Meat and Diary – Frank McNally on the importance of food in diary writingThis column was accidentally dragged into the transatlantic debate on whether UFOs existFri Mar 22 2024 - 18:59
Birds of a feather – Frank McNally on an unusual English tribute to the Irish writer Melesina Trench As a writer, she certainly had sharp talonsThu Mar 21 2024 - 18:59
Riveting personality – Frank McNally on an all-American (but part-Irish) heroineThe image of Rosie changed attitudes to women and workWed Mar 20 2024 - 20:45
Sermon on the Mounts — Frank McNally on a biblical week in Cheltenham The End is Nigh Handicap HurdleTue Mar 19 2024 - 18:59
Cheltenham: Irish re-establish dominance on final day as Willie Mullins adds Gold Cup to his haul Retired football managers turned horse owners Alex Ferguson and Harry Redknapp run out of luck after extraordinary winning streak on ThursdayFri Mar 15 2024 - 19:28
Cheltenham: Empire strikes back on Ireland’s least successful dayAlex Ferguson and Harry Redknapp among the winners on day three of festivalThu Mar 14 2024 - 20:17
Cheltenham: Langer Dan brings an Irish joke at English expenseWednesday’s opener an early St Patrick’s Day parade for Carlow handler as the first five home saddled by Ireland’s champion trainerWed Mar 13 2024 - 20:19
Cheltenham has changed: the days of the romantic underdog are rarer nowOn a day of dominance for Irish-trained horses at Cheltenham, led inevitably by Willie Mullins, even the sole plucky 'underdog’ winner of the day - Chianti Classico - was Irish-bredTue Mar 12 2024 - 21:28
Irish supporters in confident mood as annual Cheltenham invasion begins Irish trainers, led by the formidable Willie Mullins, expected to dominate four frantic days of Cheltenham Festival actionMon Mar 11 2024 - 20:24
Man’s second-best friend? – Frank McNally on a cinematic tribute to catsCats are natural film starsFri Mar 08 2024 - 18:59
Would Key – Frank McNally on the mystery of the ‘Irish Conditional’Past, present and futureThu Mar 07 2024 - 18:59
Beer hall putsch – Frank McNally on the Free State Army Mutiny of 1924The threat of a coup lasted until the early hours of March 19thWed Mar 06 2024 - 20:05
Train of thought – Frank McNally on the Dublin-Wexford railway route, the late Countess de Frenay, and the story of Long LambkinTo eat or not to eat, that is the questionTue Mar 05 2024 - 18:59
The newspapers were wrong – Frank McNally on the joys of unexpected snowfallWhen we all feel like we’re six years old againFri Mar 01 2024 - 18:59
Running commentary - Frank McNally on the statues of Dublin’s Merrion SquareThe southern and western sides lack any statues – moving or otherwiseThu Feb 29 2024 - 19:00
Desperate dispatches – Frank McNally on the competing schools of newspaper column writing Deadlines and inspirationWed Feb 28 2024 - 18:59
Loss horizon – Frank McNally on the pain of narrowly losing table quizzes and the pleasure of being a secret arts philanthropistPipped at the postFri Feb 23 2024 - 18:59
Year of living dangerously — Frank McNally on the madness that was Britain in 1974An era of plots and paranoiaThu Feb 22 2024 - 18:59
Coat of many characters — Frank McNally on a life-changing pilgrimage to Kildare Village Concerned friends have taken to buying me overcoats latelyWed Feb 21 2024 - 18:59
Identity parade — Frank McNally on being recognised (or not) in publicEven regular readers do not recognise journalists from byline pictures, which are often hilariously out of dateTue Feb 20 2024 - 19:30
Carving his place — Frank McNally on the sculptor Jerome Connor, born 150 years ago next weekHis return to Ireland from the US was to prove a bitter disappointmentFri Feb 16 2024 - 18:59
Two roads diverged — Frank McNally on historical confusion between the Irish Forestry Society and the Irish National ForestersThe tangling of branches and historyThu Feb 15 2024 - 18:59
High Drama — Frank McNally on Gaiety gods, simple Sadbhs, and Dublin street theatre All the world’s a stageWed Feb 14 2024 - 18:59
No Shrinking Violets — Frank McNally on sexy hotels, the rewilding of Trinity, and a revolutionary Anglo-Irish florist Petal power in the capitalTue Feb 13 2024 - 18:59
Seaman’s saviour — Frank McNally on the eponymous Samuel Plimsoll, born 200 years ago this weekendAn era in which ships were routinely sent to sea overloaded and undermannedFri Feb 09 2024 - 18:59
