Ulysses and me – Frank McNally and his long relationship with Joyce’s greatest bookA diary for BloomsdayThu Jun 16 2022 - 05:00
Fair cop? – Frank McNally on the possible real-life model for Joyce’s undertakerWho was the inspiration for Cornelius ‘Corny’ Kelleher?Wed Jun 15 2022 - 05:00
Royal flush – Frank McNally on Judy Garland, the Theatre Royal, and Mulligan’s pubIt’s 60 years since Dublin’s Theatre Royal was demolishedSat Jun 11 2022 - 05:00
Molly coddled – Frank McNally on the real-life backstory of Joyce’s Molly BloomFor a novelist James Joyce was notoriously reluctant to make stuff upFri Jun 10 2022 - 05:00
Our Daily Dread – Frank McNally on the ups and downs of diary writingSome publications get in guest celebrity diarists - not this column which has been on the go since 1927Thu Jun 09 2022 - 05:42
Feckless father – Frank McNally on the property and paternity portfolios of John JoyceJames Joyce’s father filled his house with children and with debtsWed Jun 08 2022 - 05:00
Taking the Mick – Frank McNally on racial epithets, dogs of war, and Kipling’s romanticised IrishFurore over a certain British army regiment and its nicknameFri Jun 03 2022 - 19:30
Patrick Kavanagh out of the doldrums and back in the drumlins with revamped centrePatrick Kavanagh Centre reopens after €1.2m faceliftFri Jun 03 2022 - 01:00
On the Road to Nowhere – Frank McNally on being too old to read Jack KerouacWriter's Hiberno-Breton originsThu Jun 02 2022 - 19:30
Baths of My Own Lovely Lee – Frank McNally on a Corkman who revolutionised personal hygieneDr Richard Barter established in the Leeside village of Inniscarra in 1856 a fashion that soon spread to Britain and beyond.Wed Jun 01 2022 - 19:30
Throwing Lions to Christians – Frank McNally on St Ronan and the cult of French rugbyWestern France has a church dedicated to rugbyTue May 31 2022 - 19:45
Frank McNally on how Bruce Springsteen concerts became a luxury productFill out for subheadlineFri May 27 2022 - 19:58
Just Another Manic Tuesday – Frank McNally on a day of mixed Emos The Irish origins of “Emo” are mysteriousWed May 25 2022 - 19:46
Fellow traveller – Frank McNally on the ‘republican widowhood’ of Dervla MurphyAn Irishman’s DiaryTue May 24 2022 - 19:34
Ardal O’Hanlon: ‘I have met at least three people who have killed other people’The comedian on his new ‘crimey’ novel set in an border town that’s ‘not Carrickmacross’Sat May 21 2022 - 06:00
Freudian slip-road – Frank McNally on ‘Ballyduff’, Percy French, and George Bush’s Lady Macbeth momentAn Irishman’s DiaryFri May 20 2022 - 19:45
Between Foxrock and a hard place – Frank McNally on Samuel Beckett’s CooldrinaghAn Irishman’s DiaryThu May 19 2022 - 19:33
Danger Here – Frank McNally on military metaphors in footballAn Irishman’s DiaryWed May 18 2022 - 19:44
Paris Mismatch – Frank McNally on a notorious dinner party of 100 years agoAn Irishman’s DiaryTue May 17 2022 - 19:41
Royal Rail – Frank McNally on the history of ‘Irish State Coach 351’An Irishman’s DiaryFri May 13 2022 - 20:01
Going Loco – Frank McNally on Flann O’Brien and the Inchicore Railway WorksAn Irishman’s DiaryWed May 11 2022 - 20:05
Counter Culture – Frank McNally on the challenges of trying to watch sport in pubsAn Irishman’s DiaryTue May 10 2022 - 20:08
The loneliness of the long-distance Punner – Frank McNally on writers and runningAn Irishman’s DiaryFri May 06 2022 - 19:21
Unholy Sabbaths – Frank McNally on the Phoenix Park Murders and other Irish Times ‘Sunday Specials’An Irishman’s DiaryThu May 05 2022 - 20:12
