The chimes they are a-changing – Frank McNally on the joys of listening to church bells at nightChimes are a variation on a theme used by clocks and doorbells the world overThu Apr 18 2024 - 18:59
Murder Most Confusing – Frank McNally on Flann O’Brien’s murder weapon, Henry Marsh’s finger, and a relocated Joycean plaqueThe art and literature roundTue Apr 16 2024 - 19:31
Call the Avant-Gardes – Frank McNally on drunken art models, legendary barmen, and 100 years of Finnegans WakePedestal positionFri Apr 12 2024 - 18:59
Glass act – Frank McNally on the folk art of ‘God in a Bottle’Vernacular religious artThu Apr 11 2024 - 18:59
Hands of history – Frank McNally on the digital disenhancement of Fr MathewA chip off the old blockWed Apr 10 2024 - 18:59
Miniature monster – Frank McNally on the fall and rise of the “baby Guinness”A shot in the darkTue Apr 09 2024 - 18:59
Not All Greek – Frank McNally on Mohammad Syfkhan and the Irish bouzoukiHe whipped the audience into a frenzy and kept them there longer than seemed possibleThu Apr 04 2024 - 18:50
Where the streets have new names – Frank McNally on a French row with strong Irish echoesReturn to senderThu Apr 04 2024 - 09:42
Kingdom crack-shot – Frank McNally on Dennis Fenton, a forgotten Irish Olympian Feats of marksmanshipTue Apr 02 2024 - 18:59
Not-so-Fab Fifty – Frank McNally on a gloomy trend in half a century of pop musicA general drift toward lyrical melancholyFri Mar 29 2024 - 18:59
Age of innocence – Frank McNally on being traumatised by the increasing youth of taoisighThere was a time when ruling elders really were elderlyThu Mar 28 2024 - 18:59
See O’Rahilly Play – Frank McNally on the Irish birth of Radio Caroline, 60 years agoCaroline proved an instant success with listenersWed Mar 27 2024 - 18:59
Arms crisis – Frank McNally on a crash course in arm-wrestlingDuring the short bursts of arm-on-arm action, spectators can become highly animatedTue Mar 26 2024 - 19:30
Meat and Diary – Frank McNally on the importance of food in diary writingThis column was accidentally dragged into the transatlantic debate on whether UFOs existFri Mar 22 2024 - 18:59
Birds of a feather – Frank McNally on an unusual English tribute to the Irish writer Melesina Trench As a writer, she certainly had sharp talonsThu Mar 21 2024 - 18:59
Riveting personality – Frank McNally on an all-American (but part-Irish) heroineThe image of Rosie changed attitudes to women and workWed Mar 20 2024 - 20:45
Sermon on the Mounts — Frank McNally on a biblical week in Cheltenham The End is Nigh Handicap HurdleTue Mar 19 2024 - 18:59
Cheltenham: Irish re-establish dominance on final day as Willie Mullins adds Gold Cup to his haul Retired football managers turned horse owners Alex Ferguson and Harry Redknapp run out of luck after extraordinary winning streak on ThursdayFri Mar 15 2024 - 19:28
Cheltenham: Empire strikes back on Ireland’s least successful dayAlex Ferguson and Harry Redknapp among the winners on day three of festivalThu Mar 14 2024 - 20:17
Cheltenham: Langer Dan brings an Irish joke at English expenseWednesday’s opener an early St Patrick’s Day parade for Carlow handler as the first five home saddled by Ireland’s champion trainerWed Mar 13 2024 - 20:19
Cheltenham has changed: the days of the romantic underdog are rarer nowOn a day of dominance for Irish-trained horses at Cheltenham, led inevitably by Willie Mullins, even the sole plucky 'underdog’ winner of the day - Chianti Classico - was Irish-bredTue Mar 12 2024 - 21:28
Irish supporters in confident mood as annual Cheltenham invasion begins Irish trainers, led by the formidable Willie Mullins, expected to dominate four frantic days of Cheltenham Festival actionMon Mar 11 2024 - 20:24
Man’s second-best friend? – Frank McNally on a cinematic tribute to catsCats are natural film starsFri Mar 08 2024 - 18:59
Would Key – Frank McNally on the mystery of the ‘Irish Conditional’Past, present and futureThu Mar 07 2024 - 18:59
Beer hall putsch – Frank McNally on the Free State Army Mutiny of 1924The threat of a coup lasted until the early hours of March 19thWed Mar 06 2024 - 20:05
