An Irishman's DiaryTWO HUNDRED years ago this morning, Napoleon watched the sun rise over a village in western Russia and declared it was the “sun…Fri Sept 07 2012 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryIF NOTHING ELSE, tomorrow night’s World Cup qualifier between the Republic of Ireland and Kazakhstan makes for a fascinating …Thu Sept 06 2012 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryAT SANTRY’S Morton Stadium on Saturday, I got talking to a man who, like myself, is a born-again runnerWed Sept 05 2012 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryTHE SLUGGEROTOOLE blog is undoubtedly one of the better things on the Irish internetSat Sept 01 2012 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryI HAVE MET them at close of day, coming with vivid faces from counter or desk among grey Eighteenth-century housesFri Aug 31 2012 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryTHAT HARBINGER of autumn, a flier for the Monaghan Harvest Blues Festival, arrived in my letter box recentlyThu Aug 30 2012 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryDRIVING ALONG a wet road in Tipperary recently, I narrowly avoided crossing what looked like a piece of turfWed Aug 29 2012 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryGUSTAVE COURBET, mentioned in passing yesterday, was a revolutionary on canvas as well as in real lifeFri Aug 24 2012 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryW HENEVER POSSIBLE, I like to read books in their historic or geographic contextThu Aug 23 2012 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryIF YOU haven’t already seen it, you should mark a certain anniversary today by Googling a small but extraordinary piece of Irish…Wed Aug 22 2012 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryA CANADIAN reader I just invented wrote to me recently asking if it’s true what an Eskimo told her in a bar once, ie: “that the…Sat Aug 18 2012 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryIT DIDN’T go unnoticed – I have spies everywhere – that during my recent absence from this space, the term “iconic” appeared …Fri Aug 17 2012 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryAS PLANNED earlier in the year, I used my holidays to launch another attempt at reading War and Peace in time for the bicentenary…Thu Aug 16 2012 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryI HAD TO LAUGH – albeit a little bitterly – when the success of our boxers in London led certain people to revive stereotypes…Wed Aug 15 2012 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryTHE Louth village of Greenore, which we mentioned here yesterday, has an unusual claim to fame among Irish sea portsThu Jul 26 2012 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryIT’S HARD to believe now, but lobster used to be a poor man’s foodWed Jul 25 2012 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryA small but interesting art exhibition in Kilkenny caught my eye recentlySat Jul 21 2012 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiarySTROLLING ALONG Johnson’s Court – an alleyway off Dublin’s Grafton Street – one Sunday morning recently, I found myself eavesdropping…Fri Jul 20 2012 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryI HAD TO VISIT a dentist in Carrickmacross the other day and emerged from the experience with a temporary but severe speech impairment…Thu Jul 19 2012 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryREVELATIONS that Erwin Schrödinger had a dog during his Dublin years (Letters, Wednesday), and that it was a “nasty mongrel”, …Sat Jul 14 2012 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryBY ONE MEASURE, at least, the modern world could be dated from an event that happened 50 years ago this week: the launch into…Fri Jul 13 2012 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryIt will be 70 years this weekend since a 21-year-old pilot met his premature end just off the coast of northern FranceThu Jul 12 2012 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryI WAS wrong when, in yesterday’s diary, I described Erwin Schrödinger as an “Austrian Jew”Sat Jul 07 2012 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryI WAS struck yesterday by the poetic-sounding surname of that scientist who made the first announcement of a breakthrough on …Fri Jul 06 2012 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryTHE SEARCH for currency stability in Europe has a very long historyThu Jul 05 2012 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryTHE BATTLE of Waterloo was, among many other things, a conflict between beer and wine drinkersWed Jul 04 2012 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryHAVING VISITED the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam recently, en route to Poland, I made a vague promise to go to Auschwitz later…Sat Jun 30 2012 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryDURING an idle moment on Wednesday, I briefly considered compiling “a History of Ireland in 100 handshakes”.Fri Jun 29 2012 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryIF THE GERMANS win Euro 2012, as is quite likely, it will be their seventh success in a European or World championshipThu Jun 28 2012 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryIT’S NOT JUST the FAI that needs to have a review of Euro 2012Wed Jun 27 2012 - 01:00
Famous Euro 2012 flag could prove very best work of its student instigatorsTHEIR COVER was blown two weeks ago thanks to a picture on the front page of Germany’s best-selling newspaperTue Jun 26 2012 - 01:00
Irish fans and camper vans finally reach end of the roadEURO 2012 ROAD TRIP: DAY 14: IF GROUP C was a Polish road, Ireland’s position would not have been hopeless going into last night…Tue Jun 19 2012 - 01:00
Singing fans limber up for last big performanceEURO 2012 ROAD TRIP DAYS 12-13: WITH FIRST place in Group C all but assured, Irish fans are bracing themselves for one last …Mon Jun 18 2012 - 01:00
Streets not so green as fascinating city reveals true colours to recovering fansEURO 2012 ROAD TRIP: DAY 10: GDANSK THE morning after felt like a wakeSat Jun 16 2012 - 01:00
Back on the green jersey trail thanks to stranger's kindnessEURO 2012 ROAD TRIP: DAY 9 : ON THE outer approaches to Gdansk, we turned off the main road in search of our campsiteFri Jun 15 2012 - 01:00
Slick Spain put Ireland to the sword but fans sing onMAYBE, IN retrospect it wasn’t the wisest thing for us to be singing “olé, olé, olé, olé” beforehand to a team of Spaniards…Fri Jun 15 2012 - 01:00
It's draw or bust against Spain - but green throng determined to remain hopefulTHE REPUBLIC of Ireland face a draw-or-bust situation at the Arena Gdansk tonight when they take on Spain in their second game…Thu Jun 14 2012 - 01:00
Sense of solidarity returns just in time for Gdansk - if only we could get thereEURO 2012 ROAD TRIP: DAY 8: IT WAS the day we were supposed to start moving towards Gdansk, but like Giovanni Trapattoni’s on…Wed Jun 13 2012 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryIN THE part of Monaghan that produced my paternal ancestors, there were several different McNally familiesFri Jun 01 2012 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryTHE old water-mill at Kilbeggan Distillery was undergoing maintenance when I visited the place recentlyThu May 31 2012 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryITS prominence on AZERTY keyboards (An Irishman’s Diary, May 23rd) might imply that, among the French at least, the semicolon…Wed May 30 2012 - 01:00
Soccer squad shows it's bigger than leprechauns for Euro 2012DUBLIN AIRPORT was a leprechaun-free zone for the Republic of Ireland soccer team’s latest departure to an international soccer…Mon May 28 2012 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryTHE Malin pronunciation controversy rumbles on in my mail-box, although a contribution from Aengus Finnegan ought to be the last…Thu May 24 2012 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryDURING my days as a struggling writer in Paris – and there have been several of them down the years – some of the worst difficulties…Wed May 23 2012 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryIN COMMON with many parents, I often worry about the effects of too much American television on my children.Sat May 19 2012 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiarySITTING IN Bewley’s cafe the other day, I opened a batch of readers’ correspondence to discover that my recent comments about…Fri May 18 2012 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryIN the old folk song, She’ll Be Comin’ Round the Mountain When She Comes, the person so eagerly awaited is never identified. …Thu May 17 2012 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiarySOMEHOW, the North Atlantic Fiddle Convention – or NAFCo as it’s known for short – sounds more like a military alliance than …Wed May 16 2012 - 01:00
