Philo and the Paycock – Frank McNally on a Thin Lizzy commemoration’s rise and fallThe annual commemoration of Thin Lizzy frontman Phil Lynott has turned 36, the age at which he diedTue Jan 10 2023 - 19:00
Frank McNally: What has the EU ever done for us?Before cheap flights were ushered in by deregulation Paris and Prague were about as accessible for most Irish people as space is nowFri Dec 30 2022 - 12:52
Present Imperfect – Frank McNally on Vincent van Gogh, O Henry, and the Three Wise MenYou really shouldn’t haveFri Dec 23 2022 - 19:30
Sale Incomplete – Frank McNally on why Evelyn Waugh decided against a move to Ireland“No native capable of doing the simplest job properly”Thu Dec 22 2022 - 19:26
Frank McNally on the ripples of Argentina’s famous win and the scheduling perils of extra timeThe perils of extra timeWed Dec 21 2022 - 22:13
On a peak, mid-winter – Frank McNally gets a new angle on the winter solstice at NewgrangeSunlight on the solstice morningTue Dec 20 2022 - 19:30
Emigrant’s Content – Frank McNally on the joys of coming home at ChristmasNever had I felt so welcomeFri Dec 16 2022 - 19:15
Mar Dhea - Frank McNally on the unusual prevalence of rock stars called John Maher“Yep, rhymes with car or Mars bar”Thu Dec 15 2022 - 20:30
Back to Black - Frank McNally on The Stranglers’ unsuspected Irish heritageYou couldn’t throw a stone in any direction in Monaghan without a high risk of hitting a DuffyWed Dec 14 2022 - 19:00
Mining for Mischief – Frank McNally on the curious connection between goblins and cobaltIn their elementFri Dec 09 2022 - 19:00
Mute Point - Frank McNally on an etymological spot of ‘bother’A mental befuddlement caused by excessive noiseThu Dec 08 2022 - 20:08
A Broth of a Word – Frank McNally on the possible Mayo origins of LollapaloozaThe word became a war-cry of the Boston Red SoxWed Dec 07 2022 - 19:30
Frank McNally: The slovenly rise of ‘goblin mode’The surprising endurance in the 21st century of European folk superstitionsTue Dec 06 2022 - 19:01
Origin Unknown – Frank McNally on the pitfalls of asking people where they are ‘from’The urge to find out where people are from, exactly, has long been a cornerstone of Irish conversationFri Dec 02 2022 - 19:00
Stamped Out (and In) – Frank McNally on the Irish-American poet and postmistress Louise Imogen Guiney, who survived a boycott“Pure of heart, brilliant of mind”Thu Dec 01 2022 - 19:15
Alcott boycott – Frank McNally on the Little Women author’s anti-Irish hiring policies‘Biddy must go’ among the statements that mean it might be time to consider cancelling the authorWed Nov 30 2022 - 19:30
Passing game – Frank McNally on ‘gaslighting’ as word of the year and why some old footballers never dieIn 2022, it seems, everyone is being gaslitTue Nov 29 2022 - 19:15
A to-do list for Ireland: Drain the Shannon, open peace talks with the seagulls and win a rugby World Cup quarter-finalOpen peace talks with the Dublin seagullsFri Nov 18 2022 - 19:00
Three Steps to Heaven - Frank McNally on an ancient Irish funeral customAn old custom but perhaps not unique to this part of the worldThu Nov 17 2022 - 19:00
Collision Course - Frank McNally on the transcontinental railroad’s Irish-Chinese ‘feud’Printing the legendWed Nov 16 2022 - 19:00
Shaking hands with history – Frank McNally on a childhood meeting with Erskine ChildersI shook the hand that shook the handTue Nov 15 2022 - 17:10
Mixing up the Republic - Frank McNally on the sad end of a Blasket heroAll but forgotten today, Brian Kelly’s life story is something of a Greek tragedyFri Nov 11 2022 - 19:30
Martinmas Martyrs - Frank McNally on an ominous legend of November 10thThere is a paradox in St Martin’s association with storms in WexfordWed Nov 09 2022 - 19:04
Duel Citizen – Frank McNally on Larry David and the Irish duelling code‘It is desirable to avoid all hot-headed proceedings’Tue Nov 08 2022 - 19:01
Moving swiftly on - Frank McNally on the rebranding of the Berkeley balcony collapse siteVisiting the site where six young Irish students died in 2015Fri Nov 04 2022 - 19:00
