Kerry colossus: Denis McClean remembers Con Houlihan, a giant of Irish journalism
Waiting for Houlihan to reach his destination was part of the pleasure of reading the Castle Island native
An Irish Diary
An Irish Diary
Frank McNally: Investigating the mystery of the black stork’s Irish roots
This beautiful and shy bird is a rare visitor now, but that may not always have been the case
Bognor Bodies – Frank McNally on the Irish literary connections of an English seaside town
Its English origins stem from a holiday James Joyce and his family spent there in the summer of 1923
High note: Colette Sheridan on a unique exhibition celebrating 170 years of Cork Opera House
About 280 shows a year now take place at the venue, making for a quick turnover of acts
‘The cadet was now descending rapidly towards Cavan without any training in the use of a parachute’
The lesson for the day in question was how to deal with an aircraft when it stalled and went into a spin
Alison Healy on some regrettable wedding celebration traditions
Pelting newly married couples with cabbage stalks never seemed like the best idea
Ray Burke on the legacy of multi-talented doctor and author Oliver St John Gogarty
He and his wife ran Renvyle House near Clifden for 35 years, a labour of much love
Bitter Harvest – Frank McNally on the darker side of farming in Flanders and the Somme
Body parts are still being found, exhumed, and if possible identified
Fields of Gold – Frank McNally on the rise and fall of a colourful Monaghan family
Theirs was an old English surname, derived from proximity to cornfields or work as a harvester
Is Slowvember the solution to the Black Friday shopping frenzy?
There may be another way to support the local economy while not becoming a Christmas grinch
A stranger in a pub in Spain hugged me like we were old friends after Parrott’s heroics
In the ensuing mayhem, a man I’d never met before hugged me like we were old friends
Smug in the snug: Why November brings me back to early evening pints in cosy Dublin pubs
I was obviously not the first person to think like this
You know you are getting old when... Alison Healy on life’s reminders of age
Some of us prefer to ignore those little signposts that we are hurtling along the highway of life
An Irish Diary on the Jacobs Awards and Gabriel Byrne’s service to sheep farmers
Awards were sponsored by a biscuit bakery and presided over by broadcaster and agony aunt Frankie Byrne
Nature shows us the world is what we perceive it to be
It is possible to be upside down and downside up at the same time
Irish couple to stage six-hour-long Beckett play with no punctuation at Venice Biennale
Husband-and-wife duo, actor Conor Lovett and director Judy Hegarty Lovett, will bring 10 performances at the 18th century Palazzo Diedo
Ronan McGreevy on the most damaging leak in Irish history
The Morning Post’s scoop on the Boundary Commission was a profound shock to the Free State government
The strange case of Dr Achmet Borumborad and his Dublin-based Turkish baths
By all accounts, he was a likable chap and women compared their husbands most unfavourably to him
Firm friends: Finola Kennedy on a remarkable friendship between the founder of the Legion of Mary and former president WT Cosgrave
Frank Duff never forgot Cosgrave’s support for the lay Catholic organisation he founded in 1921
Ring of untruth – Frank McNally on how the Irish language gave ‘phoney’ to English
A link with telephones was also suspected
Rock of Ages – Frank McNally on the shock of punk turning 50
Sid Vicious had been included in the Sex Pistols mainly for his comic-scary appearance
Adolf Mahr: Frank McNally on the confused reputation of an Austrian Nazi in 1930s Ireland
When he tried to resume his old job in Dublin after the war, he was no longer welcome
Thwarted hotel development keeps doors closed at Dublin pub
121 years after Leopold Bloom ‘pushed in the door of the Burton’, public house doesn’t know where it stands
Former MEP and Greenpeace activist Grace O’Sullivan’s Antarctic legacy is at risk
Grace O’Sullivan was one of four activists handcuffed and transferred to a warship by French commandos near nuclear test site
‘Stop, that’s my case’ - Áine Ryan on adventures on the Westport non-express
I was joined by two young bucks worse for wear and, in the case of the one ... appear to be experiencing some very psychedelic thoughts
Flying columnist – Frank McNally on a lightning visit to Leeside
He studied me a second, as if trying to assess if I was a Dublin jackeen out to make a feck of him
The Death of Reilly - Frank McNally on the demise of ‘Reilly, Ace of Spies’ 100 years ago
Russian-born intelligence agent who called himself Sidney Reilly, and inspired James Bond, made use of several Irish cover identities
Daily Telegraph’s agony aunt faces a conundrum – a mother worried that her son is turning ‘Irish’
