Generated by Rank Math SEO, this is an llms.txt file designed to help LLMs better understand and index this website. # #site_title: humans of Dublin ireland official - Be yourself & Care for Others - HumansofIreland ## Sitemaps [XML Sitemap](https://humansofireland.ie/sitemap_index.xml): Includes all crawlable and indexable pages. ## Posts - [The Teenager Who Helped a Refugee Child Learn English](https://humansofireland.ie/the-teenager-who-helped-a-refugee-child-learn-english-2/): I was seventeen when I met Samir, and I was old enough to think I had very little to offer anyone. That summer, my school in north inner-city Dublin asked for volunteers… - [The Teenager Who Helped a Refugee Child Learn English](https://humansofireland.ie/the-teenager-who-helped-a-refugee-child-learn-english/): I was sixteen the summer I met Sami, and I thought empathy was mostly a word adults used when they wanted teenagers to stop being selfish. I lived in Cabra, took the… - [The Stranger Who Carried an Elderly Shopper’s Bags Every Week](https://humansofireland.ie/the-stranger-who-carried-an-elderly-shoppers-bags-every-week/): I first noticed them outside the little supermarket near Phibsborough on a Thursday afternoon, the kind of damp Dublin afternoon where the sky seems to sit on your shoulders. I was working… - [The Little Girl Who Shared Her Umbrella Every Rainy Morning](https://humansofireland.ie/the-little-girl-who-shared-her-umbrella-every-rainy-morning/): For three weeks last November, I met the same little girl every rainy morning outside the bus stop near Drumcondra. I was staying in a small room above a shop after my… - [The Young Chef Who Cooked for Families During Hard Times](https://humansofireland.ie/the-young-chef-who-cooked-for-families-during-hard-times/): I was twenty-three when the kitchen I worked in near Temple Bar went quiet. Not peaceful quiet, but that strange kind of silence where the fridges still hummed and the stainless-steel counters… - [The Neighbourhood That Rebuilt One Woman’s Home Together](https://humansofireland.ie/the-neighbourhood-that-rebuilt-one-womans-home-together/): I used to think I was invisible on my road in Stoneybatter. Not in a sad way, exactly. I knew the woman in number 14 had a terrier that barked at cyclists,… - [The Volunteer Who Drove Cancer Patients to Hospital Every Week](https://humansofireland.ie/the-volunteer-who-drove-cancer-patients-to-hospital-every-week/): I started driving cancer patients to hospital the year after my wife died. That sounds noble when I say it now, but it wasn’t noble at the time. It was survival. The… - [The Man Who Rebuilt a Burned Playground Without Recognition](https://humansofireland.ie/the-man-who-rebuilt-a-burned-playground-without-recognition/): The playground burned on a Tuesday night, just after the rain had stopped and the streets around Portland Row were shining under the lamps. I remember the smell most of all, that… - [The Child Who Waited Every Day for a Father Who Couldn’t Come Home](https://humansofireland.ie/the-child-who-waited-every-day-for-a-father-who-couldnt-come-home/): I was eight the winter my father stopped coming through the door at six o’clock. Before that, the sound of his key was the surest thing in our flat in Ballybough. The… - [The Music Teacher Who Never Charged Families in Need](https://humansofireland.ie/the-music-teacher-who-never-charged-families-in-need-2/): I met Mrs. O’Leary on a wet Tuesday evening outside the music room in Marino, when my son was nine and I was pretending not to count coins in my coat pocket.