Brianna Parkins: ‘The Irish have a natural instinct for nosiness’
What better way to spend a hot sunny day than in the park, staking out two strange couples’ proposals?
Brianna Parkins
Brianna Parkins columns
Dublin Bus drivers are practised in the art of soundness. Sydney could learn from them
The girl sprinting for the ferry in Sydney late on a Saturday night was meanly cut off, prompting an unusual display of social solidarity
Brianna Parkins: ‘The cat popped into my life when grief had knocked me off my feet’
Our relationship, one of the happiest of my life, was largely contingent on the fact we have the radiators on all day
I feel like I’ve hit the lottery with my partner: I make the money, he makes me lunches
Is this how it feels to have been a man for the best part of the 20th century? Because it’s been pretty great
My exam marks or a fancy university didn’t get me into the career I love
If you’re the only person you know who’s gone to university it can be isolating trying to find your way with no one to guide you
Ice baths and 5am Clubs: have people become so adrift from their bodies they will do mad things just to feel something?
There’s an odd sort of morality tied to doing hard things, even if they are entirely unnecessary
Hiberno-English just does so many things that standard English can’t and I am clinging to it
A rake of pints. Sure look, you know yourself. Yer man. The unique joy of Hiberno-English should be celebrated, never taken for granted
House flippers are a curse, tarting up homes as cheaply as possible and selling for maximum profit
Home improvement TV breathes undeserved confidence into a generation of flippers
I’ve moved to a Sydney suburb so posh, it makes me uneasy
I’ll have to introduce my neighbours to fluffy house socks, squirty cream in a can and the cultural importance of the Real Housewives series
If we expect a competition once held in a Kerry car park to laud all deserving Irish women, we might be asking a bit too much
The Rose of Tralee is all well and good, but expecting one competition to laud all deserving Irish women might be asking a bit too much
After years living in Ireland, everything in Australia feels suspiciously easy
Young Irish people don’t need an insulting €750 tax break; they need reasons to feel hopeful again
I’ve yet to meet a woman who has regretted not getting married but plenty of married ones who have
I have seen so many good women drained by men who could not or would not meet them at their level
The Irish spice bag has arrived in Australia and not everyone is happy
Brianna Parkins: Sometimes, when you’re a big distance from home, it’s the small things that give you comfort
My relationship is just like Princess Diana’s. There are three of us in it
It is very crowded between me, my partner and the GAA but I’ll still be in a pub wearing an ugly bucket hat at 2am next week, watching my partner’s mistress on telly
Everyone under the age of 25 should have to work a year in hospitality or retail
You will need patience, resilience and the self-control required not to headbutt the public
I’m glad I never got the things my younger self thought I wanted
It’s rarely a good idea to get what your young heart desires. I would have been negative craic with terrible tattoos and a vacuous existence
The bar is so low for violent men they are ‘to be given credit’ when they admit their guilt
Case of Natasha O’Brien shows up keyboard warriors who want to frighten women, to shut us up, to stop us from calling men out on their behaviour
Brianna Parkins: ‘That doesn’t work for me actually’. Unapologetically saying ‘no’ is mesmerising
I recently overheard a woman utter a magic incantation that would banish having to put myself out against my own will. It changed me forever
Brianna Parkins: I’m leaving Ireland. I don’t have the energy for life here
This country teased a lightness out of me. But so many people leaving Ireland for Australia is down to more than sunshine
How to know when it’s summer in Ireland: The signs are subtle so pay close attention
Brianna Parkins: You have to pay close attention to nature: young women shivering in dresses, people milling awkwardly outside pubs, lads with their tops off
Bagged and abandoned dog poo should be the cornerstone of all local election policy platforms
Footpath etiquette and turning coworking spaces into libraries should also feature in manifestos
The Dublin Portal: There’s no room for pretenders in Dublin and, like New York, it refuses to be sanitised
Brianna Parkins: Since the invention of cameras, people have been acting badly in front of them and this project was never going to be the exception
Here’s hoping household chores don’t include having to ask men to do them ‘properly’
How one word can become a battle line of domestic warfare between the sexes
She’s a felt maker. He has a food truck. How did they get a home loan?
Scant resources and a housing crisis have made us narrow our eyes in suspicion at each other
Here’s some of the best life advice I’ve ever received
Opportunities can come from realising that no one knows what they’re doing a lot of the time
What’s infuriating about neurotypicals? Here’s a list
A professional ADHD-haver offers a guide for the neurodiverse on how to deal with everyone else
Taylor Swift isn’t the first to monetise her heartbreak. Here are five of the best examples
This list will make you ponder what you could have done after a break-up instead of sitting around the house moping
Brianna Parkins: I’m sick of being asked why I don’t have kids
Brianna Parkins: The kid question is not really a straight request for information. It’s asking someone ‘please justify to me why your life does not look like mine’
Cillian Murphy would like us all to know that’s just his face. Okay!
