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![]() Nuala MccannThe Irish News |
A recent article featured interviews with students from Northern Ireland studying at universities in Dublin. “You’re not Irish. You’re not one...
He was a stranger on the television, but he felt so familiar. Since Michael Mosley went missing on that Greek island, we were with thousands of people...
I drove down to pick up my friend after her week on the camino. Her bus was due to pull in at the service station on the opposite side of the motorway...
Because the sun is butter yellow and the butter melting, because the weeds are sprouting lanky and threatening to lock us in like the sleeping...
My friend is heading off on her second camino. We did the last one together. This time, I’m waving her off. “I’ll leave you to the pick-up...
When I came across Hilary Bradt, the 82-year-old hitchhiker, she made me smile. But she did not make me want to grab a piece of cardboard, scrawl a...
We are approaching the age of the retirement bucket list. What’s on yours? Sky-diving, paddling up the Orinoco, seeing Venice and dying… or is...
We are planning for our beautiful niece’s wedding. She is the eldest grandchild; the adored first granddaughter of her granny. Ma was known to her...
Last year’s hydrangea flowers are rich pickings for our birds. Sometimes laziness has its own reward. I closed the back door on the garden last...
This retirement gig is not quite going to plan. It’s not all fun and lie-ins and lazy brunches. It’s not all holidays. There is a certain...
Over Easter, I sat down to write a letter. My writing is appalling. Even with a new fountain pen, it still looks like our house spider has run wild...
As you read this, the desert of Lent comes to an end and gives way to the dessert of Easter. What a difference an ‘s’ makes. After the fast, the...
Our boy has no time for going out to the cinema. He is a huge film buff and has introduced us to many little known, wonderful films. (Watching sex...
Start singing “Andy Pandy’s coming to play” and a generation will join in with “la, la, la-la, la, la”. We are 60 now, but Andy in his blue...
It seems like only yesterday that they were putting up beautiful poems on the Underground... and now the posters, cards and letters from the poets who...
Edie Ceccarelli, who passed away on Thursday, had just celebrated her 116th birthday. The whole town of Willits, California, had turned out for the...
Early 6am in our kitchen, and with a wave of the ice queen’s wand, she has gifted us this luminous white wintery light. It’s a misty morning and...
A kind boss and friend sent an old column of mine that he had come upon about a long-ago holiday in Nice. Our boy was about nine at the time. I...
My mother’s sister died last week. It felt like the end of an era. She had a long life – she was 98 – and she was the last of her family. There...
When it comes to saving the planet, I’m a little late to the party. That’s me in the corner wearing cheap, unsustainable sparkle and wielding a...
We broke the front door for the new year. One of us – guilty, yer honour – played a key role in the disaster; we do not blame, or at least not in...
My friend and I are chatting on the phone. “So for £44 a month, you get cover for your hips, knees, cataracts and the Big C,” I tell her....
It’s the most magical time of the year… pass a pinch of salt. Still, there is a stage when Christmas turns magical because you can’t do any...
Just a few more days and it will be solstice, says my dear friend and yoga teacher. Her room is a holy place. Take off your shoes, pad softly across...
WE are not cursing for Christmas.
WE are not cursing for Christmas.
CHRISTMAS is coming and for once, I have kicked my inner Grinch out the door.