Ireland
Hands off my empty plastic bottles!
‘Where are my empty plastic bottles?’ I ran around the house screaming, after discovering my stash had disappeared. The government…
Out of the depths: Dante’s Purgatorio, by Philip Terry, reviewed
Having toured the infernal campus of the University of Essex, Terry arrives at the coast, to be confronted by a strange artificial mountain which he now must climb
Doctor in trouble: Time of the Child, by Niall Williams, reviewed
In the early 1960s, glimmers of change start to appear in the Irish ‘backwater’ parish of Faha. A smuggled copy…
How I found Love on Airbnb
‘My name is Love,’ typed the help assistant, ‘and I’m a member of the Airbnb community support team.’ I was…
Why is it so hard to hire a car?
My passport and driving licence sat on the counter but the girl stared back at me, repeating her demand. ‘I…
Man of mystery and friend of the Cambridge spies
Details of Baron Talbot of Malahide’s attempts to clean up the mess left by his one-time mentor Guy Burgess are still conveniently exempted from the Freedom of Information Act
Letters: The case for assisted dying
Craic down Sir: If Ireland had been investing in infrastructure as Ross Clark writes (‘Bog down’, 21 September), Dublin would…
How the EU turned on Ireland’s low-tax project
First, the good news. The Irish government is about to receive a €13 billion windfall in the form of back…
Confessions of a hypochondriac
My neighbour had a surgical procedure and keeps telling me about it. Every time she starts, I shout ‘No! Please…
A romantic obsession: Precipice, by Robert Harris, reviewed
In the build-up to the Great War another drama unfolds, as the Prime Minister H.H. Asquith is seen to be distracted from politics by his infatuation with the beautiful Venetia Stanley
How weird was Oliver Cromwell?
The pious people’s champion was not only a sadist and ruthless self-promoter; he could also indulge in infantile horseplay during the pressurised period leading up to the regicide
Is beekeeping left-wing?
‘Zip my head in,’ he said, after climbing into a white jumpsuit with a mesh helmet. It was a beekeeper’s…
Don’t bother calling the doctor
‘If you are calling about sinusitis, sore throat, earache in children, infected inset bite from the UK not overseas, impetigo,…
Drama on the London Underground
The girl lay slumped against a wall in front of me and someone ran to push the emergency button. I…
I will miss my vote
I feel as if I first took part in a general election even before I was born. My father was…
A visit to ye olde Ireland
The £80 million super-yacht with a helicopter on the upper deck sat in the harbour, and we sat outside the…
A sea of troubles: The Coast Road, by Alan Murrin, reviewed
The sudden return of the liberated Colette Crowley to the Donegal fishing village of Ardglas stirs fear and resentment in the closed community
No one knows how to sell the European project to the Irish any more
A few days after having Sunday lunch at the hotel where Michael Collins ate his last meal, we found ourselves…
Home to mother: Long Island, by Colm Toibín, reviewed
The sequel to Brooklyn sees Eilis leave New York shocked and angry, and return to Enniscorthy – where everything is outwardly calmer, but much has changed
Amo Racing’s Flat supremacy
You don’t often walk into a racing yard and find the trainer engrossed with two owners –apropos of horse names…
Lefties don’t know anything about farming
The artists and hippies are re-wilding their land, which is to say doing nothing at all to it and watching…
Irish voters have refused to erase the family
It’s not been a particularly good weekend for the political establishment in Ireland. Two constitutional changes have been rejected by…