… - [The Music Teacher Who Never Charged Families in Need](https://humansofireland.ie/the-music-teacher-who-never-charged-families-in-need/): I first heard about Mr. Kavanagh from a notice taped to the window of a launderette in Phibsborough, the kind of handwritten notice you almost miss because it has curled at the… - [The Couple Who Fostered Elderly Rescue Dogs](https://humansofireland.ie/the-couple-who-fostered-elderly-rescue-dogs/): We never meant to become known as the couple with the old dogs. At the start, it was only meant to be one quiet foster, something gentle after the house had gone… - [The Girl Who Wrote Letters to Residents in Care Homes](https://humansofireland.ie/the-girl-who-wrote-letters-to-residents-in-care-homes/): I started writing the letters because I could not bear the quiet in my own flat. It was a small place in Phibsborough, above a pharmacy, and during those long months when… - [The Stranger Who Quietly Paid Someone’s Electricity Bill](https://humansofireland.ie/the-stranger-who-quietly-paid-someones-electricity-bill/): I was in the post office near Phibsborough on a wet Tuesday morning, the kind of rain that seems to come at you sideways and make everyone look slightly defeated. I had… - [The Old Bicycle That Connected Three Generations](https://humansofireland.ie/the-old-bicycle-that-connected-three-generations/): The bicycle was older than me, older than my daughter, and, according to my father, “still younger than some of the grudges in Dublin.” It leaned for years against the back wall… - [The Delivery Driver Who Always Carried Extra Blankets in Winter](https://humansofireland.ie/the-delivery-driver-who-always-carried-extra-blankets-in-winter/): I met Marek on the coldest Tuesday I can remember in Dublin. The kind of evening where the air seemed to come up through the soles of your shoes, and every bus… - [The Woman Who Sat With Strangers at Funerals With No Family](https://humansofireland.ie/the-woman-who-sat-with-strangers-at-funerals-with-no-family/): I first noticed her in the back pew of a small chapel near Glasnevin Cemetery, wearing a navy coat with a missing button and holding a folded tissue like it was a… - [The Teenager Who Started a Community Garden for Elderly Residents](https://humansofireland.ie/the-teenager-who-started-a-community-garden-for-elderly-residents/): I was seventeen when I first noticed how quiet the courtyard had become. I lived with my mam in a block of flats near Dublin city centre, the kind of place where… - [The Boy Who Helped His Grandfather Learn to Read](https://humansofireland.ie/the-boy-who-helped-his-grandfather-learn-to-read/): I was eleven when I found out my grandfather couldn’t read. Until then, I thought he was the cleverest man in Dublin. He could fix a kettle with a butter knife, tell… - [The Florist Who Delivered Flowers to Widows Every Mother’s Day](https://humansofireland.ie/the-florist-who-delivered-flowers-to-widows-every-mothers-day-2/): I run a small flower shop off the North Circular Road, not far from Phibsborough, the sort of place people pass without noticing unless they need carnations for a school play, lilies… - [The Florist Who Delivered Flowers to Widows Every Mother’s Day](https://humansofireland.ie/the-florist-who-delivered-flowers-to-widows-every-mothers-day/): I used to think Mother’s Day was the happiest day in a florist’s calendar. That was before I owned a little flower shop near Rathmines and learned how many different kinds of… - [The Police Officer Who Returned Every Year to Check on One Family](https://humansofireland.ie/the-police-officer-who-returned-every-year-to-check-on-one-family/): I was twelve the first time Garda Declan Byrne came to our flat in Stoneybatter. It was the winter after my father died, the kind of Dublin winter that got into the… - [The Boy in the Bed by the Window](https://humansofireland.ie/the-boy-in-the-bed-by-the-window/): When my daughter was seven, she spent five nights in CHI at Temple Street with a chest infection that frightened the life out of me. I remember the small sounds more than… - [The Restaurant That Never Let Anyone Eat Alone at Christmas](https://humansofireland.ie/the-restaurant-that-never-let-anyone-eat-alone-at-christmas/): The first Christmas after my mother died, I planned to spend the day with the curtains closed in my flat near Phibsborough, eating toast and pretending the phone had broken. My sister… - [The Volunteer Who Remembered Every Shelter Dog’s Name](https://humansofireland.ie/the-volunteer-who-remembered-every-shelter-dogs-name/): I