An Irish Diary

The Taliban have banned women’s sport, while Cricket Ireland received €70,000 to promote gender equality

The competition’s storied past takes in the nascent Irish State, Shergar and changing times

Extraordinary sound – ‘neither voice nor instrument’ – heralded baron’s death in 1801

The Odyssey predates the earliest evidence for Ireland’s Táin Bó Cúailnge by around 1,400 years

A felicitous aspect of a reporter’s work is the amount of time spent in the rooms and corridors of Ireland’s architectural treasures

Preparing to climb the old-fashioned way, I am reminded that the modern Reek Sunday is nothing like it was 25 or 30 years ago

Mayo’s 1952 All-Ireland win was followed by quiet years, rain and the county’s closest neighbours rubbing salt in the wound

After hitchhiking back from Craogh Patrick, the celebrations in Westport led to an unexpected ending for the weekend

Known by many colourful names, a decent slice of it and you were good for the afternoon

My 55th time at a final, but I had never witnessed anything like the outpouring of raw emotion

Immaculate conception, fine half, electrocution lessons, a fifty and more in professor’s compendium

The late Paddy McNally spent some of his childhood in Ireland, romanced Sarah Ferguson and had brothers who did unspeakable things to cats

The issue is the dried-in grime, accumulated from two months of leaks and spillages, and from the primordial ooze that gathers around the base of bins

Addition of a step to help people onto the stone has hastened the demise of its 6,000-year-old carvings

I’ll give Christopher Nolan’s film this much: the wooden horse was good

There’s an audience for everything, no matter how niche its topic

An Post has not always avoided controversy with its choice of prominent figures

Plus: Diplomacy requires envoys of bad luck to avoid Spain’s and Argentina’s embassies on Sunday

In Riga, Paddy Whelan’s pub went to great lengths to ensure it looked authentic

Discussions ranged from the philosophical ‘am I who I am?’ to the Pythonesque ‘what has the EU ever done for us?’

The Sligo Jazz Project was started 20 years ago by Eddie Lee from Sligo rock band Those Nervous Animals

Cork great Christy Ring ended his career with a grand total of eight of them

The self-control demanded in this gastronomic experience is aided by the layered structure of the tiered cake stand

Prank in advance of 1956 Olympics was brainchild of university students in Sydney with Leitrim link

Joyce’s studies had been shaped by Giordano Bruno – a man considered a ‘terrible heretic’ in his own lifetime

Adding an ‘e’ to Cork is baffling, but it makes 'whisky' taste better

Mbappé bears standard French spelling of forename that has roots in modern-day Cavan

Mayo landowner George Henry Moore was a trailblazer who said Charles Trevelyan was a ‘dogmatist that no experience could instruct’

News reporter was pictured watching criminal Martin ‘The General’ Cahill outside court

Unalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of cryptocurrency

She wrote about lesbian women’s sexuality and the eroticism of Irish folklore, earning acclaim and a ban in Ireland

A trio of letters finds humour, irritation and media critique in equal measure

Never mind the meek and the poor in spirit – here’s a new VIP list of entrants to the kingdom of heaven

Tailteann Games was held nearby in old times when, perhaps, Monaghan may have fared better than Louth

Lemass joined the committee after resigning as taoiseach, reflecting his view that the Constitution needed to be modernised

‘It’s on such memories that cross-generational rivalries and traditions are built’

Security concerns at Dublin Castle are leading to drastic measures, but not for the first time

As an exiled Monaghan supporter, it’s fair to say this has been a freakish summer for the county fans

Perhaps diarist should leave things as they are

Lexicographers love a low-key quiz on the origins of spoffle and dogmental