We are well used in this country to visitors outdoing us in the performative aspects of Irishness
‘This is a godforsaken place’: A despairing letter from a garda stationed in Tipperary in 1940
Written in the outpost of Rearcross, the letter is a bleak portrait of human misery worthy of Samuel Beckett
After thousands of years of philosophy, the meaning of life can be summed up in a word
We are hardwired into believing life, like the sentences we utter, must make sense
Regal with a severe ponytail: the six foot tall first lady of Irish ballet
Joan Denise Moriarty’s legacy lives on through Ballet Week in Cork
Camera Obscura: An exhibition of ‘secret’ photography at Kilmainham Gaol
The Prisoners’ Lens shows theatrical staged scenes which remind us that the events of 1916 were inspired by playwrights and actors as well as poets
Why the GAA fell in and out of love with Charles Stewart Parnell
His early patronage of the fledgling organisation could not withstand the Katharine O’Shea scandal
How Nancy Spain became the unlikely heroine of an Irish folk classic
Christy Moore’s haunting song immortalised the woman Nancy Spain
What’s another year? Frank McNally on the rise of a new tautology
Words that were doing a perfectly good job are suddenly deemed to need prefixes
Mountmellick embroidery has helped keep Ireland’s craft heritage alive for 200 years
At a museum in Co Laois, volunteers and visitors continue a 200-year-old tradition of white-on-white needlework
Ireland’s deep cultural connections with the French capital and France itself
A visit to Parisl can be restorative and energising, as it brings to mind so much shared history
Laughing for Ireland? Frank McNally on Bobby Sands and Kneecap
Sands would surely have approved of the rap band’s success in helping make Irish fashionable with the young
Faithful departure: Frank McNally on a belated first visit to Knock Airport, 40 years on
I had to marvel briefly at its location, on a hilltop bog halfway between Charlestown and nowhere
Joseph O’Connor on celebrating a Kerry priest who became a war-time hero
He assembled a network of activists that hid thousands of fugitives, including many escaped Allied prisoners of war
A rock in a hard place: Frank McNally hunts an elusive ancient monument in Mayo
Natural monolith covered with carvings suggests Croagh Patrick was an object of pilgrimage long before Christianity
Frank McNally: A History of Ireland in a Hundred Hyperboles
A catalogue of 100 colourful expressions, myths, legends and sayings
Mother nature: The mystery animal was bright-eyed, bushy-tailed and hanging about for no one
Fionnuala Ward: Encounter may have been influenced by a podcast about the Loch Ness Monster
Old Men of the Canal – Frank McNally on the herons of Percy Place
There is something military-looking about the birds’ appearance
Roots and Branch: Alex Haley’s lesser known Irish heritage
The Roots author’s follow-up novel Queen traces five generations of a second branch of his ancestry back to a town in Co Monaghan
A Feast of Festy: A new lease of life for a colourful Irish name
Festus, from the Latin for ‘joyful’, is a popular boy’s name in Nigeria
Not raising hell: An insight into Limerick-born actor Richard Harris’s lesser known life
His career included playing the part of Dumbledore in the first two Harry Potter movies
Michael Dervan on how opera composer Gioachino Rossini and Ireland are intertwined
From Dublin’s Theatre Royal in 1829 to Wexford’s modern stages, the Italian’s spirit remains woven into Irish operatic history
Up Crockery Mountain, Dungarvan’s smashing monument to too much stuff
Sean Corcoran’s idea of recycling cups and plates into an artwork has become a wall sculpture worthy of the Guggenheim
Lips Sealed - Frank McNally on a mysterious facial feature, the philtrum
Now it’s just a vestige of evolution, with no apparent function.
Cast a Cold Eye – Frank McNally on the monuments, republican and otherwise, of Tipperary
Divorced of importance it later acquired, was original War of Independence event worthy of pride?
Our Man in Havana – Frank McNally on a forgotten Irishman honoured in Cuba
James Joseph O’Kelly was also, for a brief period, a man of two wives
Charlie Tango – Frank McNally on revisiting the Charlie Hebdo massacre 10 years on
In keeping with a low-budget production, the movie was projected onto a make-shift screen
Mutual admiration: Anti-slavery campaigner Frederick Douglass and his connections to Daniel O’Connell and Ireland
O’Connell introduced him as the ‘black O’Connell of the United States’
Crosswords & Puzzles
Crosswords & puzzles to keep you challenged and entertained
Stardust
Inquests into the nightclub fire that led to the deaths of 48 people
Common Ground
How does a post-Brexit world shape the identity and relationship of these islands
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Weddings, Births, Deaths and other family notices