An Irishman's DiaryThe spatial pleasures of Dublin’s Phoenix Park are well known, including as they do 1,760 acres of greenery, with playing pitches…Wed Feb 20 2013 - 00:00
An Irishman's DiaryImpressive as their achievements to date have been, I’ll be disappointed if the people behind “the largest St Patrick’s Day promotional…Fri Feb 15 2013 - 00:00
An Irishman's DiaryAmong all the published works of Brian O’Nolan, there is perhaps only one completely without humourThu Feb 14 2013 - 00:00
An Irishman's DiaryI went into a cafe recently, in a suburban part of Dublin, at 6.25pmWed Feb 13 2013 - 00:00
Life of Brian has a day of ups and downsFor Irish rugby fans, it was a day of podiatrically contrasting fortunesMon Feb 11 2013 - 00:00
An Irishman's DiaryWhen I last wrote about Gustave Courbet’s notorious painting, The Origin of the World, suggesting it was a depiction of his Irish…Sat Feb 09 2013 - 00:00
An Irishman's DiaryTwo lost decades or not, Japan still keeps coming up with wacky new ideas that, eventually, the rest of the world is bound to…Thu Feb 07 2013 - 00:00
An Irishman's DiaryThe Dublin fiddle player Tommie Potts was a man of many influencesWed Feb 06 2013 - 00:00
An Irishman's DiaryI haven’t been in “outlying Kerry” – as the Jerusalem Post columnist called it – recently, so I can’t comment on whether it’s…Sat Feb 02 2013 - 00:00
An Irishman's DiaryI see that to mark Chinese New Year next week, the National Concert Hall is presenting a Sino-Hibernian evening of music, including…Fri Feb 01 2013 - 00:00
An Irishman's DiaryDriving up to Armagh during Saturday night’s storm, I was reminded of that city’s historic contribution to the science of wind…Wed Jan 30 2013 - 00:00
An Irishman's DiaryWhy is it that, according to AA Roadwatch, gardaí are always going “to the scene of an earlier accident”? I mean, it’s perfectly…Sat Jan 26 2013 - 00:00
An Irishman's DiaryA reader has e-mailed giving out to me for use of the term “disorienting” earlier this weekFri Jan 25 2013 - 00:00
An Irishman's DiaryThink of a number. Double it. Now multiply the total by the square root of pi, and add your age plus your weight in grammesThu Jan 24 2013 - 00:00
An Irishman's DiaryCross-country running used to be an Olympic event, I had reason to remind myself recently, but it was dropped after 1924 in Paris…Wed Jan 23 2013 - 00:00
An Irishman's DiaryI’ve been belatedly reading A Yankee in De Valera’s Ireland, the memoir of David Gray, war-time US ambassador in DublinSat Jan 19 2013 - 00:00
An Irishman's DiaryThe Romans talked of “bread and circuses” as the formula for keeping people happyFri Jan 18 2013 - 00:00
An Irishman's DiaryIt’s fitting that Lance Armstrong’s Oprah interview should happen in the same week as Rory McIlroy’s Nike coronation, because…Thu Jan 17 2013 - 00:00
An Irishman's DiaryI will always feel at least partly responsible for the bursting of the Japanese asset-price bubble in the 1990s, and for the “…Wed Jan 16 2013 - 00:00
An Irishman's DiaryThere’s no logic to language. Consider, for example, the word phlegmSat Jan 12 2013 - 00:00
An Irishman's DiaryI was settling into a barbershop chair recently, having completed the usual negotiations about what needed doingFri Jan 11 2013 - 00:00
An Irishman's DiaryI was running a cross-country race last weekend, the latest form of masochism self-imposed as part of a mid-life crisisThu Jan 10 2013 - 00:00
An Irishman's DiaryWhenever strangers inquire where you were born, and you say Monaghan, the words “stony grey soil” tend to feature in response…Wed Jan 09 2013 - 00:00
Not a day for the bookies as the Riccis get richer and favourite-backers cash inDespite many winning favourites at Leopardstown, betting was downThu Dec 27 2012 - 00:00