Train of thought – Frank McNally on the Dublin-Wexford railway route, the late Countess de Frenay, and the story of Long LambkinTo eat or not to eat, that is the questionTue Mar 05 2024 - 18:59
The newspapers were wrong – Frank McNally on the joys of unexpected snowfallWhen we all feel like we’re six years old againFri Mar 01 2024 - 18:59
Running commentary - Frank McNally on the statues of Dublin’s Merrion SquareThe southern and western sides lack any statues – moving or otherwiseThu Feb 29 2024 - 19:00
Desperate dispatches – Frank McNally on the competing schools of newspaper column writing Deadlines and inspirationWed Feb 28 2024 - 18:59
Loss horizon – Frank McNally on the pain of narrowly losing table quizzes and the pleasure of being a secret arts philanthropistPipped at the postFri Feb 23 2024 - 18:59
Year of living dangerously — Frank McNally on the madness that was Britain in 1974An era of plots and paranoiaThu Feb 22 2024 - 18:59
Coat of many characters — Frank McNally on a life-changing pilgrimage to Kildare Village Concerned friends have taken to buying me overcoats latelyWed Feb 21 2024 - 18:59
Identity parade — Frank McNally on being recognised (or not) in publicEven regular readers do not recognise journalists from byline pictures, which are often hilariously out of dateTue Feb 20 2024 - 19:30
Carving his place — Frank McNally on the sculptor Jerome Connor, born 150 years ago next weekHis return to Ireland from the US was to prove a bitter disappointmentFri Feb 16 2024 - 18:59
Two roads diverged — Frank McNally on historical confusion between the Irish Forestry Society and the Irish National ForestersThe tangling of branches and historyThu Feb 15 2024 - 18:59
High Drama — Frank McNally on Gaiety gods, simple Sadbhs, and Dublin street theatre All the world’s a stageWed Feb 14 2024 - 18:59
No Shrinking Violets — Frank McNally on sexy hotels, the rewilding of Trinity, and a revolutionary Anglo-Irish florist Petal power in the capitalTue Feb 13 2024 - 18:59
Seaman’s saviour — Frank McNally on the eponymous Samuel Plimsoll, born 200 years ago this weekendAn era in which ships were routinely sent to sea overloaded and undermannedFri Feb 09 2024 - 18:59
Rhine relics — Frank McNally on Irish cults in Strasbourg, an oddly named river, and the joys of a night in Frankfurt AirportSaints and venerationThu Feb 08 2024 - 18:59
Blowing up a storm — Frank McNally on winds of change in Strasbourg Pressure from farmers has prompted a series of tactical retreats by the EU in recent daysWed Feb 07 2024 - 18:59
On the clock — Frank McNally on the challenges of getting to and from StrasbourgCity’s famous clock is a multifaceted tour de force of science and religionTue Feb 06 2024 - 18:59
Patty’s Day Parade — Frank McNally on Patty Hearst, the Hibernia Bank and the ‘Singing O’Sullivans’An early example of “Stockholm Syndrome”Fri Feb 02 2024 - 18:59
Foreign missions — Frank McNally on Irish culture’s long reach, via Paris, Rome, and CaliforniaA day to remember for many devout followers of cultureThu Feb 01 2024 - 18:59
Beam me up — Frank McNally on the roof of St Patrick’s Cathedral, where some of the oak beams are 750 years oldA €9.4 million refurbishment has secured the cathedral’s futureWed Jan 31 2024 - 18:59
Reluctant rebel — Frank McNally on America’s ‘first modern’ painter, Maurice PrendergastAn easy-going personality with a radical reputationTue Jan 30 2024 - 18:59
New year revolution — Frank McNally on doing yoga, playing poker, and keeping everything in balanceMindfulness is a winning technique, apparentlyFri Jan 26 2024 - 18:59
Words of war — Frank McNally on the fighting Irish origins of the word ‘slogan’The old war cries became mere verbal decorations in the endThu Jan 25 2024 - 19:30
What the Krapp? — Frank McNally on phones in the theatre, Beckett’s lost love, and a technology ahead of its timeAn impromptu play within a playWed Jan 24 2024 - 18:59
Tower of song — Frank McNally on a musically inspiring Kilkenny castleThomas Moore’s The Last Rose of Summer may have been a victim of its own success for a whileFri Jan 19 2024 - 18:59
The original ‘Bunga Bunga’ — Frank McNally on an eccentric Corkman’s notorious prankHorace de Vere Cole’s band of pranksters included Virginia WoolfThu Jan 18 2024 - 18:59
