Our Columnists
‘I’ve realised the people in Tullamore are calm and kind’
- April 7, 2021
New to the Parish: Phathisani Nkomo, a teacher, arrived in Ireland from Zimbabwe in 2019
Róisín Ingle: Dear Sister – Shame on the men of Dingle who praised your rapist
- April 7, 2021
Those of us who have been sexually assaulted understand what you have been through
Gangland crime: The forgotten murder of Marioara Rostas
- April 4, 2021
The abduction and killing of a Romanian teen in Dublin was never seen as a ‘big’ story
Ross O’Carroll-Kelly: My opening line in the Irish oral was ‘Bonjour’. I never recovered
- April 3, 2021
Honor devises a rugbaí-based strategy as Ross attempts the exam for the second time
Sarah McInerney: ‘I had no ambition ... until very recently’
- April 3, 2021
The Barna native looks back on her career to date before her move to Prime Time next week
Kamala Harris: ‘Being vice-president? I kind of like it’
- April 3, 2021
Suzanne Lynch flies high on Air Force Two with the US vice-president
Sean Moncrieff: Please! Anything but the eyes!
- April 3, 2021
It was time for me to pull on my Big Boy pants and consider contact lenses
Hilary Fannin: Stumbling into the grim old Good Friday vortex
- April 2, 2021
You can’t have a Marietta biscuit because that’s just more salt in poor Jesus’s wounds
My dinner guests will need reminding of how to behave in Good Society
- March 31, 2021
Rosita Boland: My servants are all on the pandemic unemployment payment
Róisín Ingle: You have to be careful about optics these days. Well, some of us do
- March 31, 2021
Three generations of the family reach Cat on a Hot Tin Roof phase of lockdown
Return of the penpal: ‘It feels nice to spread some joy around the place’
- March 30, 2021
American in Dublin Liz Maguire has accrued an astonishing 80-plus penpals in the last year alone
Ross O’Carroll Kelly: ‘The judge tells us – in, like, legal language – to shut the fock up’
- March 27, 2021
The old man tells the court he broke lockdown and refuses ‘to live under your mortial law!’
Sean Moncrieff: The Irish are in danger of losing their superpower
- March 27, 2021
We are getting sucked into a binary view of the world: life isn’t black or white; it’s grey
‘We’re Muslim and we’re just like you’: The women taking care of Dublin’s homeless
- March 27, 2021
The Muslim Sisters of Éire feed hundreds of people in need at Dublin's GPO every Friday night
I’m envious of people’s love of coffee, but I remain resolutely Team Tea
- March 27, 2021
Tanya Sweeney: When Covid happened, coffee drinking almost seemed mandatory
Hilary Fannin: A lockdown sex scene on my local beach
- March 26, 2021
Arching her back, the hot sand mimicking the burning in her loins, the woman gazed into his eyes
‘From the suffering in Aleppo to a peaceful place here in Ireland’
- March 24, 2021
New to the Parish: Ahmad Muselmani arrived from Syria, via Greece, in 2016
Rosita Boland: A tiny cardboard Galway is not the one I want
- March 24, 2021
In the late 1990s I built my own Galway, roaming the city day and night
Róisín Ingle: I decide to check flights arriving and departing on the Dublin Airport site
- March 24, 2021
I feel like a peeping Tom, sticking my nose into the lives of people going beyond 5km
Why women never use the monkey emoji – and men send aubergines
- March 22, 2021
Studies point to a gender gap – but the findings don’t always match stereotypes
‘It’s like a wedding during the war’: A day in the life of a registry office
- March 21, 2021
Covid restrictions mean only six can attend – including the bride and groom
Tanya Sweeney: Why am I so nervous about the ‘new normal’?
- March 20, 2021
Will meeting friends be an anticlimax? Going to a gig overwhelming?
Ross O’Carroll-Kelly: ‘We’re not a priority for the vaccine.’ ‘Even though we’re rich?’
- March 20, 2021
Honor learns money can't buy everything as Ross and Sorcha purge their friend lists
Eddie O’Connor: From ‘leading polluter in Ireland’ to renewables pioneer
- March 20, 2021
Eddie O’Connor has become a global player as the decarbonisation crusade rolls out
‘It’s a little bit scary’: A night in Dublin’s locked-down city centre
- March 20, 2021
Patrick Freyne meets the people who now inhabit Dublin’s ‘sad but beautiful’ centre
Sean Moncrieff: Of course most men are not rapists. Why does this need to be said?
- March 20, 2021
As women shared stories of rape and assault, they were met with #notallmen
Just remind yourself: ‘I’m a covetous cretin, but my generosity with gin is legendary!’