first went to the shelter in Rathfarnham on a wet Tuesday, the kind of Dublin day that makes even the trees look tired. I had no plan to adopt. I told… - [A Farmer Who Opened His Land for Community Walks](https://humansofireland.ie/a-farmer-who-opened-his-land-for-community-walks/): I used to think a field was only a field if it was working for you. Grass for cattle, hay for winter, a ditch to keep the wind off, a gate to… - [The Barber Who Gave Haircuts to People Sleeping Rough](https://humansofireland.ie/the-barber-who-gave-haircuts-to-people-sleeping-rough/): I used to think a haircut was a small thing. A tidy-up, a skin fade, a bit off the top before a wedding or a job interview. I had a chair in… - [The Young Couple Who Chose Charity Instead of Wedding Gifts](https://humansofireland.ie/the-young-couple-who-chose-charity-instead-of-wedding-gifts/): Three months before our wedding, myself and Ciarán were standing in Arnotts arguing quietly over a toaster. Not a dramatic argument, just that tired kind couples have when they are pretending to… - [The Librarian Who Helped a Homeless Teen Finish School](https://humansofireland.ie/the-librarian-who-helped-a-homeless-teen-finish-school/): I was seventeen the winter I learned that a library could feel warmer than a bedroom. I had no bedroom then, only a rucksack, a school jumper I washed in sinks, and… - [The Carpenter Who Built Wheelchair Ramps for Free](https://humansofireland.ie/the-carpenter-who-built-wheelchair-ramps-for-free/): When my mother came home from the Mater after her stroke, the first thing we learned was that a house can love you for forty years and still become a stranger overnight.… - [The Family Who Invited a Lonely Neighbour to Every Holiday Dinner](https://humansofireland.ie/the-family-who-invited-a-lonely-neighbour-to-every-holiday-dinner/): When we moved into our little red-brick terrace near Stoneybatter, I thought I knew what loneliness looked like. I had seen it on buses, in the wet windows of cafés, in old… - [The Girl Who Left Positive Notes Around the City](https://humansofireland.ie/the-girl-who-left-positive-notes-around-the-city/): I started leaving notes around Dublin the winter after my mother died. It sounds sweeter than it was. At the time, it was mostly because I couldn’t bear the quiet of my… - [The Bus Passenger Who Stayed Until a Lost Tourist Got Home Safely](https://humansofireland.ie/the-bus-passenger-who-stayed-until-a-lost-tourist-got-home-safely/): I was on the 16 bus coming in from the airport on a wet Thursday evening, the kind of Dublin rain that does not fall so much as hang in the air… - [The Birthday Money He Gave Away](https://humansofireland.ie/the-birthday-money-he-gave-away/): My son turned nine on a wet Saturday in March, the kind of Dublin rain that seems too tired to fall properly and just hangs in the air. We had planned a… - [The Student Who Taught Elderly People How to Video Call Their Families](https://humansofireland.ie/the-student-who-taught-elderly-people-how-to-video-call-their-families/): I was in my second year at TU Dublin when I first walked into the community room near Stoneybatter with a backpack full of chargers, a cracked phone screen, and the confidence… - [The Woman Who Read Books to Blind Neighbours Every Weekend](https://humansofireland.ie/the-woman-who-read-books-to-blind-neighbours-every-weekend/): I first heard her voice through the wall on a wet Saturday in Phibsborough. I had moved into a small flat near the canal after my marriage ended, and I was living… - [The Gardener Who Filled Empty Streets With Flowers](https://humansofireland.ie/the-gardener-who-filled-empty-streets-with-flowers/): I first noticed him on a wet Tuesday morning in Stoneybatter, kneeling beside a cracked patch of earth near a shuttered shopfront. The street was almost empty then, the kind of empty… - [The Boy Who Walked His Neighbour’s Dog After School](https://humansofireland.ie/the-boy-who-walked-his-neighbours-dog-after-school/): I used to see the boy