Rhine relics — Frank McNally on Irish cults in Strasbourg, an oddly named river, and the joys of a night in Frankfurt AirportSaints and venerationThu Feb 08 2024 - 18:59
Blowing up a storm — Frank McNally on winds of change in Strasbourg Pressure from farmers has prompted a series of tactical retreats by the EU in recent daysWed Feb 07 2024 - 18:59
On the clock — Frank McNally on the challenges of getting to and from StrasbourgCity’s famous clock is a multifaceted tour de force of science and religionTue Feb 06 2024 - 18:59
Patty’s Day Parade — Frank McNally on Patty Hearst, the Hibernia Bank and the ‘Singing O’Sullivans’An early example of “Stockholm Syndrome”Fri Feb 02 2024 - 18:59
Foreign missions — Frank McNally on Irish culture’s long reach, via Paris, Rome, and CaliforniaA day to remember for many devout followers of cultureThu Feb 01 2024 - 18:59
Beam me up — Frank McNally on the roof of St Patrick’s Cathedral, where some of the oak beams are 750 years oldA €9.4 million refurbishment has secured the cathedral’s futureWed Jan 31 2024 - 18:59
Reluctant rebel — Frank McNally on America’s ‘first modern’ painter, Maurice PrendergastAn easy-going personality with a radical reputationTue Jan 30 2024 - 18:59
New year revolution — Frank McNally on doing yoga, playing poker, and keeping everything in balanceMindfulness is a winning technique, apparentlyFri Jan 26 2024 - 18:59
Words of war — Frank McNally on the fighting Irish origins of the word ‘slogan’The old war cries became mere verbal decorations in the endThu Jan 25 2024 - 19:30
What the Krapp? — Frank McNally on phones in the theatre, Beckett’s lost love, and a technology ahead of its timeAn impromptu play within a playWed Jan 24 2024 - 18:59
Tower of song — Frank McNally on a musically inspiring Kilkenny castleThomas Moore’s The Last Rose of Summer may have been a victim of its own success for a whileFri Jan 19 2024 - 18:59
The original ‘Bunga Bunga’ — Frank McNally on an eccentric Corkman’s notorious prankHorace de Vere Cole’s band of pranksters included Virginia WoolfThu Jan 18 2024 - 18:59
Storm front — Frank McNally on the dubious fame of Edward Bulwer-Lytton“It was a dark and stormy night . . ."Wed Jan 17 2024 - 18:59
Fiscal force tradition — Frank McNally on taxation ballads, alcohol-free bars, and the struggle to make a living from musicThe turnover of pub identities in Dublin these days is dizzyingTue Jan 16 2024 - 18:59
Up in smoke — Frank McNally on the once-thriving Irish tobacco industryDuring the American and Napoleonic wars, Ireland supplied most of the product used in British tobacco factoriesThu Jan 11 2024 - 18:59
Millstone milestone — Frank McNally on the 225th anniversary of a ‘temporary’ taxIt was only in 1972 that Ireland finally made the ‘temporary’ income tax arrangement permanentWed Jan 10 2024 - 18:59
Pane management — Frank McNally on the sad story of a Harry Clarke masterworkClarke’s magnificent work was caught up in the repressed politics of the fledgling Free StateTue Jan 09 2024 - 19:38
Auld Slang’s Time — Frank McNally on an old but now numerically apt American expression: ‘23 skidoo’The number 23 has many claims to fameFri Dec 29 2023 - 18:59
Absence-of-light entertainment - Frank McNally on Irish words for dusk, the Celtic Twilight, and the original Monsieur SilhouetteA trick of the lightThu Dec 28 2023 - 18:59
Dark Secret – Frank McNally on a Christmas Night visit to DowthA journey through megalithic MeathWed Dec 27 2023 - 18:59
Daly Star – Frank McNally on the origins of Ally Daly, Betty Martin and other etymological mysteriesA synonym for nonsense, a mark of excellence and a guarantor of authenticityFri Dec 22 2023 - 19:36
Many unhappy returns: Frank McNally on Christmas as a ‘feast of failure’Deck the halls with broken friendships, lost loves and all the other ghosts of the pastThu Dec 21 2023 - 19:24
Tidings of discomfort and Joyce - Frank McNally on recreating a famous Christmas dinner rowI had the privilege of seeing a group of actors recreate the scene, with spine-tingling effect, in the place where it happenedWed Dec 20 2023 - 19:00
A life’s cycle – Frank McNally on the death of Olympian Willie DunneThe passing of Willie coincided with the passing of former Irish Times picture editor, Peter ThursfieldTue Dec 19 2023 - 19:00
Picture this: Frank McNally on commemorating departed friendsPhotographs, memories and a few re-enactmentsFri Dec 15 2023 - 19:11
