An Irishman's DiaryFATHER MATHEW must have turned in his grave last month at the news that, for the first time in its 39-year history, the World…Fri Dec 05 2008 - 00:00
An Irishman's DiaryI MAY have been a bit previous last week in suggesting that the tradition of throwing pennies into the river Boyne from the Dublin…Wed Dec 03 2008 - 00:00
An Irishman's DiaryIT WAS disappointing to read the claim by US humour expert Dr Bill Fry (yesterday) that, as a rule, people rarely die laughing…Sat Oct 25 2008 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryTWENTY years ago, almost to the day, I flew out of Dublin airport for a year in Australia - a country in which, as far as I knew…Thu Oct 16 2008 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiarySEARCHING the archive for something else a while ago, I chanced upon an intriguing item in the Irishman's Diary of February 18th…Thu Oct 09 2008 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryLIKE many an elite sportsman before him, Con McCarrick will miss the World Championships because of injuryWed Oct 08 2008 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryA MAN called John P. McNally (no relation) has written to me from Minnesota asking for help in tracing information about his …Fri Oct 03 2008 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryIT'S NOT every day you get to unveil a statue, or even to assist at the unveiling of one, which is as much as the invitation …Thu Sept 25 2008 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryWRITING here last week about "Irish giants", I was (silently) struck by the contrast between recent high-profile campaigns for…Wed Sept 10 2008 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryAS THE Government grapples with the crisis in public finances, some imaginative fiscal responses will be requiredFri Sept 05 2008 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryANOTHER September, as the title of a Thomas Kinsella poem puts it, and yet again many of us are wrestling with the great philosophical…Thu Sept 04 2008 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryTODAY is the feast-day of St Fiachra, a seventh-century Irish monk who, by lending his name to the horse-drawn Parisian hackney…Sat Aug 30 2008 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryTHE fiddle-player Martin Hayes tells a funny story about how he first learned the importance of a strong Clare accentFri Aug 29 2008 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryI SEE that poor JP McManus has been forced to revise plans to build a lake two-and-a-half times the size of Croke Park and in…Thu Aug 28 2008 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryI MET a friend recently who was carrying a square umbrella and I thought him slightly eccentricFri Aug 08 2008 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryIT'S NOT a criticism of conventional theatres, but I'm a sucker for the trend towards staging plays in historic ruins and monuments…Thu Aug 07 2008 - 01:00
Bookies' satchels lighter as slump nibblesGalway Race Festival: attendances nudge up, but betting is downThu Jul 31 2008 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryFURTHER TO my trial for alleged misuse of the word "none" (to wit, causing it to be followed by a plural verb), I may have been…Wed Jul 23 2008 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryI MENTIONED recently the tradition by which newspaper unions are organised into "chapels", each overseen by a father or a mother…Sat Jul 19 2008 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryI WENT to see The Weir at the Gate the other night, and very good it was tooWed Jul 09 2008 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryWHEN the Irish boy-scout movement, inspired by Robert Baden-Powell's English model, held its inaugural meeting 100 years ago, …Fri Jun 27 2008 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryWHERE, oh where did those 20 years go? "Which 20 years, Daddy?" The 20 years since the 1988 European Soccer Championships - Stuttgart…Wed Jun 04 2008 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryIN THESE exciting days for Dublin architecture, when every new building seems to make a bold visual statement, spare a thought…Wed Apr 23 2008 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryDO IRISH burglars have secret codes that they mark on houses during field research? If there are any burglars reading this, they…Wed Apr 16 2008 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryTHE LONDON Times reports that Britain's orchestra managers are in a "tailspin" this weekend, as the music industry's two-year…Sat Apr 05 2008 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryI SEE Barack Obama has been accused of borrowing his campaign slogan - "Yes We Can" - from the internationally successful children…Fri Apr 04 2008 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryIF THE Easter Proclamation had been written by lawyers instead of poets:Sat Mar 22 2008 - 00:00
An Irishman's DiaryThe case of a middle-aged Australian couple who went on a spur-of-the-moment weekend away and returned to find the homicide squad…Wed Mar 12 2008 - 00:00
An Irishman's DiaryYOU'VE PROBABLY heard that old quiz favourite, or variations thereon: "When did Christmas Day fall on Easter Monday?" The Christmas…Fri Feb 29 2008 - 00:00
An Irishman's DiaryIN THE dying days of pre-Celtic Tiger Ireland, I once answered a mysterious magazine ad seeking comedy scriptwriters for a new…Thu Feb 28 2008 - 00:00
An Irishman's DiaryExciting news from the world of computer games, where the next generation of technology promises to eradicate that scourge of…Wed Feb 27 2008 - 00:00
An Irishman's DiaryI was driving up to Cavan last Saturday when a strange thing happened in the back of the carThu Feb 21 2008 - 00:00
An Irishman's DiaryAccording to the French Revolutionary Calendar, we are now emerging from Pluviôse - the Month of Rain - and entering Ventôse, …Wed Feb 20 2008 - 00:00
An Irishman's DiaryThere is a certain poignancy to the news that Billy Bunter is 100 years oldTue Feb 19 2008 - 00:00
An Irishman's Diary"To his dog, every man is Napoleon," remarked Aldous Huxley. "Hence the constant popularity of dogsThu Feb 14 2008 - 00:00
An Irishman's DiaryGood luck to Paul McGuinness in his campaign to have people who illegally download music struck off the internetWed Feb 06 2008 - 00:00
An Irishman's DiaryThe vexed question of an Irish honours system surfaces every few months, to no effectFri Jan 25 2008 - 00:00
An Irishman's DiaryWhen I was growing up, a popular song in our part of the world was Mickey Mac Connell's Only Our Rivers Run FreeThu Jan 24 2008 - 00:00
An Irishman's DiaryIt was 90 years ago today that Major Robert Gregory, the only son of Lady Gregory, died on the Italian frontWed Jan 23 2008 - 00:00
An Irishman's DiaryThis time last year, a letter appeared in the Irish Examiner suggesting that Munster rugby had "lost the plot"Tue Jan 22 2008 - 00:00
An Irishman's DiaryI used to cringe whenever his name came up in history class. Not that he was any relative of mine, so far as I knewWed Jan 09 2008 - 00:00
An Irishman's DiaryIn the light of tragic events elsewhere, the untimely death of Christy Hennessy seems like a story from another eraFri Dec 14 2007 - 00:00
An Irishman's DiaryI know that the central aim of Operation Freeflow is to keep motorised traffic moving. The plan may even work, occasionallyTue Dec 11 2007 - 00:00
An Irishman's DiaryMost human body parts have been doing the same thing for as long as they can rememberFri Dec 07 2007 - 00:00
An Irishman's DiaryIf you tune into BBC Scotland today, you might notice something odd. There will be no records playing. Or jinglesWed Nov 21 2007 - 00:00