Border Ballads – Frank McNally on the national anthems of Poland, Ukraine, and MonaghanAn Irishman’s DiaryWed May 04 2022 - 20:20
Heroic Age – 20th-century survivor Frank McNally on the 21st century’s greatly improved life expectancyAn Irishman’s DiaryFri Apr 29 2022 - 19:36
Poles Apart – Frank McNally on new and old Stella Cinemas and Shackleton’s last voyageAn Irishman’s DiaryThu Apr 28 2022 - 19:20
Honoured Guest – Frank McNally on the exemplary death of Major Compton-SmithAn Irishman’s DiaryWed Apr 27 2022 - 19:30
Park Avenue – Frank McNally on the case for a drive-through Dublin ZooAn Irishman’s DiaryTue Apr 26 2022 - 19:33
The Fall of the House of Ulster (with apologies to Edgar Allan Poe)An Irishman’s Diary: "I wended my weary way through the Dark Hedges of the bleak Ulster countryside, dispirited anew by the dreariness of its steeples"Fri Apr 22 2022 - 19:40
Fanfare to Boston Common Man – Frank McNally on the first martyrs of the American RevolutionAn Irishman’s DiaryFri Apr 22 2022 - 01:00
A further (but not farther) reading from the Stylebook of LeviticusAn Irishman’s DiaryWed Apr 20 2022 - 19:35
If the Easter Proclamation had been written by management consultants instead of poetsAn Irishman’s DiaryTue Apr 19 2022 - 18:58
Between Plymouth Rock and a hard place – Frank McNally on a Sunday night in BostonAn Irishman’s DiaryFri Apr 15 2022 - 19:48
Bound for Glory – Frank McNally on the lost and re-found art of bookbindingAn Irishman’s DiaryThu Apr 14 2022 - 19:50
At Swim-two-bards – Frank McNally on a long literary week in BostonAn Irishman’s DiaryWed Apr 13 2022 - 19:19
Easter Rising, Curtain Falling – Frank McNally on the 1916 play still awaiting its Abbey premiereAn Irishman’s DiarySat Apr 02 2022 - 06:00
House Conversion – Frank McNally on James Joyce and the Dublin Vigilance CommitteeAn Irishman’s DiaryFri Apr 01 2022 - 11:59
Room to Disimprove – Frank McNally on the demise of the drawing room and other social tragediesAn Irishman’s DiaryWed Mar 30 2022 - 19:30
Curran Affairs – Frank McNally on the extraordinary friends (and relatives) of CP CurranAn Irishman’s DiaryTue Mar 29 2022 - 19:30
Split Definitive – Frank McNally on quickie divorce in ancient IrelandAn Irishman’s DiaryFri Mar 25 2022 - 19:15
Waiting Games – Frank McNally on the origin of the ‘Irish Olympics’, 100 years agoAn Irishman’s DiaryThu Mar 24 2022 - 19:22
Seismic Shift – Frank McNally on the modest evolution of an amorous verbAn Irishman’s DiaryWed Mar 23 2022 - 19:01
Royal Irish Vocabulary – Frank McNally on the OED’s latest update, which includes bockety, bean an tí and Old SegotiaAn Irishman’s DiaryTue Mar 22 2022 - 19:01
Name and Shame – the plaques of Dublin what they do and don’t tell usIrishman's Diary: The many plaques of the capital tell little of the storySat Mar 19 2022 - 00:01
Clear the Decks - on Horslips, hairdressers, and painful memoriesA teenage gig when Carrickmacross was called the ‘Nashville of Ireland’Fri Mar 18 2022 - 00:01
Snakes Alive – the ominous associations of St Patrick’s DayRainy days: March 17th also said to be the day in ancient times when Noah’s ark set sailThu Mar 17 2022 - 00:01
La Vie en Rosa - the convention-defying artist Rosa Bonheur, born 200 years agoShe wore men’s clothes at a time when French women needed a licence to wear trousersWed Mar 16 2022 - 00:01
Thinker’s Curse – Frank McNally on John Toland, a controversial Donegal philosopher who died 300 years agoAn Irishman’s DiaryFri Mar 11 2022 - 19:30
