All fired up – Frank McNally on the questionable wisdom of Dublin’s logoMystical and metaphorical meaningsFri Jul 26 2024 - 18:59
Out and proud – Frank McNally on being “horrid happy” and other Hiberno-English states of mindHappy out in SpiddalThu Jul 25 2024 - 18:52
Soldiers Are We (Not) – Frank McNally on the beauty of Brian Boydell’s Amhrán na bhFiann Maybe the music itself is enoughWed Jul 24 2024 - 18:50
Trial by Drury – Frank McNally on how a small Dublin street became a flashpoint for debate on the city’s future Many young socialites – undeterred by a lack of street furniture – were sitting on the groundThu Jul 18 2024 - 18:55
Blast from the past – Frank McNally on the shock of a 1965 recording of the national anthemA short drum-roll, followed by about 300 voices mounting an air-and-land assault on the anthem’s opening wordWed Jul 17 2024 - 18:59
Ostentatiously discreet – Frank McNally on the French honours ribbonCoveted threadsTue Jul 16 2024 - 18:59
Centre of excellence – Frank McNally on Irish literature’s most famous phrase and the rise of Gallic footballAnother cameo for Macintosh ManFri Jul 12 2024 - 19:12
Man behind the wire – Frank McNally on the incarceration of Dublin’s Grand CanalA symphony of JCB engines and jack-hammersThu Jul 11 2024 - 18:59
Darkness into light – Frank McNally on a celebratory funeral with a bleak backstoryHarry Gleeson was brought back to his home village 83 years after he was wrongfully executedWed Jul 10 2024 - 18:59
Benighted opera – Frank McNally on a rare performance of a 19th-century classicWilliam Vincent Wallace’s Lurline has a colourful pastTue Jul 09 2024 - 18:59
Remains of Harry Gleeson, wrongly executed for murder 83 years ago, laid to rest in TipperaryDepartment of Justice informed Gleeson’s family last week his remains had been positively identified in a burial area within Mountjoy PrisonSun Jul 07 2024 - 20:58
In memory of my mother – Frank McNally on a painful epiphanyPowers of interventionFri Jul 05 2024 - 19:15
Arms and the woman – Frank McNally on Irish-American writer Kathleen Norris’s controversial saluteSaluting the flagWed Jul 03 2024 - 18:59
Canadian rhapsody – Frank McNally on a party to celebrate Canada DayThe party was unusual for, among other things, hosting an exhibition in a greenhouseFri Jun 28 2024 - 18:59
Making a show of us – Frank McNally on a 1927 film that outraged Irish AmericaFor decades, The Callahans and the Murphys was believed completely lostThu Jun 27 2024 - 18:59
Great but unwashed – Frank McNally on the joys of a dry spell in DublinThe seagull has landedTue Jun 25 2024 - 18:59
Simon’s swansong – Frank McNally on the passing of a much-loved Dublin caféCherished cafés come and go, like the generations that love themFri Jun 21 2024 - 18:59
Horns of a dilemma (continued) – Frank McNally on a Dutch-Irish art mystery, now being investigated in The HagueA long-missing artwork and its partial rediscoveryThu Jun 20 2024 - 18:58
Little Bighorn of a dilemma – Frank McNally on a mystery Monaghan man who followed Custer to MontanaAmong the more than 100 Irish soldiers who marched with Custer was a “Sergeant Thomas Murray, born in Co Monaghan”Wed Jun 19 2024 - 18:59
Hose maketh the man – Frank McNally on a male sartorial dilemmaA 28-year-old film star with GAA-honed ankles sets the paceTue Jun 18 2024 - 18:59
Bloomsday: Minister and Sinn Féin leader among Dubs lining out for ‘Joycean Olympics’Among €25 T-shirts for sale at James Joyce Centre, those reading ‘Stately Plump Buck Mulligan’ sold out quicklySun Jun 16 2024 - 19:25
A city where peace comes dropping slow – Frank McNally on a visit to The HagueIts role as a headquarters of the world’s conscience has seen the city gradually elevated to the status of metonymFri Jun 14 2024 - 18:55
Animal cracker – Frank McNally on “Humanity Dick” Martin and 200 years of the SPCAHis efforts advanced mainstream acceptance for the idea that animals should be legally protectedWed Jun 12 2024 - 18:50
Balkan diplomacy – Frank McNally on hosting a Bulgarian journalist for election weekendLike most young journalists now, he multitasks as cameraman, sound recordist, editor, and writerTue Jun 11 2024 - 18:58
Cracking over the papers – Frank McNally on uncomfortable parallels between column writing and the Leaving CertI resorted to 40 press-ups, on the desperate pretext that blood rushing to my brain might arrive with a fully-formed column outlineFri Jun 07 2024 - 18:59
