Michael Harding: There are people in every village in Ireland who will share their lives with a stranger at the drop of a hatSome Irish towns are so devastated by economic disasters that I get homesick on the road and yearn for the quiet pastoral beauty of LeitrimThu Apr 06 2023 - 05:00
Michael Harding: ‘Kill the bishop,’ I whispered, but the aliens were not bothered‘I swung back down to gather up the girl in my arms — she had of course fainted — and I carried her to a waiting ambulance’Thu Mar 30 2023 - 05:00
I tried to say something complimentary about his attire, nothing came to mindMichael Harding: He finished his pint in that firm silence men use when they want to hide how frightened they areThu Mar 23 2023 - 05:00
Michael Harding: Singing along in a Donegal pub with Ralph McTell and Moya Brennan In a packed hostelry in Meenaleck, we bore witness to a spectacular, life-affirming moment in which the world felt like a kinder and gentler placeThu Mar 16 2023 - 05:00
Michael Harding: It was strange to be back in the hotel room where I had my heart attackI have felt gratitude every single day since, for the ambulance team which reached me so swiftly and saved me from the abyss, so that I could continue writing columns and enjoying swanky hotelsThu Mar 09 2023 - 05:00
The Ukrainians just stared blankly at each other with a weight of grief in every faceMichael Harding: At breakfast there was an unusual hush in the restaurant. It didn’t feel like a normal hotelThu Mar 02 2023 - 05:00
Michael Harding: The cat was wailing like a banshee. We’d been watching The Last of UsPeople who know better have assured me that it’s an artistic masterpiece, but I couldn’t bear to go beyond episode threeThu Feb 23 2023 - 05:00
Michael Harding: Blindboy is maybe one of the most gifted writers of his generation‘Driving home the next morning I was still fascinated so much by the storyteller behind the plastic bag mask that I forgot to get petrol before heading up the motorway’Thu Feb 16 2023 - 15:41
Michael Harding: We called her Alice the Goat. Nobody knew why. I could tell you a story about herMaybe an old homeless woman minding a cow is not the most obvious example of an angel, but our Cavan community revered herThu Feb 09 2023 - 05:00
Michael Harding: My friend said a bank holiday in honour of some holy biddy who never existed was a farceSt Brigid’s Day: I let rip with all the fabulous magical realism I could muster and soon I had the General corneredWed Feb 01 2023 - 09:50
Michael Harding: My courageous farmer friend fights his loneliness by dancingOld dancers used to be lionised for their steps, because their exuberance contrasted with their seniority, evoking both awe and pity in the tragic ritualThu Jan 26 2023 - 05:00
Michael Harding: In a terrible dispute one night in Galway, a fiddle ended up in the fireThe fiddle invokes in the listener a quiet ecstasy; it turns young hearts to love and makes old folks smile and fall silentThu Jan 19 2023 - 05:00
Michael Harding: The taxi driver eyed me with merciless disdainI was on my way back from RTÉ. Our conversation began well but then descended into silenceThu Jan 12 2023 - 05:00
Michael Harding: Heaven on earth on a cold Warsaw night over schnitzel, strudel and vodka Callow love sundered but life rumbles on until … letters yellowed by age surface at a funeralThu Jan 05 2023 - 05:00
Michael Harding: The snow came like a fog, soft and damp, holding my face in chilly attentionBeing alone in Warsaw in December is not everyone’s idea of a good holiday, but for me its streets are haunted by the peace that follows terrible sufferingThu Dec 29 2022 - 05:00
‘You can take it from me that Mullingar nightlife is the envy of Paris’Michael Harding: The General can’t see why I visit Warsaw, but it’s wonderful, the city razed by Nazi Germany now shining in the dark like a beacon of hopeThu Dec 22 2022 - 05:00
Michael Harding: The General gripped a skewer of lamb between his teeth and sucked all the meat inHe didn’t want to hear about my sick cat. But, for me, animals are spiritual beings embodied in fleshThu Dec 15 2022 - 06:00
Michael Harding: Middle age can be tragic, but old age is always comicWhen I see Charlie Chaplin on the internet I see myselfThu Dec 08 2022 - 05:00
Michael Harding: One of the country’s finest writers arrived, wearing a f**king yellow tieHe looked stunning, and I could only despise my own lack of courage. My neck felt naked. I was underdressed. And so devastated that I left earlyThu Dec 01 2022 - 05:15
Michael Harding: I wiped tears from my eyes even though I didn’t know I was cryingI suspect I will never leave the hills above Lough Allen, because I could never uproot the trees, or live without themThu Nov 24 2022 - 05:00
Michael Harding: A shower meant for lovers? ‘It was like standing naked in a field on a wet day’‘Two shower heads in a single shower area!’ the General exclaimed, as if it was an affront to decencyThu Nov 17 2022 - 05:00
Michael Harding: I confessed to the English ladies I had never heard of Katie PriceI’m always nervous when English people talk about ‘over here’ when asking about Coronation Street or AsdaThu Nov 10 2022 - 05:00
Michael Harding: I saw the cooker ring was red hot. And then the kitten jumped straight on to itShe ran straight back into the scullery, where she sheltered behind a few biscuit tins in the corner and didn’t come out for daysThu Nov 03 2022 - 05:00
Michael Harding: The pubs were closed so, like three wise men, we headed for BethlehemThey served pizzas, chips and kebabs. We sat with strangers because the place was fullThu Oct 27 2022 - 05:00
Michael Harding: In Creeslough, there will always be 10 stories that remain unfinishedIt struck me that Donegal’s mountains are the very heart of the county — silent witnesses to time and griefThu Oct 20 2022 - 05:00
