Rosita Boland: When the email went unanswered I felt a rising dreadMy friend of old had given me a gift. She asked the most insightful of questionsThu Mar 24 2022 - 06:00
Rosita Boland: I was only locked out of my hotel. Imagine being locked out of your countryMillions are out in the cold, unable to return to the places they left their thingsThu Mar 17 2022 - 06:00
‘Russian global rocket threat’: Irish Times front pages from St Patrick’s Days pastRosita Boland reads March 17th front pages of The Irish Times from 1942 to 2012Wed Mar 16 2022 - 06:00
Rosita Boland: I never bothered with Mother’s Day before. Now it stabs at meThe death of your mother gradually nibbles into the life you must continue afterwardsThu Mar 10 2022 - 06:00
Rosita Boland: Is the Van Gogh Museum one enormous shop masquerading as a gallery?At what point does the frantic volume of the merchandise begin to cheapen the work it represents?Thu Mar 03 2022 - 06:00
The Irish-born girl flying gliders solo: ‘Going to Mars is my dream’Irish-born teen Ishitha Arekapudi is flying solo in the US, but wants to go higherFri Feb 25 2022 - 06:00
Rosita Boland: My friend’s elderly mother had her dog stolen – it’s haunted me ever sinceGiven that so many of us have pets, Irish society should be more dog-friendlyThu Feb 24 2022 - 06:00
The late summer murders: Two men on a mission to kill Irish womenIn 1976, the career criminals travelled around Ireland, abducting, raping and murdering womenSat Feb 19 2022 - 06:00
Rosita Boland: ‘You’re single now, but you’ll meet someone,’ the mortgage adviser saidAs I sat there in front of this man, I felt rage, humiliation and amazementThu Feb 17 2022 - 06:00
Rosita Boland: Want to keep your husband alive? Stop demanding new sofasAccording to a 1962 guide, women should stop placing ‘burdens’ on men to buy thingsThu Feb 10 2022 - 06:00
Rosita Boland: I broke the rules. And it all worked out perfectlyGreen shoots of hope as Micheál Martin told us – rightly – ‘Today is a good day’Thu Feb 03 2022 - 06:00
An open secret: Ireland’s lunatic asylums and mental hospitalsTens of thousands of people were resident in institutions – often for decadesSat Jan 29 2022 - 06:00
Rosita Boland: I’ll be spending the long bank holiday weekend travelling everywhereThe ability to travel has never seemed more of a privilegeThu Jan 27 2022 - 06:00
Rosita Boland: I sincerely hope my terrifying panic attacks never returnFor six months, I experienced severe and prolonged panic attacks, night and dayTue Jan 25 2022 - 06:01
In praise of the new ‘bank holiday’ on March 18thRosita Boland: The day, making for a fantastically long weekend, has finally been announcedThu Jan 20 2022 - 11:52
Rosita Boland: The odd feeling of staying in a hotel in the town where you grew upHotel excels in friendly customer service when a stray cat is offered a four-star homeThu Jan 20 2022 - 06:00
Prince Andrew now has three options, none of them goodThe reputation of Queen Elizabeth’s second-eldest son seems unlikely to recoverSat Jan 15 2022 - 06:00
Rosita Boland: Heads roll over a shared love of kitschA Marie Antoinette doll, a plastic cow head, a Jesus money box form are the glue that binds a firm friendshipThu Jan 13 2022 - 06:00
The crash of Rescue 111: ‘The worst silence I ever heard in all my life’Four men died when an Air Corps helicopter struck dunes in Tramore in 1999. This is their storySat Jan 08 2022 - 06:00
Rosita Boland: ‘Am I annoying you, love?’ If you’re asking, you already knowDon’t call me love, and other maddening conversations with strangersThu Jan 06 2022 - 06:00
Death during Covid: My father said goodbye to his wife of 65 years from the doorstepThe call came from the hospital: ‘One family member can go in for 10 minutes, in full PPE’Sat Jan 01 2022 - 06:00
Rosita Boland: Two things I am grateful for this yearMy iPad and audiobooks are two wonderful things salvaged from a year I’d prefer to forgetThu Dec 30 2021 - 06:00
Rosita Boland: I swore I’d never get a dog for Christmas. Then I got oneBoo took one look at me and hid under the Christmas tree, a bauble in her mouthThu Dec 23 2021 - 06:00
Rosita Boland: I just couldn’t order a sandwich called the Italian StallionHow about a Porn Star Martini? No thanks. Normalising sexual innuendoes on menus is not okayThu Dec 16 2021 - 06:00
The right way to ensure a farm inheritance doesn’t go wrongKeeping the contents of a will secret only increases the conflict later, experts warnSat Dec 11 2021 - 06:00