His face remains unimpressed on the red carpet, in press interviews and meeting members of the British royal family
Brianna Parkins: I fantasise about moving back in with my parents
Home might not be quiet or relaxing or emotionally stable but it’s still where I sleep best
Brianna Parkins: Marie Kondo has fallen. Tidying up is out and wall-to-wall tat is in
The cleaning guru has given up on her teachings since becoming a mother. It’s time we bring back display cabinets filled with treasures
‘My brother-in-law loves the Zoo, Milky Way stars and big diggers: yes, he’s six’
He doesn’t pull out his phone at a family gathering and subject the room to videos about cryptocurrency or his golf swing, but he will happily share his favourite YouTube clips about how planes land
Olivia Colman used the F-word over gender pay gap. We all should
Brianna Parkins: It’s any wonder women aren’t all screaming them into the void over the situation
Dog poo droppers, menacing kids and red-light breakers of Dublin: this writer did not get the non-confrontation memo
It feels there’s been a gradual shift away from challenging bad behaviour in person
Kingspan faces potential fines while Revenue secures €750m in settlements
The best news, analysis and comment from The Irish Times business desk
You won’t find this in guidebooks but here’s what it really means to be Irish
Beware of the constant fear in Ireland of telling someone bad news. For example, instead of saying a restaurant is overbooked a manager might tell you they can find a table ‘in a bit’
I have failed to get more than five hours of sleep a night since November. Enter: the British royals
Brianna Parkins: I’m on a slippery slope to becoming my grandmother, who has both her own room and a fierce loyalty to Lady Di
Brianna Parkins: Where is Kate Middleton? The people demand, but are not entitled, to know
We already have a plausible explanation for Kate Middleton’s absence from UK public life: she’s playing drums with Slipknot
Fairy tales about marriage are a way for rich people to feel as if they deserve their charmed lives
The usual research has been trotted out to back up marriage as the superior family structure, blurring the lines between causation and correlation
What do you really need to know about other people? They’re putting on a front
Brianna Parkins: It’s tiring hearing your inner voice say ‘do better’ every time you see a fitness blogger’s fridge or someone you went to school with go on a fancy holiday
Could getting scammed out of $50,000 really happen to anyone?
One financial advice columnist didn’t think it could happen to her. Then it did
Brianna Parkins: I was dumped for an exotic dancer. Here’s what it taught me about love
It might hurt to discover you’re a placeholder in a relationship, but who wants to waste years of their life not getting the partner they deserve?
Brianna Parkins: AC/DC and other things the Irish get wrong about Australia
Even though many have observed us up close in our natural habitat, they still don’t get our true ‘boganity’
I was sent to an all-girls school in case I dumbed myself down in front of boys
I would once have argued for sending my hypothetical future daughter to an all-girls school. Not any more
Brianna Parkins: How the Queen of Denmark met her prince down the pub
Unlike Queen Mary, the rest of us won’t ‘marry up’ - no matter how many etiquette classes we take
Brianna Parkins: Some people fear ageing but you couldn’t pay me to go back to being 19 again
Young girls on TikTok are terrified of getting older, but they have no idea how good the crone years can be
Brianna Parkins: TikTok says you can buy your way into being a better person
Surprise, surprise, it turns out more stuff is not what you need in your life
Brianna Parkins: I am an economic migrant, as my mother and grandparents were before me
Like a lot of Irish people past and present, my family felt emigration was their best hope at a better life. They were right
Brianna Parkins: We know sunbeds are bad for us so why does Kim Kardashian have one in her office?
Owning a sunbed in 2024 is a bit like insisting on using lead paint
Brianna Parkins: I’m not ugly, I’m just not pretty full-time
One of the phrases I find most fascinating is ‘She really let herself go’. Go where exactly?
Could Davos actually be useful this year?
Brianna Parkins: While it’s easy (and fun) to dismiss the event as a mutual backslap-athon between powerful global players in the past it has allowed attendees to call each other out on issues
Brianna Parkins: It was the burning sage that made my partner think I had finally lost it
Even with one of the most comprehensive and expensive private healthcare plans, I could not get the medical care I needed despite living in a wealthy country
Andrew Tate is filling vacuum left by parents who don’t want to have awkward talks with their sons about women
Tate didn’t invent misogyny, he just monetised it using younger, impressionable, tech-savvy boys
Brianna Parkins: My list of things to give up in 2024, starting with self-improvement
Trying to ‘live your best life’ could see you wasting it getting up at 4.30am - because that’s what people with self-discipline do
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