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
Ireland, 1966: ‘A visitor realises after a few days that he has seen few fat people’A US book portrayed Ireland as a land of subservient housewives and men in pubsWed Jul 14 2021 - 06:00
36 hours in Carrick-on-Shannon: A tourist town with no one aroundCovid-19 has had enormous impact on Co Leitrim town that depends on visitorsSun Jul 11 2021 - 00:00
Lake people of Lough Derg: ‘I love looking at the water. It makes me calm’Ireland’s third-biggest lake casts a unique spell over the locals living on or close to itSat Jul 03 2021 - 06:00
Jo Spain: ‘It wasn’t a peaceful childhood. I saw a lot of drugs and crime’The crime novelist talked to Bernice Harrison at The Irish Times Summer Nights FestivalThu Jul 01 2021 - 22:00
Ethel Rosenberg: a gruesome death by execution that shocked the world‘I think it is the most horrific story. Her death was so barbaric’ – biographer Anne SebbaSat Jun 26 2021 - 06:00
Pesto eggs are the new smashed avocado. But are they as nice?Substituting pesto for oil, this photogenic dish looks healthy, fresh and appetisingFri Jun 25 2021 - 10:00
A lonely Sligo death still shrouded in mysteryIn 2009 the body of Peter Bergmann was washed up at Rosses Point, but who was he?Sat Jun 12 2021 - 06:00
What the Best Place to Live in Ireland award did for WestportWestport won the 2012 competition. Residents have some advice for this year’s entrantsSat Jun 12 2021 - 06:00
Assistance dogs in schools: ‘I have learned to talk things out, and it has really helped a lot’Schools cover the cost of food for the dog, any veterinary treatment and general upkeepSat Jun 12 2021 - 06:00