An Irishman's DiaryThe course of Zoltan Zinn-Collis’s extraordinary life – a life that ended last week in Co Kildare – was largely dictated by two…Sat Dec 22 2012 - 00:00
An Irishman's DiaryIn Dutch Christmas tradition, they don’t just have the usual Santa ClausFri Dec 21 2012 - 00:00
An Irishman's DiarySeventy-three years ago this week, on the Winter Solstice of 1939, a man named Ludwig Hopf died in DublinThu Dec 20 2012 - 00:00
An Irishman's DiarySeeking light relief on Thursday after a fortnight of internecine feuding, the Sluggerotoole blog invited readers to ponder the…Sat Dec 15 2012 - 00:00
An Irishman's DiaryOne of the things I love about radio is the way it creates pictures in your head, even – or sometimes especially – when the effect…Fri Dec 14 2012 - 00:00
An Irishman's DiaryThe Cork-born writer Ethel Voynich, mentioned elsewhere on this page recently (Letters, December 8th), remains largely uncelebrated…Thu Dec 13 2012 - 00:00
An Irishman's DiaryReports that the world may end this coming December 21st – based on readings of an ancient Mayan calendar – have evoked embarrassing…Wed Dec 12 2012 - 00:00
An Irishman's DiaryLast August, as you probably won’t remember, two Qantas pilots had to be grounded after an argument in the cockpit of a Boeing…Sat Dec 08 2012 - 00:00
An Irishman's DiaryIn need of some budget escapism on Wednesday evening, I found myself with a dilemmaFri Dec 07 2012 - 00:00
An Irishman's DiaryOne of the more picturesque events of next year’s Gathering, surely, will be the opening of a commemorative garden on the shores…Thu Dec 06 2012 - 00:00
An Irishman's DiaryThe suspicion that the devil has all the best tunes is particularly strong in blues circles, as witnessed by the famous story…Wed Dec 05 2012 - 00:00
An Irishman's DiaryThe plan, insofar as I had one, was to turn up at least 20 minutes after the advertised time, slip in at the back, then eavesdrop…Fri Nov 30 2012 - 00:00
An Irishman's DiaryWe received a rather intriguing letter this week from one Dr Paul Stokes, enlisting the paper’s help in a project on social exclusion…Thu Nov 29 2012 - 00:00
An Irishman's DiaryI had to post a letter a while back, which wasn’t urgent, or I would have sent it expressWed Nov 28 2012 - 00:00
An Irishman's DiaryIf Dublin City Council doesn’t do the decent thing by naming that new bridge after Flann O’Brien, maybe fans of the writer should…Sat Nov 24 2012 - 00:00
An Irishman's DiaryOur old cat was given three months to live recently. In fact, that was the optimistic scenarioFri Nov 23 2012 - 00:00
An Irishman's DiaryThe good news is that this is World Hello Day, a small but worthy initiative designed to advance the cause of peaceWed Nov 21 2012 - 00:00
An Irishman's DiaryMichael Murray (Letters) effectively accuses me of cultural imperialism for an alleged neglect of the Northside in the list of…Sat Nov 17 2012 - 00:00
An Irishman's DiaryIt’s not just simple anniversaries that Ireland will be marking over the next few yearsFri Nov 16 2012 - 00:00
An Irishman's DiaryDuring a lull in the rugby at Lansdowne Road on Saturday – and there were many lulls – I found myself wondering about the green…Wed Nov 14 2012 - 00:00
An Irishman's DiaryIt’s amazing the things that upset people during newspaper redesignsSat Nov 10 2012 - 00:00
An Irishman's DiaryWhen going to the theatre, I don't always make a point of inquiring beforehand about the play's durationFri Nov 09 2012 - 00:00
An Irishman's DiaryOn balance, I think Gabriel Byrne was being oversensitive about the prospect of us shaking down the Diaspora next yearThu Nov 08 2012 - 00:00
