed in 2024 is a bit like insisting on using lead paint
Crosswords & puzzles to keep you challenged and entertained
Inquests into the nightclub fire that led to the deaths of 48 people
How does a post-Brexit world shape the identity and relationship of these islands
Weddings, Births, Deaths and other family notices