An Irishman's DiaryWHILE Ireland’s back-to-basics approach to this year’s Eurovision Song Contest is probably to be welcomed, I fear that victory…Thu Feb 26 2009 - 00:00
An Irishman's DiaryHAVE you ever visited your household’s millennium tree? No? Me neitherWed Feb 25 2009 - 00:00
An Irishman's DiaryIN A certain school I know, when children misbehave, they may be asked to stand for short periods at the “Balla smaoineamh”, …Sat Feb 21 2009 - 00:00
An Irishman's DiaryIN A certain school I know, when children misbehave, they may be asked to stand for short periods at the “Balla smaoineamh”, …Sat Feb 21 2009 - 00:00
An Irishman's DiaryIN THE 1986 film Jean de Florette , Gerard Depardieu plays an idealistic hunchback who leaves his city job to inherit a family…Thu Feb 19 2009 - 00:00
An Irishman's DiaryI SEE that, according to most reports, that incident in Omagh on Sunday between Kerry’s Paul Galvin and Tyrone’s Ryan McMenamin…Wed Feb 18 2009 - 00:00
An Irishman's Diary‘TOMORROW IS St Valentine’s Day,” as Ophelia sings during her descent into madness in Act IV of HamletFri Feb 13 2009 - 00:00
An Irishman's DiaryIT’S NOT the worst aspect of the crisis, I know, but I wonder how the AIB’s school competition – the so-called “Build a Bank …Thu Feb 12 2009 - 00:00
An Irishman's DiaryCONSIDERING its fame, “the real McCoy” is a phrase of curiously obscure originWed Feb 11 2009 - 00:00
An Irishman's Diary“If we decide to wallow in the sea of doubt, do not be surprised if we remain in the turbulent waters that we are in todaySat Feb 07 2009 - 00:00
An Irishman's DiaryOSCAR Wilde famously defined a cynic as a man who knew “the price of everything and the value of nothing”Fri Feb 06 2009 - 00:00
An Irishman's DiaryWHAT with the impending revolution and all, the decision by the Office of Public Works (see Motors, yesterday) to outsource the…Thu Feb 05 2009 - 00:00
An Irishman's DiaryTHREE hundred years ago this week, a ship sailed into a bay on the Juan Fernandez Islands off Chile and ended the long ordeal…Wed Feb 04 2009 - 00:00
An Irishman's DiaryTHERE was a poignant, end-of-era note to that lead story in the Property supplement on Thursday about a house in Sandycove called…Sat Jan 31 2009 - 00:00
An Irishman's DiaryHAVING TO fly from Las Vegas to New York the day after the “Miracle on the Hudson”, I found myself taking a new and intense interest…Wed Jan 21 2009 - 00:00
An Irishman's DiaryBETTER late than never, over Christmas, I finally got around to reading Terence Dooley's The Murders at Wildgoose Lodge; and …Sat Jan 10 2009 - 00:00
An Irishman's DiaryYET again recently I read an obituary of a man of whom it was alleged that, during a long and distinguished life, he had not …Thu Jan 08 2009 - 00:00
Festival loses track of bankers, politiciansFinishing line: Best-dressed finalists defy recession with glamour at Leopardstown RacesMon Dec 29 2008 - 00:00
IT'S A WOEFUL LIFEA long-delayed sequel to the classic James Stewart Christmas movie 'It's a Wonderful Life', finds a new hero, Brian Cowen, getting…Wed Dec 24 2008 - 00:00
An Irishman's DiaryIT MUST be some relief to the beleaguered Taoiseach that, as reported yesterday, insurance companies consider the Government'…Thu Dec 11 2008 - 00:00
An Irishman's DiaryI'M AMUSED to see that, when it attempts to re-create the sound of the original performance of Handel's Messiah this week, the…Wed Dec 10 2008 - 00:00
An Irishman's DiaryEATING IN an Asian restaurant one night recently, I was surprised by the sight - rare these days - of an open fireSat Dec 06 2008 - 00:00
An Irishman's DiaryFATHER MATHEW must have turned in his grave last month at the news that, for the first time in its 39-year history, the World…Fri Dec 05 2008 - 00:00
An Irishman's DiaryI MAY have been a bit previous last week in suggesting that the tradition of throwing pennies into the river Boyne from the Dublin…Wed Dec 03 2008 - 00:00
An Irishman's DiaryIT WAS disappointing to read the claim by US humour expert Dr Bill Fry (yesterday) that, as a rule, people rarely die laughing…Sat Oct 25 2008 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryTWENTY years ago, almost to the day, I flew out of Dublin airport for a year in Australia - a country in which, as far as I knew…Thu Oct 16 2008 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiarySEARCHING the archive for something else a while ago, I chanced upon an intriguing item in the Irishman's Diary of February 18th…Thu Oct 09 2008 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryLIKE many an elite sportsman before him, Con McCarrick will miss the World Championships because of injuryWed Oct 08 2008 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryA MAN called John P. McNally (no relation) has written to me from Minnesota asking for help in tracing information about his …Fri Oct 03 2008 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryIT'S NOT every day you get to unveil a statue, or even to assist at the unveiling of one, which is as much as the invitation …Thu Sept 25 2008 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryWRITING here last week about "Irish giants", I was (silently) struck by the contrast between recent high-profile campaigns for…Wed Sept 10 2008 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryAS THE Government grapples with the crisis in public finances, some imaginative fiscal responses will be requiredFri Sept 05 2008 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryANOTHER September, as the title of a Thomas Kinsella poem puts it, and yet again many of us are wrestling with the great philosophical…Thu Sept 04 2008 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryTODAY is the feast-day of St Fiachra, a seventh-century Irish monk who, by lending his name to the horse-drawn Parisian hackney…Sat Aug 30 2008 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryTHE fiddle-player Martin Hayes tells a funny story about how he first learned the importance of a strong Clare accentFri Aug 29 2008 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryI SEE that poor JP McManus has been forced to revise plans to build a lake two-and-a-half times the size of Croke Park and in…Thu Aug 28 2008 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryI MET a friend recently who was carrying a square umbrella and I thought him slightly eccentricFri Aug 08 2008 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryIT'S NOT a criticism of conventional theatres, but I'm a sucker for the trend towards staging plays in historic ruins and monuments…Thu Aug 07 2008 - 01:00
Bookies' satchels lighter as slump nibblesGalway Race Festival: attendances nudge up, but betting is downThu Jul 31 2008 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryFURTHER TO my trial for alleged misuse of the word "none" (to wit, causing it to be followed by a plural verb), I may have been…Wed Jul 23 2008 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryI MENTIONED recently the tradition by which newspaper unions are organised into "chapels", each overseen by a father or a mother…Sat Jul 19 2008 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryI WENT to see The Weir at the Gate the other night, and very good it was tooWed Jul 09 2008 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryWHEN the Irish boy-scout movement, inspired by Robert Baden-Powell's English model, held its inaugural meeting 100 years ago, …Fri Jun 27 2008 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryWHERE, oh where did those 20 years go? "Which 20 years, Daddy?" The 20 years since the 1988 European Soccer Championships - Stuttgart…Wed Jun 04 2008 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryIN THESE exciting days for Dublin architecture, when every new building seems to make a bold visual statement, spare a thought…Wed Apr 23 2008 - 01:00