Rosita Boland: A case of the customer being clearly in the wrongThe customer is said to be always right but sometimes that’s just untrueThu Dec 09 2021 - 06:00
Airport Covid checks: I followed the rules and had a test. Not a single official looked at it todayFirst we couldn’t upload our test results. Then only ‘one passenger in 20’ was being checkedMon Dec 06 2021 - 16:15
Rosita Boland: ‘I was phoning Cat. Don’t tell anyone,’ my aunt saidMy aunt used to telephone her pet to keep it company, and I kept her secretThu Dec 02 2021 - 06:00
Rosita Boland: Our defunct corner shop wasn’t fancy but it has left a gaping holeA derelict building in any city is a building with no soulThu Nov 25 2021 - 06:00
I’ve eaten roadkill, kangaroo and cormorant, but there’s one meat I won’t touchRosita Boland: I went feral while hitching across Australia, but still couldn’t stomach some foodsMon Nov 22 2021 - 13:00
Rosita Boland: The road trip that turned me into a born-again foragerHow shamefully ignorant we are about the free, wild larder around us in IrelandThu Nov 18 2021 - 06:00
Roast camel hump and calf brains in jelly: Gastronomic cooking, 1960s-styleRosita Boland: Songbirds were eaten in vast quantities and turtle soup was an ‘aristocratic’ dishThu Nov 11 2021 - 06:00
Rosita Boland: There is no rule that our greatest friendships must be with people our ageThe strange magician of time has brought me friends from different decadesThu Nov 04 2021 - 06:00
The president’s pen: Letters to and from Ireland’s nine heads of stateNew book compiles correspondence sent and received by Ireland’s presidentsSat Oct 30 2021 - 06:00
‘Perfect’, the two-syllable word that has become a default responseRosita Boland: I used to like the word ‘perfect’. It’s cancelled for me nowThu Oct 28 2021 - 09:56
Rosita Boland: An Indian gallery crammed full of English crystalA monumental collection of Birmingham craftsmanship on display half a world awayThu Oct 21 2021 - 06:00
Rosita Boland: The very Irish term ‘blow-in’ stigmatises newcomersA particularly Irish way to put people down, it says they’ll never belong, no matter how hard they tryThu Oct 14 2021 - 06:00
Rosita Boland: ‘What would you do?’ She stared at me. I was completely taken abackI wondered if the woman in the charity shop told this terrible story to many of her customersThu Oct 07 2021 - 06:00
Shannon Town: the ‘planned’ town that got left behindFour decades and several masterplans later, Shannon Town is having an identity crisisSun Oct 03 2021 - 06:00
A life in stone: Sculptor Imogen Stuart reflects on her life and her work‘I never know how things are going to turn out until they are finished’, says 94-year-old artistSat Oct 02 2021 - 06:00
Dial-a-Seanchaí: Irish folklore on your phoneSeanchaí were geographers, historians and psychologists with deep connections to the landscapeSat Sept 25 2021 - 05:00
‘Someone has been stealing the priest’s breakfast milk. Theft is unacceptable in this school’The reverend mother called us to a special assembly. What crime had been committed?Tue Sept 07 2021 - 06:00
The September issues: I want Burberry’s gold lamé trench coat, Prada’s green knitted dressRosita Boland reads the September editions of Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Elle and TatlerFri Aug 27 2021 - 06:00
36 hours in Clifden: ‘Golfgate certainly raised awareness of the town’‘Fully booked’ is a common refrain in the Galway town. Our series on Irish tourism continuesSat Aug 21 2021 - 06:00
The more beautiful the part of Ireland, the filthier it isRosita Boland: What is it about us as a people that we seem incapable of putting rubbish in bins?Wed Aug 18 2021 - 06:00
Sarah Ferguson’s bonkless bonkbuster: insufferably long and unforgivably dullQueen’s former daughter-in-law has written her 77th book, a strangely chaste Mills & Boon novelFri Aug 06 2021 - 06:00
36 hours in Ballybunion: ‘Main Street has become a bit of a disaster’Our series on Irish tourist spots continues with a visit to the Kerry town, where little has changedSat Jul 31 2021 - 06:00
My escape and recovery from life as ‘sex cult girl’Bexy Cameron spent her childhood in the Children of God cult, expecting to die as a teenagerSat Jul 24 2021 - 14:00
36 hours in Clonakilty: ‘Airbnb has a lot to answer for’Property prices rise in west Cork town which is becoming a ‘very sought-after place to live’Sat Jul 24 2021 - 06:00
Tramore: ‘There is a perception it attracts the wrong kind. Things have changed’‘It used to be pints of Guinness all day long. Now we sell more coffee than all other drinks’Sat Jul 17 2021 - 06:00