from my kitchen window every afternoon at twenty past three, still in his school jumper, dragging a bag that looked too heavy for him and holding… - [The Man Who Sent Anonymous Grocery Vouchers Every Christmas](https://humansofireland.ie/the-man-who-sent-anonymous-grocery-vouchers-every-christmas/): The first envelope came the Christmas after my father died. I was eleven, old enough to know that my mother was pretending not to be frightened, and young enough to believe that… - [A Stranger Who Waited Three Hours With Someone Having a Panic Attack](https://humansofireland.ie/a-stranger-who-waited-three-hours-with-someone-having-a-panic-attack/): I had my first panic attack outside the Luas stop at St Stephen’s Green, though at the time I was certain it was a heart attack, a stroke, or some private punishment… - [The Waitress Who Secretly Paid an Elderly Couple’s Bill](https://humansofireland.ie/the-waitress-who-secretly-paid-an-elderly-couples-bill/): I was nineteen when I started working weekends in a small café just off Grafton Street, the kind of place where tourists came in dripping rain from their coats and regulars knew… - [The Mechanic Who Repaired Cars for Single Parents for Free](https://humansofireland.ie/the-mechanic-who-repaired-cars-for-single-parents-for-free/): I met Pat on a wet Tuesday morning in Phibsborough, the kind of morning when Dublin seems to be made entirely of bus spray, grey sky, and people pretending they are not… - [The Nurse Who Remembered Every Patient’s Favourite Song](https://humansofireland.ie/the-nurse-who-remembered-every-patients-favourite-song/): I met Nurse Bríd on a Tuesday morning in the Mater, the kind of wet Dublin morning where everyone arrives carrying rain on their shoulders. My father had been admitted after a… - [The Little Library That Changed an Entire Community](https://humansofireland.ie/the-little-library-that-changed-an-entire-community/): I put the first shelf outside our house in Phibsborough because I was lonely and too proud to say it out loud. It was the spring after my father died, and the… - [The Volunteer Who Never Missed a Christmas Dinner for the Homeless](https://humansofireland.ie/the-volunteer-who-never-missed-a-christmas-dinner-for-the-homeless/): I first met Martin on Christmas morning outside a parish hall near Smithfield, when the city still had that half-asleep look, all silver pavements and closed shutters. I had signed up to… - [The Musician Who Played Outside the Hospital Every Friday](https://humansofireland.ie/the-musician-who-played-outside-the-hospital-every-friday/): I first noticed him outside the Mater on a wet Friday in November, when the rain was coming down sideways over Eccles Street and everyone looked like they were carrying bad news… - [The Child Who Shared His Birthday Presents With Foster Kids](https://humansofireland.ie/the-child-who-shared-his-birthday-presents-with-foster-kids/): My son turned eight on a wet Saturday in Stoneybatter, the sort of Dublin day where the rain seems to hang in the air rather than fall. We had balloons taped to… - [A Widower Who Continued Buying Two Coffees Every Weekend](https://humansofireland.ie/a-widower-who-continued-buying-two-coffees-every-weekend-2/): Every Saturday morning, I bought two coffees from the same little café off Grafton Street. One flat white for me, one oat latte for my wife, Nora. The habit started when she… - [A Widower Who Continued Buying Two Coffees Every Weekend](https://humansofireland.ie/a-widower-who-continued-buying-two-coffees-every-weekend/): Every Saturday morning, for nearly eight months after Maeve died, I bought two coffees from the same little café near Smithfield. One flat white for me, one cappuccino for her. I know… - [The Bakery That Left Fresh Bread Outside Every Morning](https://humansofireland.ie/the-bakery-that-left-fresh-bread-outside-every-morning/): I first noticed the bread on a Tuesday morning, when the city still looked half-asleep and the buses on Thomas Street were sighing at the kerb. I had been walking to a… - [The