An Irishman's DiaryWHEN George Orwell wrote that modern sport was “war minus the shooting”, he did not apparently mean this as a complimentThu Jul 01 2010 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryI APOLOGISE in advance to tennis enthusiasts, whose sport I would not normally think of denigrating: if only because, most of…Sat Jun 26 2010 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryIN THE DEBATE about old media versus new, a subject you rarely hear discussed is the vast superiority of the former when it comes…Thu Jun 24 2010 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryNEWS THAT the French fast-food chain Quick has distanced itself from the national football team – or at any rate pulled its ads…Wed Jun 23 2010 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryTHAT Catherine Connelly lived to be almost 110 was remarkable in itselfSat Jun 19 2010 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryIT USED TO BE SAID that stand-up comedy was “the new rock and roll”Fri Jun 18 2010 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryOUT FOR A RUN in the Phoenix Park the other day, and passing Farmleigh, I noticed a sign advising the public that something called…Thu Jun 17 2010 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryJAMES JOYCE was famously preoccupied with the possibility that Dublin might have to be rebuilt some day and that, in Ulysses , …Wed Jun 16 2010 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryTHE BANKING inquiries have rightly concentrated on local contributions to Ireland’s meltdown, rather than already well-advertised…Fri Jun 11 2010 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryTHE MOST memorable piece of career advice I ever received was given to me in a railway station bar in Wagga Wagga, 21 years ago…Thu Jun 10 2010 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryAS IF things weren’t bad enough already, I notice that my favourite potatoes have become very hard to find recently, at least…Wed Jun 09 2010 - 01:00
A suit that puts years on youResearchers at the Ford motor company are using ‘bondage techniques’ to find out the effects ageing has on driversTue Jun 01 2010 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryI SEE THAT the famous Gloucestershire cheese-rolling festival, due to have been held this coming Monday, has been cancelled because…Sat May 29 2010 - 01:00
Brothers: 10 things a man could not do in 1970As The Irish Times’s Sisters supplement pointed out this week, women were not the only ones liberated over the past 40 years. …Sat May 29 2010 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryTHE SAME day as our Sisters supplement, by happy coincidence, an e-mail arrived from an English couple called Simon and Jill …Fri May 28 2010 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryIT’S a truism that survivors of the Famine and their descendants dealt with the trauma, for a century or so afterwards, by trying…Thu May 27 2010 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryARE AUDIENCES in this country a soft touch for overseas performers? I don’t just mean the ticket premium, which suggests we’re…Wed May 26 2010 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryON FOOT OF Thursday’s diary hailing Chief O’Neill for the success of his crusade to save Irish traditional music, I received …Sat May 22 2010 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryEVEN BY European standards, the centre of Aachen – where I spent a few hours on Wednesday – is a strange mixture of the ancient…Fri May 21 2010 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryI SEE THAT the Co Meath town of Trim now bills itself as Ireland’s satirical capitalWed May 19 2010 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryLIKE THE PAINTER Van Gogh, the Flemish city of Geel, in northern Belgium, is prone to having its name mispronouncedSat May 15 2010 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryTHE MIGRATION from these shores to the Cotswolds every March is all too frequently described as a “pilgrimage”Fri May 14 2010 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryTHE MODERN Greeks have been dominating the headlines of late, but it’s extraordinary how much the ancient ones are still with…Sat May 08 2010 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryTHERE’S A curious weather pattern that all cyclists will be familiar with: namely that when you’re riding a bike, no matter what…Fri May 07 2010 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryONE OF THE nice things about being a middle-aged runner is that, when you enter a race anywhere, you find yourself described …Wed May 05 2010 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryKildare Street, Dublin, April 26th, 2060 The last surviving veterans of Ireland’s “War Agin’ de Pensions” gathered outside Leinster…Sat May 01 2010 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryBETTY RYAN-O’GORMAN from Carlow has written seeking readers’ help on a matter arising from that Kevin Barry farewell letter: …Thu Apr 29 2010 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryIN THE FILM Gallipoli (1981), Mel Gibson and Mark Lee play two young Australian sprinters who meet on the running circuit in …Sat Apr 24 2010 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryPRIOR TO 2008, I had never suspected any similarity between Leonard Cohen and the No 10 busFri Apr 23 2010 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryI STOOD on the edge of a live volcano once, on the Japanese island of KyuhuThu Apr 22 2010 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryTHE ANNUAL Shannon Boat Rally used to be front-page news. Well, it made the front of The Irish Times at least once, anywayWed Apr 21 2010 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryBEFORE KRAKATOA blew its top in 1883, indirectly turning Percy French into a landscape painter (An Irishman’s Diary, yesterday…Sat Apr 17 2010 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryNO DOUBT scientists will tell us there are perfectly rational explanations for the current volcanic activity in IcelandFri Apr 16 2010 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryONE OF THE perils of attending sports events is having to put up with obnoxious, loud-mouth opposition fansThu Apr 15 2010 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryAT THE JARVEY STAND in glorious Killarney last Sunday, the horses were still shedding their winter coatsWed Apr 14 2010 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryAS copyright lawyers will know, today marks an important anniversary in their tradeSat Apr 10 2010 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryI SEE FROM his website that Rowan Gillespie, the sculptor responsible for the Treasury Building’s climbing female (An Irishman…Fri Apr 09 2010 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryAS A COMMERCIAL enterprise, the Pony Express of 19th-century America belongs in the museum of spectacular failures, alongside…Thu Apr 08 2010 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryONE OF the routine reporting jobs in any city newspaper is to ring the police and the fire brigade, periodically, and ask if …Wed Apr 07 2010 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryI’M NOT SURE what exactly that dramatic, climbing female figure on the wall of the Treasury Building in Dublin meansSat Apr 03 2010 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryFLICKING channels the other night, I chanced upon a documentary about the Swarbriggs, the Cavan brothers Jimmy and Tommy, who…Thu Apr 01 2010 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryALERT READER Joe Hackett has submitted the photograph, which was taken on his mobile phone in the arrivals area of Dublin Airport…Wed Mar 31 2010 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryWHEN PERFORMERS speak of “dying on stage”, this is usually just a metaphorSat Mar 27 2010 - 00:00
An Irishman's DiaryI’M BEGINNING to suspect that the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), rather than being an attempt to find the elusive Higgs boson – …Fri Mar 26 2010 - 00:00
An Irishman's DiaryNEVER MIND that he turns 77 next month, Paddy Lynch is just the sort of man this country needs in its hour of crisisThu Mar 25 2010 - 00:00
An Irishman's DiaryTHIS TIME last year, readers may recall, I told the story of Pádraig Dall Ó Beirn: “the last of the great Irish harpers”. Blind…Wed Mar 24 2010 - 00:00
