We share an irreverent sense of humour, a spirited mouthiness, and an unfortunate fondness for sweet-shop rubbish, but my best friend and I are two very different people. I'm prone to ranting, tend to be overly sentimental about lyrics, and am worryingly susceptible t...
The thing is, when you change location in the middle of a recession, people automatically believe it’s for economic reasons. That starvation, or disgruntled creditors, or creditors disgruntled by starvation chased me out of Cork. That coming back...
As it’s Builders’ Holidays in Ireland at the moment (a nationally-recognised breather for those in the construction industry; that should give you some clue as to how ingrained in the Irish psyche is the practise of throwing together the odd stone w...
I was over at me mammy's last night, for the annual Twelve Candles festivities.
The Twelve Candles is an odd tradition, where we light twelve small, slim . . . well, candles, assign a name of a family member to each of them, wait till they extingu...
We got to yapping about proposals yesterday, my friends and I. Proposals of marriage.
It is a subject dear to my spleen, because I have never been proposed to, or proposed at, or propositioned in any way JaneAustenlike and socially correct. But you'r...
I met one of my big brothers on the side of the road yesterday. The side of the road is a great place to meet male Irish members of your family; generally, three on a Sunday morning's a good time, where they might be singing at the streetlights or...