Girl Who Started Smiling at Everyone After Losing Her Own Smile](https://humansofireland.ie/the-girl-who-started-smiling-at-everyone-after-losing-her-own-smile/): I used to be known for my smile. That sounds like a silly thing to say about yourself, but in my family it was almost my job. At weddings in Finglas, at… - [The Postman Who Became an Old Woman’s Only Friend](https://humansofireland.ie/the-postman-who-became-an-old-womans-only-friend/): I delivered letters around Stoneybatter for nearly seventeen years, long enough to know which dogs were harmless, which doors stuck in winter, and which houses had gone quiet after somebody died. People… - [The Teenager Who Visited an Elderly Neighbour Every Sunday](https://humansofireland.ie/the-teenager-who-visited-an-elderly-neighbour-every-sunday/): I was sixteen when my mother first sent me across the landing to Mrs Kavanagh’s flat in Stoneybatter with a plate of brown bread and a warning not to come back in… - [The Hairdresser Who Gave Free Haircuts Before Job Interviews](https://humansofireland.ie/the-hairdresser-who-gave-free-haircuts-before-job-interviews/): I met Martin on a wet Tuesday morning in Dublin, the kind of morning where the rain seems to come up from the footpath as much as down from the sky. I… - [A Doctor Who Always Stayed Five Minutes Longer for Every Lonely Patient](https://humansofireland.ie/a-doctor-who-always-stayed-five-minutes-longer-for-every-lonely-patient/): I first noticed it on a wet Tuesday evening in Smithfield, when the windows of our small GP clinic had gone black and the buses hissed past like tired animals. I was… - [The Neighbour Who Cleared Snow From Every Elderly Home on the Street](https://humansofireland.ie/the-neighbour-who-cleared-snow-from-every-elderly-home-on-the-street/): The snow came down on a Wednesday night, the kind that makes Dublin look innocent for about six hours before it turns to grey slush and trouble. I live on a small… - [The Stranger Who Helped an Overwhelmed New Mother Without Saying a Word](https://humansofireland.ie/the-stranger-who-helped-an-overwhelmed-new-mother-without-saying-a-word/): I had been a mother for seventeen days when I learned that crying in public feels different from crying at home. At home, the walls know you. The kettle knows you. The… - [The School Caretaker Who Secretly Paid Students’ Lunch Debts](https://humansofireland.ie/the-school-caretaker-who-secretly-paid-students-lunch-debts/): I worked as the caretaker in a small secondary school on the north side for nearly nineteen years. I won’t name it, because the school is still there and the children are… - [The Taxi Driver Who Never Took Money From Cancer Patients](https://humansofireland.ie/the-taxi-driver-who-never-took-money-from-cancer-patients/): I met Martin outside St. James’s Hospital on a wet Tuesday morning when Dublin looked like it had been rinsed and left on the line too long. I had just finished my… - [The Dog That Refused to Leave Its Elderly Owner’s Hospital Window](https://humansofireland.ie/the-dog-that-refused-to-leave-its-elderly-owners-hospital-window/): I first met Mr. Duffy because of his dog. Not the other way around. The dog was a scruffy little terrier called Moss, with grey whiskers, one folded ear, and the kind… - [The Firefighter Who Returned Years Later to Meet the Child He Saved](https://humansofireland.ie/the-firefighter-who-returned-years-later-to-meet-the-child-he-saved/): I was twenty-nine when the call came in from Stoneybatter, and I remember thinking, in the foolish way you do before a bad thing shows its face, that I’d still make it… - [The Café Owner Who Never Charged Hungry Children](https://humansofireland.ie/the-cafe-owner-who-never-charged-hungry-children/): I was nine the first time I walked into Mr. Kavanagh’s café with no money. It was a narrow place off Dublin’s northside, not far from the bus stop where my mother… - [A Young Girl Started Leaving Warm Coats on Park Benches Every Winter](https://humansofireland.ie/a-young-girl-started-leaving-warm-coats-on-park-benches-every-winter/): The