Michael Harding: Two girls showed me that the misery of my all-boys school could not lastWaking each day to the sound of the two young students’ laughter was a powerful counterbalance to my hang-upsWed Oct 12 2022 - 05:00
Michael Harding: I was waiting for new tyres when God Save the King rinsed Charles’s eardrums. I felt his pain Queen Elizabeth reminded me of my mother. Perhaps that’s why I’ve enormous sympathy for her sonWed Oct 05 2022 - 05:00
Michael Harding: Flinging scurrilous lies across the county boundary is an ancient Irish pastimeBut one person in the company was staring at me with such consternation that I presumed him to be from somewhere remote, like DublinWed Sept 28 2022 - 05:00
Michael Harding: ‘I tried to cook a sausage with a hairdryer,’ he told me. ‘And then I ate it. The pain is terrible’Twenty years ago myself and the General would have laughed it off over roast beef and a few glasses of beer, but age has made us fragileThu Sept 22 2022 - 05:00
Michael Harding: The resilience of the roses was a balm for my melancholy on dark winter daysThe flowers grew like weeds. And after a few years they became a mighty ditch of white petal and dazzling yellow centres, with blackbirds foraging beneathThu Sept 15 2022 - 05:00
Michael Harding: What I never told anyone was that I actually enjoyed Confession‘I confessed the same thing every Saturday night; that I had impure thoughts, and that I took pleasure in them’Thu Sept 08 2022 - 05:00
Michael Harding: The motorbike had been a gift for his son’s 18th birthday. But he had lost his son to suicideSo friends created Midleton Hub, a safe place for people dealing with mental-health issues to connect, gather and comfort each otherThu Sept 01 2022 - 05:00
Michael Harding: I hoped someone would visit during the good weather – but no one darkened the door for a weekThere was a time I would play the flute when the garden was full; at long ago parties until night met the morningThu Aug 25 2022 - 05:00
What disturbed me as I sat on the patio trying to recover from my blunder was the shed full of killing machinesMichael Harding: I had done enough killing for one day. The wren was not my fault, but the helpless frog wasThu Aug 18 2022 - 05:00
Michael Harding: The ram stared at me wondering ‘What the f**k is that gobdaw doing?’When I commenced my routine, a ram with testicles swinging like a pendulum stared at me making furious baa-ing sounds which I think translated as - ‘What the f**k is that gobdaw doing?’Wed Aug 10 2022 - 06:39
Michael Harding: Fiddles fall silent when someone you love comes to the end of the roadMy tin whistle sits in a drawer and if ever I play a few tunes, I’m riddled with guilt because my playing is so poor and I’m haunted by tunes I never bothered to learnThu Aug 04 2022 - 05:00
Michael Harding: The day started badly, with a burst of flame and lots of smoke. It got worseThe General’s day got off to a lively start and a smoking toaster. It simply got worse from thereThu Jul 28 2022 - 05:00
Michael Harding: Sitting out on the street in the middle of any town is an education Duck eggs are everywhere nowadays but I struggled to find someone to educate me on exactly what baby hen eggs wereThu Jul 21 2022 - 06:00
Michael Harding: I have no intention of getting up on a bicycle ever againI gave up football, tennis, chess, scrabble and even Monopoly. It takes extremely low self-esteem to conclude you’re no good at MonopolyThu Jul 14 2022 - 06:00
Michael Harding: He said he was from outside Islamabad. I said I was from outside DrumshanboMy driver with eyes like an ocean of joy concluded that we were all the same because ‘we all live just outside somewhere’Wed Jul 06 2022 - 09:00
Michael Harding: I witnessed the intimacies and exquisite tenderness of mature love in the cafe of a large department storeIt was clear the older couple enjoyed each other’s company and their little world of mischief and curiosities was precious to them, because their faces glowed with a kind of joy that cannot be namedThu Jun 30 2022 - 06:00
Michael Harding: In my teens I lost a girlfriend, and I cried my eyes out like boys were not supposed to doBundoran is where I go to encounter the ghosts of the past. I can never forget my donkey ride on the beach, my mother by my side, when I was sixThu Jun 23 2022 - 06:00
Michael Harding: I considered myself youthful until a pregnant woman stood up in a tram and offered me her seatPerforming a gig in Dublin with some amazingly talented young artists, I gripped the microphone and gave it socksThu Jun 16 2022 - 06:00
Michael Harding: When I got through the operation people said I was lucky. That’s not how I saw itMy little staples looked like a zip, or sleepers for a tiny trainThu Jun 09 2022 - 01:00
Michael Harding: It may surprise you that I took a passport to fly from Donegal to DublinThe photo was taken when I was recovering from illness. I’ve seen better looking corpsesTue May 31 2022 - 06:00
Michael Harding: How a car crash in Mullingar helped reawaken my soulThe wild edge of Canada was covered in snow and sunlight bounced off the white landWed Mar 17 2021 - 06:00
Michael Harding: I’m afraid of the sea, horses and dense woodsI’m not sentimental about nature. In fact I’ve always been fearful of itWed Mar 10 2021 - 06:00
Michael Harding: ‘Thank you for your love,’ I wrote to a friend. Then I tore it upI tried writing letters, but during lockdown they became too intense and sincereWed Mar 03 2021 - 06:00
Michael Harding: I wear a tie to Zoom meetings. It helps me play a role – myselfLike any good actor, I understand the importance of costumes and propsWed Feb 24 2021 - 06:00
Michael Harding: I have privatised my religious practiceMy only refuge is my father’s bookcase, decked with icons gathered over many yearsWed Feb 17 2021 - 06:00