- March 19, 2021
Hilary Fannin: In emulation of the vernal equinox tomorrow, try my enlightenment exercise
‘I wear the double green shirts – Ireland and Pakistan’
- March 17, 2021
New to the Parish: Kamal Merchant arrived from Pakistan in 1983 to play Irish cricket
Michael Harding: How a car crash in Mullingar helped reawaken my soul
- March 17, 2021
The wild edge of Canada was covered in snow and sunlight bounced off the white land
Róisín Ingle: We sang our hearts out for St Patrick’s Day – Molly Malone, Ride On, Ireland’s Call
- March 17, 2021
Not to rain on your virtual parade, but I never expected another pandemic Patrick's Day
Eddie Izzard: ‘I’ve been promoted to she, and it’s a great honour’
- March 16, 2021
The actor and comic on making her pronouns permanent and shouting down abuse
When Fontaines DC met Bohemian FC: ‘Homelessness can be solved’
- March 13, 2021
A football club and rock band join forces: ‘Homelessness can’t be something we accept’
Meghan and Harry: How can the royal family survive the Oprah allegations?
- March 13, 2021
The charge of racism undermines the royal family as a symbol of unity in a multicultural society
‘We consider it a sport’: The Irish-dancing brothers taking over TikTok
- March 13, 2021
US-born, Galway-based Gardiner brothers post Irish-dancing videos for half a million followers
That’s not my name: Why getting the pronunciation right matters
- March 13, 2021
Whether traditional Irish or of an ethnic minority, names should be pronounced correctly
Sean Moncrieff: Need help from the Government? It’s survival of the slickest
- March 13, 2021
You don’t get help based on your level of need, but how polished your messaging is
Tanya Sweeney: We shouldn’t let lunch hour become extinct
- March 13, 2021
Skipping your daily lunch hour means missing out on five hours of ‘me time’ a week
Yemi Adenuga and Uruemu Adejinmi: Making a mark in Irish politics
- March 13, 2021
‘We have no shortage of migrants. I’d like to see them run in every electoral area’
‘I urge you all – standing here, in the People’s Pork – to remove your masks!’
- March 13, 2021
Ross O’Carroll-Kelly: Mask-off in Dún Laoghaire as the old man leads an anti-lockdown march
Hilary Fannin: The St Patrick’s Day parade taught me I was Irish
- March 12, 2021
I didn’t understand why people stood in the drizzle to view Massey Fergusons
Michael Harding: I’m afraid of the sea, horses and dense woods
- March 10, 2021
I’m not sentimental about nature. In fact I’ve always been fearful of it
‘As far as any place would feel like home, that would be Cork’
- March 10, 2021
New to the Parish: Jared Peters arrived from the United States, via Canada, in 2012
Róisín Ingle: Social distancing, the 2m kind, is so 2020
- March 10, 2021
This Level 5 is very different from the first, hardcore one. We’re not as scared
Laura Whitmore: ‘I’ve had enough of being trivialised and gossiped about’
- March 6, 2021
The TV presenter on pregnancy, celebrity, her new book and the ‘tough place’ that is London
Ireland’s young adults on dating, youth-blaming and being bored
- March 6, 2021
On Zoom, four people aged 19-25 discuss what they have lost – and gained – from Covid-19
‘He strangled me to the point where I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t scream’
- March 6, 2021
Solicitor Sarah Grace wants the system to change for sexual assault survivors like her
Tanya Sweeney: When the gossip stops, you know it’s true love
- March 6, 2021
With most of my friends in relationships, the curtain is down on glorious dating talk
Helping hand: Initiative to help mothers in direct provision
- March 6, 2021
Matching mothers to pass on the tradition of handing down baby essentials
Ross O’Carroll-Kelly: ‘We’d be a lot better off if we’d remained port of Britain’
- March 6, 2021
‘Credit where it’s due, they just know how to organise things better than we do’
Sean Moncrieff: I’m addicted to postal tracking
- March 6, 2021
Frontline workers have put in super-human efforts throughout the pandemic
A woman’s life: ‘I got married at 16. I’ve nine kids. I don’t worry’
- March 6, 2021
Women and girls of all ages on equality, happiness, social media and life in Ireland today
Hilary Fannin: The wild night out my party jacket never had
- March 5, 2021
It could’ve ended up crumpled and pungent on my bedroom floor, smelling of beer and vinegar
Mother’s Day gifts: 30 Irish websites and present ideas to order in time for March 14th
- March 5, 2021
Lockdown doesn’t mean the Irish mammy’s big day should go unmarked this year
Michael Harding: ‘Thank you for your love,’ I wrote to a friend. Then I tore it up
- March 3, 2021
I tried writing letters, but during lockdown they became too intense and sincere
New to the Parish: Abdullah Afghan and Fatima Abdullah arrived from Afghanistan via Pakistan
- March 3, 2021
Róisín Ingle: I told my children about my new handsome friend. They accused me of cheating
- March 3, 2021
I told him I sometimes run away from my family. For health reasons. We laughed
Sean Moncrieff: Who is behind the lockdown plot? The broadband companies, obviously
- February 27, 2021
‘The closest our 5-year-old can get to playing with someone her own age is to watch it on a screen’
‘We can’t just dump our rubbish in the gorden. It’s the Vico Road – there’ll be meetings’
- February 27, 2021
Ross O’Carroll Kelly: ‘Every single room in this house is haunted by the guilt of my failure’
I'm having some feelings around the new-look Hollywood awards season
- February 27, 2021
Tanya Sweeney: Events remind me of lost privilege of sitting with friends in anticipation
Hilary Fannin: Some strangers need a good slap with a mackerel
- February 26, 2021
I’m developing Covid anger towards a breed of impatient middle-aged man
Megan Nolan: At 15, I betrayed my boyfriend under the influence of the little alcohol it took
- February 25, 2021
Which came first, the booze or the boys? Did they just happen to begin at the same time?
