Dublin’s O’Connell Street represents a spectacular failure of what our Republic should beSean Moncrieff: The main street of our capital city is still the figurative and geographical heart of our country and it should be treasuredSun Aug 06 2023 - 06:30
Seán Moncrieff: A holiday with four men I’ve known since childhood means story after story after storyThere is something fundamental about the connection we have, something we don’t quite understand, nor do we particularly need toSun Jul 30 2023 - 05:00
Seán Moncrieff: Any meal that doesn’t involve pasta with red stuff sparks a battle with my daughterDaughter Number Three survived largely on ketchup for some years, and we’re in the middle of the Meal Wars with Daughter Number FourSun Jul 23 2023 - 05:00
Seán Moncrieff: Summer garden parties at the Áras are the very essence of lovelinessThis really is Ireland: where, even in the President’s house, no one is told to get outSun Jul 16 2023 - 05:00
What I learned from working in RTÉ and elsewhere: It’s not conspiracy, it’s incompetenceSean Moncrieff: People would often waste inordinate amounts of time speculating on what various department heads were ‘up to’. The main canteen was often rife with gossipSun Jul 09 2023 - 05:00
Seán Moncrieff: My daughter has finally moved out, and the house is eerily quietIt’s not like we’ll never see my granddaughter again, but it will be a shame to miss the small daily changes as she grows upSun Jul 02 2023 - 05:00
Seán Moncrieff: Our overcrowded house is creaking at the seams It’s many months since Daughter Number One, the Boyfriend and Granddaughter Number One moved in, and there’s still no sign of them finding a place to rentSun Jun 25 2023 - 05:00
Seán Moncrieff: Snooty department stores make me want to yellIt’s the atmosphere. There’s a church-like reverence, mixed with a not inconsiderable dash of smugnessSun Jun 18 2023 - 06:30
Seán Moncrieff: You’ll never hear a straight man say: wow, those jeans fit you wellYou’ll never hear a straight man say: wow, those jeans fit you wellSun Jun 11 2023 - 05:00
Seán Moncrieff: It’s fun to speculate but we haven’t a clue what our kids will becomeDaughter Number Three is still herself, the person she always was. Just a slightly different versionSun Jun 04 2023 - 05:00
Seán Moncrieff: I wish I was a carpenter or plumber. I’d be coining it nowPlumbers seem to exist, yet are impossible to find, simultaneously phasing in and out of existence: Schrödinger’s plumbersSun May 28 2023 - 05:00
Seán Moncrieff: I want an ice cream van at my funeral and a headstone with this one baffling wordI’m not sure why this word appeals to me. It might as well say here lies a pretentious smart-ass who embarrassed his family with his dying wishSun May 21 2023 - 05:00
Seán Moncrieff: In the modern workplace, how do you know if your boss is mad with you?When I started in journalism, I received two types of feedback: shouting or no shoutingSun May 14 2023 - 05:00
Seán Moncrieff: Can ChatGPT write this column for me? The drivel it vomited up. Banal and cliche-ridden. No mention of Herself or the number-children. No woke virtue signallingSun May 07 2023 - 05:00
Seán Moncrieff: How about, Herself suggested, we don’t get solar panels for the house and have an adventure insteadMy friend told me he and his wife resigned from their jobs, were going travelling for a bit, and would then figure out a plan. That sounded like a planSat Apr 29 2023 - 05:00
Those of us with houses and jobs like to think we deserve the lives we have. But isn’t it just blind luck?Seán Moncrieff: A young man approached me asking for a favour. Afterwards, he walked off, back to his worldSat Apr 22 2023 - 05:00
Seán Moncrieff: Funeral sandwiches are part of the Irish grieving processWhen a loved one dies, there is a comfort in ordinariness. It’s not a time when you want any surprises or innovationsSun Apr 16 2023 - 05:00
Seán Moncrieff: My sense of smell is abysmal. Herself? She is a super-smeller‘Not all her senses are boosted. After a lifetime of wearing glasses and contacts – and after some years of talking about it – she finally opted to get the eyes lasered’Sat Apr 08 2023 - 05:00
Seán Moncrieff on birthday party factories: Daughter Number Four is attending the same one as a fortnight ago If you time it right, you can arrive just in time for the tuneless Happy Birthday rendition, smile indulgently for two minutes and then leaveSat Apr 01 2023 - 05:00
Seán Moncrieff: House-hunting in Dublin is like The Hunger Games. Many have simply given upWhat we have is analogous to an internal refugee problem, and it will take many years and imagination to fixSat Mar 25 2023 - 05:00
Seán Moncrieff: The tendency to turn fiction into hard fact takes a darker turn onlineThere seems to be a growing willingness to prefer a more fantastical version of events over what’s evident, logical or likelySat Mar 18 2023 - 05:00
Seán Moncrieff: ‘My daughter said I might be mildly traumatised. Her generation likes to throw around the T-word’My mind felt stuffed with everything I was told and everything I’d seen, to the extent that I found it difficult to answer the simple question: what was Ukraine like?Sat Mar 11 2023 - 05:00
Seán Moncrieff: There’s nothing wrong with Irish trains. As long as you’re not going to Donegal, Cavan, Monaghan or west CorkGet on a train in Europe and you might meet the modern version of Bogart. Get on the train to Portarlington and you might see Ed SheerinSat Mar 04 2023 - 05:00
