Roe McDermott

Roe McDermott

Contributor

Roe McDermott, a contributor to The Irish Times, writes a weekly column in the Magazine answering readers' queries about sex and relationships. A writer and Fulbright scholar with an MA in sexuality studies from San Francisco State University, she is researching a PhD in gendered and sexual citizenship at the Open University and Oxford

‘I had an affair and ended my marriage, and I keep obsessing over why’

Ask Roe: I am now in midlife, regretful that I wasted years, and broke my own moral code. I am grieving for many reasons

‘I’m in my 30s and I want so badly to have a first love, but I am losing hope’

Ask Roe: I want so badly to have a first date, a first kiss, a first love, and am finding it harder with every year that passes to stay hopeful

‘I can’t find any interesting men in Ireland. They are emotionally and sexually conservative’

Ask Roe: I travel a lot and at home I find the talent available never left Ireland for more than a holiday

‘It’s just there on your phone’: Why millions of people are using AI for therapy

Researchers are beginning to see bots repurposed for emotional support in lieu of traditional mental healthcare

Good Slut by Zoe Strimpel: Blind spots and biases quickly show in this myopic manifesto

What’s most striking about a book ostensibly about celebrating women’s freedom is its utter joylessness

‘My girlfriend regularly texts her ex-boyfriend. Am I being too insecure about it?’

Ask Roe: She explained that before their relationship they were just friends and she wanted to keep that friendship

I’m in my 60s with a pleasant companion – is it asking too much to want more?

Ask Roe: I’m beginning to wonder if we are just friends. We never sleep together

‘My partner lives in terror of Covid-19. We even had to cancel our wedding’

Ask Roe: ‘She insists I wear a mask all day, and we have separate bedrooms and bathrooms’

‘I feel sexually muted but I don’t want to blow up my marriage’

Ask Roe: Sex with my husband has always been fine, nothing more. It’s familiar to the point of numbness

Gisèle Pelicot’s powerful memoir A Hymn to Life: ‘Love is not dead. I am not dead’

This is not a book about collapse, nor a story of triumphant overcoming. It is something more complex

I’m in my 50s and want to start over with the one who got away

Ask Roe: It had been years since we met, and in our 20s we were in love with each other

Relationship experts on secrets to long-term love

Love isn’t something you secure once and protect from change. It’s something you keep on creating

Love for life: ‘That evening, my life changed. The rest is history’

Couples together for decades reflect on the arc of their relationships, including the tough times and the everyday rituals that sustained them

Three Irish couples on navigating a long-term relationship: ‘The little things can mean the most’

Couples together for decades reflect on the arc of their relationships, including the tough times and the everyday rituals that sustained them

‘My boyfriend is so kind and loving, but I feel a bit bored’

Ask Roe: I’m worried if I leave I won’t find someone as caring as him, but I also feel stuck

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