Michael Harding: I wear a tie to Zoom meetings. It helps me play a role – myself
- February 24, 2021
Like any good actor, I understand the importance of costumes and props
‘People think I either have to be Irish or Filipino, but I can be both’
- February 24, 2021
New to the Parish: Shane Andaloc arrived from the Philippines in 2004
Róisín Ingle: ‘Simon Harris is going live,’ my phone says, and I can’t stop myself
- February 24, 2021
It’s an interesting thing, watching what people say to Harris on Instagram Live
Mixed marriages: ‘One family bigot can throw a spanner in the works’
- February 21, 2021
‘If granny hates Catholics or Protestants then trouble can start ... but love can conquer all’
Martin Beanz Warde: Life and death of a superhero – and Traveller
- February 21, 2021
My grandmother Maggie Mongan beat the odds, dying a year ago this week aged 89
Tanya Sweeney: 'I shop just to feel something other than dread and anxiety'
- February 20, 2021
Surely I’m not the only one emotionally spending my way through the Covid-19 pandemic?
Ross O’Carroll-Kelly: Wuthering Heights is basically the story of my life
- February 20, 2021
Ross likens his life to Heathcliff’s – especially when it comes to women
Michael D Higgins: Things ‘could go either way’ after the pandemic
- February 20, 2021
'It would be disastrous to recreate the conditions that preceded this,' he tells Fintan O'Toole
I want to be alone: We are all introverts now
- February 20, 2021
The pandemic has taught us to see the world through the eyes of people who avoid it
Hilary Fannin: The veganism has gone up the spout. I lost the will to pulse a mushroom
- February 19, 2021
What are the best bits of the pandemic? ‘Art class’, ‘being outside’, ‘talking to my mother’
‘Imagine my lips tight against yours’: Irish U-boat shipwreck’s poignant letters
- February 18, 2021
Archivists painstakingly reconstruct wartime missives recovered from SS Gairsoppa
Pyjama bottoms? Fine. But tidy your room: 11 ways to excel in a Zoom job interview
- February 18, 2021
Expert advice on how to look – and act – like a pro. Just remember to put the dog out, too
Michael Harding: I have privatised my religious practice
- February 17, 2021
My only refuge is my father’s bookcase, decked with icons gathered over many years
‘It hurts when my mum is reduced to the colour of her skin in Ireland’
- February 17, 2021
Róisín Ingle: This Lent is not one for giving stuff up. It’s time for a shot of tequila with breakfast
- February 17, 2021
If I wasn’t crying or shouting last week I was under the duvet. I didn’t go outside for five days
Love in lockdown: ‘It gave us a new appreciation for each other’
- February 13, 2021
Divorce applications have risen, lawyers say, but many relationships have never been better
‘After a year locked up together, we are sick and tired of the sight of each other’
- February 13, 2021
Ross O’Carroll-Kelly: ‘You asked me the other night was I breathing louder than usual?’
I'm not the first person to have a child, but surely not every parent can feel this way?
- February 13, 2021
Tanya Sweeney: Does everyone believe their child is – objectively – the most beautiful?
Care Day 2021: ‘Leaving care, it’s not like happy days’
- February 13, 2021
Some 6,000 children in Ireland live with foster families or in residential homes
Sean Moncrieff: Friday night takeaway has become the highlight of my week
- February 13, 2021
Boredom has become the defining factor in our lives; and possibly yours too
I thought about the 1,013 new cases and the 94 further deaths
- February 12, 2021
Hilary Fannin: I knew they were not statistics but individuals with lives, loves, dreams
Did Kim Kardashian’s seven-year-old paint this? Have we all just lost our minds?
- February 11, 2021
Jennifer O’Connell: 11 months into a global pandemic, we’re all fraying around the edges