Our Love Survived Distance but Not Silence
I used to think distance was the hardest thing two people could survive. When Cian got the job in Amsterdam, I cried into my scarf outside Heuston Station as if he was…
The Night We Shared Our Biggest Secrets
I met Niamh on a wet Thursday outside the Workman’s Club, when the rain was coming down sideways and everyone was pretending not to mind. I had been standing under the narrow…
She Remembered Everything Except Me
The first thing Maeve remembered was the smell of rain on the steps of the Hugh Lane Gallery. She said it before she said my name, though my name did not come…
The House We Bought Before We Broke Up
We got the keys on a wet Friday in November, the kind of Dublin rain that makes every streetlight look bruised. The house was in Drimnagh, a small redbrick terrace with a…
I Loved Someone Who Was Never Mine
I met him on a wet Tuesday outside Connolly Station, both of us pretending the rain was not getting through our coats. I had just moved to Dublin from Mayo and was…
The Goodbye That Took Ten Years
I met Ciarán on a wet Tuesday outside the IFI, both of us pretending we were not too early for the same French film. He had forgotten his umbrella and I had…
He Came Back When I Had Finally Moved On
For nearly two years, I measured Dublin by where I might run into him. I avoided the corner of South William Street where we had our first stupid argument over chips. I…
I Didn’t Know I Was the Other Man
I met her on a wet Thursday in Dublin, the kind of evening when the whole city seems to be shining under streetlights. I was waiting outside a café near Grafton Street,…
She Chose Peace Instead of Me
I met Niamh on a wet Thursday evening outside Whelan’s, where the queue was curling down Wexford Street and everyone was pretending the rain was grand. She had a blue scarf wrapped…
The Promise We Couldn’t Keep
We made the promise outside the old screen at the IFI, with rain shining on the cobbles of Temple Bar and her mascara smudged from laughing, not crying. Or at least that’s…