Lagan leviathan – Frank McNally on the centenary of a great Belfast shipbuilder (and Home Ruler), William PirrieThe man who turned Belfast into a powerhouseThu Jun 06 2024 - 18:59
Soft landing – Frank McNally on a long-awaited airline refundMemories came flooding backWed Jun 05 2024 - 18:59
Frank McNally: It’s June, and on Irish roads farm machinery is bustin’ out all overTractors seem to get bigger and broader every yearTue Jun 04 2024 - 18:54
Blowing a Gaskin – Frank McNally on gasconades, gasúns, and Ireland’s Bay of NaplesA striking resemblance, minus the volcanoFri May 31 2024 - 18:59
Peadar Tóibín gets warm reception in Slane over plan to ‘crowbar’ issues on to Government agendaNot everyone is promising Aontú a first preference but the European candidate is changing the minds of some traditional votersFri May 31 2024 - 06:00
Valour invalidated – Frank McNally on a mysterious Irish anti-hero: the “Great Gaiscí”A penchant for satireWed May 29 2024 - 18:55
Frank McNally on royal typos, Tennyson’s Tories, and the mystery of ‘Operation Sonnet’The gold standard in newspaper typosTue May 28 2024 - 18:57
Rings of ire – Frank McNally on the limitations of smart watchesIt doesn’t help that the watch communicates exclusively in CalifornianFri May 24 2024 - 18:55
Footman Footnotes – Frank McNally on the late and very colourful Gillies MacBainHe was in the habit of buying The Irish Times daily and reading every word, over several hours, with a ruler in handThu May 23 2024 - 18:59
Front Woman – Frank McNally on a pioneering war correspondent, Maggie HigginsAfter Korea, she went to Moscow, the first American correspondent allowed into the post-Stalin USSRWed May 22 2024 - 18:59
‘The trial of the century’ – Frank McNally on a notorious child murder of 100 years agoNathan Leopold jnr and Richard Loeb murdered a 14-year-old neighbour, Bobby FranksTue May 21 2024 - 18:58
Custer’s Last Tune – Frank McNally on the dubious history of the ballad GarryowenGarryowen, or a version of it, became a regimental anthem on both sides of the AtlanticThu May 16 2024 - 18:55
Dutch gold – Frank McNally on a weekend in idyllic AmsterdamCars were few and slow-moving, even on unpedestrianised streetsTue May 14 2024 - 18:59
The road not travelled – Frank McNally on a long-dormant book projectWhile still undecided on the subtitle – a crucial matter – I signed a contractFri May 10 2024 - 18:55
Flying columnist – Frank McNally on why Wolfe Tone may have been Ireland’s greatest ever diary writerThe diary-writing Tone made a deep impression on later Irish revolutionariesThu May 09 2024 - 18:55
Local revolution – Frank McNally on the epochal Irish elections of 1899The local elections allowed women to vote for the first timeThu May 09 2024 - 10:59
Bird on the wire – Frank McNally on a great reporter’s last hurrahThe documentary Ransom ‘79 is a startling reminder of what a mad, bad, and dangerous place Ireland was in the SeventiesTue May 07 2024 - 18:58
General selection – Frank McNally on national stereotypes, Greek (and table quiz) heroes, and a stamp of greatnessKnow your onionsFri May 03 2024 - 18:55
Blood brothers – Frank McNally on the deaths of two young men, one Irish, in the Korean WarBetween waves of fear, Woo-Geun imagined being back at home with his familyThu May 02 2024 - 18:58
Hard Border – Frank McNally on a visit to the Korean Demilitarised ZoneFrom a row of fixed binoculars, we took turns to scrutinise the North KoreansWed May 01 2024 - 18:55
Transmigration of Seoul – Frank McNally on a long-awaited trip to South KoreaSomething that unified most of our disparate group of journalists was a love of beerTue Apr 30 2024 - 18:50
Man of Letters – Frank McNally on the Irish rebel origins of an extravagantly named Australian cricketerA remarkable string of forenamesFri Apr 19 2024 - 19:24
The chimes they are a-changing – Frank McNally on the joys of listening to church bells at nightChimes are a variation on a theme used by clocks and doorbells the world overThu Apr 18 2024 - 18:59
Murder Most Confusing – Frank McNally on Flann O’Brien’s murder weapon, Henry Marsh’s finger, and a relocated Joycean plaqueThe art and literature roundTue Apr 16 2024 - 19:31