From Bad to Words - Frank McNally on ‘permacrisis’ as word of the yearNew noun sums up the ongoing political and economic debacles in BritainThu Nov 03 2022 - 19:00
Tenters Hooked - Frank McNally on a ground-breaking Dublin housing estate, now 100 years oldIn 1922, builders began turning a 22-acre site near the Liberties into a housing scheme for Dublin’s working classesWed Nov 02 2022 - 19:00
The Problem with Portland – Frank McNally on an American utopia gone wrongCity’s homeless crisis is obvious on every streetTue Nov 01 2022 - 19:00
Season’s Gratings – Frank McNally on American HalloweenThe exaggerated ghoulishness of the US Halloween seems to fill a deep needFri Oct 28 2022 - 19:00
Hard Copy – Frank McNally on “America’s Last Newspaper”The Anderson Valley Advertiser’s feisty commentary has a devoted followingThu Oct 27 2022 - 19:00
A Pretty Pass – Frank McNally on a grim tale of American pioneersDelays proved fatalWed Oct 26 2022 - 19:01
A Group Portrait with the Artist – Frank McNally on the story behind (and in front of) James Joyce’s graduation pictureA class whose members were fated to live in genuinely troubled timesTue Oct 25 2022 - 19:00
Rules of Three – Frank McNally updates the ancient Triads of IrelandWith apologies to the ninth-century monks who wrote the originalFri Oct 21 2022 - 19:00
Breaking Bad – Frank McNally on Irishmen who went over to the dark side during the American Civil WarA gang called the “Raiders” preyed on weaker inmates in Georgia’s Andersonville prison campThu Oct 20 2022 - 19:00
Fatal Frontier – Frank McNally on the sinister origin of deadlinesA notorious Confederate prisonTue Oct 18 2022 - 19:00
Fluther’s Theses – Frank McNally on the curious evolution of a drunken adjectiveIreland’s countless euphemismsFri Oct 14 2022 - 19:00
Kentucky Fried Irish – Frank McNally on the rise and fall of one of America’s greatest small newspapersThe Kentucky Irish American animated US journalism for 70 yearsThu Oct 13 2022 - 19:00
To Russia with love – Frank McNally on the Irish heritage of the ‘father of Russian journalism’Pyotr Vyazemsky had the questionable fortune of outliving most of his contemporariesWed Oct 12 2022 - 19:00
Warped Logic – Frank McNally on how a great Polish philosopher spent his final years in IrelandCentral to Lukasiewicz’s thought was the idea of breaking with Aristotle’s bivalent logicTue Oct 11 2022 - 19:00
Cycle of life and death: Frank McNally on an unlikely Flann O’Brien tribute and a tale of two TurnersBrian O’Nolan’s remains have resided in Deansgrange Cemetery since his death in 1966Fri Oct 07 2022 - 19:10
Poison Ivy: Frank McNally on how the deaths of two English monarchs caused legal issues for Joyce‘Vulgar expressions’ in Ivy Day in the Committee Room made publishers nervousThu Oct 06 2022 - 19:07
Rolling in the aisles – Frank McNally on how a ‘bad’ Irish habit conquered AmericaR-rolling was vital to perceptions of social standingWed Oct 05 2022 - 19:05
Metaphorical Manouevres – Frank McNally on Patrick Kavanagh’s all-conquering army of poetsA prize worth fighting forTue Oct 04 2022 - 19:00
In search of lost time - Frank McNally on horology, folk-music, and the campaign to ban ‘iconic’Time for actionFri Sept 30 2022 - 19:00
Through a Glass, Berkeley – Frank McNally on eccentric English pronunciationsWhat’s in a name?Thu Sept 29 2022 - 10:16
How Ireland got Fluthered – Frank McNally on Seán O’Casey’s real and fictional Fluther GoodA day in courtTue Sept 27 2022 - 19:10
Imperfect Recall – Frank McNally on the sad story of a half-remembered neighbourA man we’ll call JoeFri Sept 23 2022 - 19:10
The Height of Vulgarity – Frank McNally on San Francisco’s Nob Hill James Flood, the king of the castleThu Sept 22 2022 - 19:14
Joint Project - Frank McNally on the great Limerick-born engineer MM O’ShaughnessyAs chief engineer in San Francisco at the start of the last century he designed much of that city’s infrastructureWed Sept 21 2022 - 19:00
Quaking in their boots - Frank McNally on one of the world’s most precarious football stadiumsA “tectonic time-bomb”Tue Sept 20 2022 - 19:01