first coat belonged to my daughter, Maeve, and it was far too small for her. Red, with a missing button and a hood shaped like a little bear’s head. She was… - [The Woman Who Sat Beside Lonely Patients Who Had No Visitors](https://humansofireland.ie/the-woman-who-sat-beside-lonely-patients-who-had-no-visitors/): I first noticed her because she was always there before the kettle boiled. I was working as a healthcare assistant in a ward near the old side of the Mater, doing the… - [The Teacher Who Bought Shoes for a Student Without Telling Anyone](https://humansofireland.ie/the-teacher-who-bought-shoes-for-a-student-without-telling-anyone/): I was thirteen when I learned that kindness can be quiet. Not the sort that arrives with speeches or a photograph for the school newsletter, but the sort that slips in through… - [The Homeless Man Who Returned My Lost Wallet With Every Euro Inside](https://humansofireland.ie/the-homeless-man-who-returned-my-lost-wallet-with-every-euro-inside/): I lost my wallet on a wet Thursday evening in Dublin, the kind of rain that doesn’t fall so much as hang in the air and slowly enter your bones. I had… - [The Little Boy Who Saved His Pocket Money to Buy His Mum Flowers](https://humansofireland.ie/the-little-boy-who-saved-his-pocket-money-to-buy-his-mum-flowers/): I was eight when I decided my mother needed flowers. Not wanted them, needed them. There is a difference a child can feel before he has the words for it. We were… - [She Visited the Same Nursing Home Even Though She Had No Family There](https://humansofireland.ie/she-visited-the-same-nursing-home-even-though-she-had-no-family-there/): I used to work the Sunday evening shift in a nursing home near Glasnevin, the kind of place where the kettle was never cold and the television was always a little too… - [The Bus Driver Who Quietly Paid for a Stranger’s Fare Every Morning](https://humansofireland.ie/the-bus-driver-who-quietly-paid-for-a-strangers-fare-every-morning/): I used to get the 16 from near Dublin Airport into town for work, back when my life was held together by early alarms, instant coffee, and the hope that nobody would… - [The Elderly Man Who Ate Lunch Alone Every Friday Until Someone Finally Joined Him](https://humansofireland.ie/the-elderly-man-who-ate-lunch-alone-every-friday-until-someone-finally-joined-him/): Every Friday at exactly ten past one, an elderly man came into the little café where I worked near Smithfield. He wore the same brown wool coat, the kind that had gone… - [Our Love Story Was Never Meant to Be, Yet It Was](https://humansofireland.ie/our-love-story-was-never-meant-to-be-yet-it-was/): I met her because the rain was doing what Dublin rain does best, pretending it was only a drizzle while soaking everyone to the bone. I was outside Pearse Station with a… - [She Never Knew She Saved Me](https://humansofireland.ie/she-never-knew-she-saved-me/): I met Aisling on a wet Thursday evening outside St Stephen’s Green, though “met” is too grand a word for what happened at first. I was standing under the trees by the… - [The Choice Between Love and Family](https://humansofireland.ie/the-choice-between-love-and-family-2/): I used to think love would arrive like it does in films, with music swelling and the whole world stepping aside. In my case, it arrived on a wet Tuesday outside the… - [The Choice Between Love and Family](https://humansofireland.ie/the-choice-between-love-and-family/): I was twenty-eight when I realised love could feel like standing at a bus stop in the rain, watching two buses arrive at the same time, knowing you could only get on… - [The Rainy Evening That Became Our Beginning](https://humansofireland.ie/the-rainy-evening-that-became-our-beginning/): I met Clara on a wet Thursday evening outside Tara Street Station, the kind of rain that seems to fall sideways in Dublin. I was twenty-nine, carrying a broken umbrella, a gym… - [The Person I Lost Before I Ever Had Them](https://humansofireland.ie/the-person-i-lost-before-i-ever-had-them/): I