Seán Moncrieff: I tried to look as relaxed as a beardy old geezer surrounded by 400 20-something women can beI learned a lot from watching Daughter Number One perfrom a hilarious and absolutely filthy showSat Feb 25 2023 - 05:00
Seán Moncrieff: I saw a group of men at a service station who were not Irish and were all of ‘fighting age’How many other passers-by saw them and assumed they could pose a problem?Sat Feb 18 2023 - 05:00
Seán Moncrieff: I’m a man. If I had periods I’d never shut up about itIf men had periods, the way we organise work and sport and life in general would be completely differentSat Feb 11 2023 - 06:11
Seán Moncrieff: Within living memory, children in Ireland were regarded as a burdenTheir feelings were irrelevant, and any expression of them was viewed as dysfunction or defianceSat Feb 04 2023 - 05:00
Seán Moncrieff: All families have their difficulties. Bad marriages. Tragedy. Siblings that don’t get onWhy are the Irish so obsessed with the royal saga? Because we can identify with the family dramaSat Jan 28 2023 - 05:00
Seán Moncrieff: It’s no wonder so many people choose to believe in a God, despite the lack of evidenceOur loves, our experiences and our actions, while significant to us, make little or no difference. That’s a terrifying thoughtSat Jan 21 2023 - 05:00
Seán Moncrieff: No visiting. No visitors. Covid robbed us of a Christmas with the people we loveSanta-like, I spent Christmas Eve driving around Dublin and leaving presents outside front doorsSat Jan 14 2023 - 05:00
Seán Moncrieff: After a lifetime of it, I am addicted to busyness There’s an undeniable dopamine hit from having a list of things to do, and getting them doneSat Jan 07 2023 - 05:00
The key to a happy Christmas? Care a little less about getting it perfectSeán Moncrieff: It’s Christmas Eve. Forget about all the things you haven’t done. Put your feet up and soak it all inSat Dec 24 2022 - 05:00
Seán Moncrieff: Spare a thought for the stingy person in your life this ChristmasGiving is always better than receiving, unless you’re one of those people who doesn’t get what sharing is forSat Dec 17 2022 - 05:00
Seán Moncrieff: It’s office Christmas party time, and we’re all a bundle of nervesYou start to wonder if you shouldn’t go, or make an appearance and go home early. Enjoying yourself is exhaustingSat Dec 10 2022 - 05:00
Seán Moncrieff: For a radio presenter, I’m rubbish at small talkSeán Moncrieff: Sometimes, it’s not that important what you are talking about. Just that you are talking at all.Sat Dec 03 2022 - 05:00
Seán Moncrieff: My wife showed everyone her new tattoo – everyone except her motherThe roles assigned to us through our family structures – parent, child, sibling – are never completely escapableSat Nov 26 2022 - 05:00
Seán Moncrieff: This World Cup raises uncomfortable questions for fansFans will be watching their beloved sport take place in stadiums constructed from the blood of other peopleSat Nov 19 2022 - 05:00
Seán Moncrieff: Breaking up with your TV provider is hard to doI got sarky with the call centre guy, but he was only doing his jobSat Nov 12 2022 - 05:00
The most disturbing aspect of Twitter? Its consistent ability to reveal people at their absolute worstSeán Moncrieff: The social media platform is designed to promote gut reactions in the shortest number of charactersSat Nov 05 2022 - 05:00
Seán Moncrieff: Are young people really so offended by emojis in the workplace? Give them some creditStories revealing the latest alleged Gen Z thin-skinned foible undermine not just that generation, but everything they are concerned aboutSat Oct 29 2022 - 05:00
Seán Moncrieff: When inexplicable tragedy occurs, we all feel itGod or not, nature has made us a community animal, hard-wired for sympathy, to care for each otherSat Oct 22 2022 - 05:00
Seán Moncrieff: There’s too much of everything. And it’s making us unhappyHave we finally reached the point where our eyes are bigger than our bellies?Sat Oct 15 2022 - 05:00
Seán Moncrieff: She fully expressed her architectural vision – two rugs suspended across the hallwayDaughter Number Four’s urge to create a pretend home within the perfectly good home she has is intriguingSat Oct 08 2022 - 05:00
Sean Moncrieff: The Hook Head lighthouse and a troublesome outside broadcastSo much of the way we live is dependent on systems that we are, mostly, barely aware ofSat Oct 01 2022 - 04:30
Seán Moncrieff: What is ‘Irishness’? The answer is increasingly and wonderfully complexThere’s a magically intangible quality to Irishness that rubs off on people and becomes part of themSat Sept 24 2022 - 05:00
Seán Moncrieff: My drinking is under control now, but it is a constant effortThe Friday bottle of wine spread to other nights. The days I didn’t drink became the exceptionSat Sept 17 2022 - 05:00
Seán Moncrieff: Granddaughter Number One has arrived. Her hobbies include sleeping and poopingI’m taken with a sense of how there’s a new generation of my family stretching into the future. The wheel of life and death and love endlessly refreshing itselfSat Sept 10 2022 - 05:00
Seán Moncrieff: Our six-year-old is asking the Santa Question. Can we keep the magic alive for one more year? It’s only 113 days to Christmas. And I bet I’m not the first to mention itSat Sept 03 2022 - 05:00
Seán Moncrieff: I’m more boring in person than some people expectA few can’t hide their disappointment that I am not the Mad Crack person they wanted me to beSat Aug 27 2022 - 05:00
Seán Moncrieff: Why are so many men content to be dressed by their partners? I have met many women who insist on choosing clothes for their partners. It’s infantilising and weirdSat Aug 20 2022 - 05:00