Fontaines DC interview: Why don’t you hear Irish accents on the radio?
“I still feel there’s a lot of ground to be explored with guitars,” says Grian Chatten, frontman for thrilling Irish rock band Fontaines DC. “The sound of…
Why Ireland loves Ukraine: Irish bend over backwards to host refugees despite cost of living crisis
Most volunteers greeting new arrivals at the door at Palyanytsya fled Ukraine after the invasion. Alina Krytska, 29, a tax official from Kyiv, volunteers every day as…
This mad Irish road-trip is one of the best novels of 2022 so far
No-one listens to the radio or goes on a road-trip forever; you escape in the knowledge that the world will recapture you when you’re done. The duo…
The grey guide to going it alone: why solo travel is booming for over-55s
Travel for solo travellers is on the rise, especially among those in their 50s and 60s, say tour operators that focus on guided and specialist tours. Cox…
Finally back to normal… the growing list of nations that have ditched all Covid rules
Further north, Iceland has also dropped all of its restrictions. On February 25, Iceland announced that all visitors are welcome regardless of vaccination status, with no obligation…
The truth about why 1920s Irish rebels destroyed hundreds of country houses
On my first visit to Ireland, nearly 40 years ago, my future father-in-law drove me over to see Tudenham Park, a once-majestic Palladian mansion overlooking Lough Ennell…
The Dublin hotel where a two-night stay feels like a 10-day holiday
How I love hotels that exude a sense of place, order, continuity and peace, where all the elements – comfort, service, food – are in harmony, and where…
Comedian Dylan Moran: ‘The panel show circuit is a rigged game’
Words flow from him constantly as though he is reaching for golden coins out of the air, and scattering them across the table, certain they will always…
How to Gut a Fish by Sheila Armstrong review: unsettling stories from a striking new talent
The scene is a market in a “large, high-ceilinged warehouse”, it’s a Saturday morning, “crisp and clear”, and the traders are setting up tables of cosmetics and…
Let’s stop calling James Joyce’s Ulysses a difficult novel
It is beautifully descriptive, of course, virtuosic, and, as McHugh put it, “crammed with the richness of life”. But it is also, and this is why I…
At the movies with James Joyce – and his crabs
A digression. While researching the Volta opening programme I came across a silent comedy called Deviled Crabs dating from 1917, one of 78 “electrically convulsing fun shorts”…
James Joyce is still the greatest dead white male who ever lived
Dead, white men get a bad rap these days. They’re systematically blamed for manspreading across the canon, sending undergrads cowering behind library shelves with their supremacist content…
‘Hostage diplomacy’: The case of the Western executive held in China for three years
Irish businessman Richard O’Halloran has been held against his will in China for close to three years. In February 2019 he travelled to Shanghai to try and…
Travel to Ireland: latest holiday advice as Covid rules in pubs and restaurants are scrapped
Ireland has eased its Covid restrictions, meaning hospitality venues can return to normal operations (currently, pubs and restaurants must close at 8pm), and customers will not be…
Two men took corpse into a post office to claim deceased’s pension
“It’s all anyone has been talking about… it is unbelievable,” said a woman working in a beauty salon across the road from the post office. Another woman,…
Francis Rossi: ‘In Romania, I had two bodyguards – who came to the toilet with me’
A chauffeur in Paris told me a great story about Tommy Cooper I was in Paris with my first wife and two eldest children in the 1970s….
Ashling Murphy: Primary school teacher, 23, beaten to death while out jogging in Ireland
Her principal James Hogan said she was a “fantastic, beautiful, an extraordinary sportsperson, Irish musician, choral conductor and an inspiration”. Declan Harvey, Fianna Fail councillor for the…
Amazing places to stay for every type of holiday in 2022
The new year is upon us and things are already looking brighter for holidays. If you’re worried you’ve missed out on the buzz already, fear not. We…
Drunk tourist broke into Romanian dictator’s palace thinking it was his hotel
A drunk tourist broke into Romania’s Palace of the Parliament because he thought the huge building built on the orders of dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu was a hotel,…
Drunk tourist broke into Romania’s presidential palace thinking it was his hotel
A drunk tourist broke into Romania’s presidential palace after scaling a 6ft wall because he thought the “People’s House” was a hotel, police said. The unidentified Irish…
Irish foreign affairs officials had champagne party during lockdown
Irish officials and staff celebrated with champagne in their office during a “moment of happiness” after Ireland was elected to the UN Security Council in an apparent…
Joints, pints and Irish parties: the truth behind The Waterboys’ ‘escape from fame’
Room to Roam is no orthodox trad album. According to Scott, it was an attempt to create The Waterboys’ very own version of The Beatles’ kaleidoscopic opus,…
Ireland’s elites face a reckoning as Brussels demands higher taxes
The other was Communist East Germany, and Ireland couldn’t build a wall to keep its most talented from emigrating. So something had to change. For Whitaker, that…
Katherine Ryan: ‘I went to the Playboy Mansion while Hugh Hefner was alive’
When I tour, I mostly do it in the UK and Europe People will say, “Have you been to Cardiff? Have you been to Aberdeen? Have you…