found out in the bathroom of a café off George’s Street, with rain tapping the window like it was trying to get my attention. I had gone in because I was… - [We Shared One Summer and a Lifetime of Memories](https://humansofireland.ie/we-shared-one-summer-and-a-lifetime-of-memories/): I met Clara on a Tuesday in June, under the clock at Connolly Station, because both of us were late for trains we ended up missing. She was trying to get to… - [The Relationship That Changed Me Without Lasting](https://humansofireland.ie/the-relationship-that-changed-me-without-lasting/): I met Aoife in the queue for coffee on South William Street, both of us pretending not to be freezing. It was one of those grey Dublin mornings where everyone looks personally… - [He Returned With the Words I Had Waited Years to Hear](https://humansofireland.ie/he-returned-with-the-words-i-had-waited-years-to-hear/): I saw him first in the reflection of the café window, not directly. I was sitting inside Bewley’s on Grafton Street, watching rain slide down the glass in crooked little rivers, when… - [The Girl Who Taught Me How to Love Myself](https://humansofireland.ie/the-girl-who-taught-me-how-to-love-myself/): I met her on a wet Tuesday evening in Dublin, the kind of evening where the rain doesn’t fall so much as hang in the air and make everyone look a little… - [The Goodbye That Finally Set Us Free](https://humansofireland.ie/the-goodbye-that-finally-set-us-free/): I met Daniel on a wet Tuesday evening outside the Abbey Theatre, both of us pretending not to be lost. I was twenty-six, newly moved to Dublin from Galway, carrying a tote… - [I Thought We Had Forever](https://humansofireland.ie/i-thought-we-had-forever/): I met Aoife on a wet Thursday outside Whelan’s, both of us pretending we weren’t waiting for the rain to calm down. She had a paper bag of chips under her coat… - [She Left Without Taking Her Favourite Book](https://humansofireland.ie/she-left-without-taking-her-favourite-book/): When Maeve moved into my flat in Rathmines, she arrived with two suitcases, a basil plant, and a battered copy of The Country Girls held to her chest like a passport. She… - [The Man Who Never Stopped Waiting](https://humansofireland.ie/the-man-who-never-stopped-waiting/): I met him outside Connolly Station on a wet Tuesday in February, the kind of Dublin rain that doesn’t fall so much as settle into your clothes and stay there. I was… - [Our Story Was Beautiful Because It Ended](https://humansofireland.ie/our-story-was-beautiful-because-it-ended-2/): I met him on a wet Thursday outside the Abbey Theatre, both of us pretending we weren’t lost. He had a paper map in his hand, which I found ridiculous and charming… - [Our Story Was Beautiful Because It Ended](https://humansofireland.ie/our-story-was-beautiful-because-it-ended/): I met Aoife on a wet Tuesday in Stoneybatter, the kind of rain that makes everyone look like they are apologising to the sky. I had ducked into a small café near… - [The Night We Decided to Let Each Other Go](https://humansofireland.ie/the-night-we-decided-to-let-each-other-go/): It happened on a wet Thursday in November, the kind of Dublin rain that doesn’t fall so much as settle on you and follow you indoors. We met outside The Long Hall… - [I Found Her Wedding Ring in My Drawer](https://humansofireland.ie/i-found-her-wedding-ring-in-my-drawer/): I found her wedding ring in the bottom drawer of my bedside locker, underneath a packet of old batteries, two bus tickets, and a receipt from a café in Rathmines where we… - [The Wedding Invitation I Never Opened](https://humansofireland.ie/the-wedding-invitation-i-never-opened/): The envelope arrived on a wet Thursday in Stoneybatter, the kind of Dublin rain that doesn’t fall so much as sit in the air and wait for you. I found it bent… - [She Loved Me in Secret Until It Was Too Late](https://humansofireland.ie/she-loved-me-in-secret-until-it-was-too-late/): I met Aoife in a queue outside the Light House Cinema in Smithfield, both of us pretending we understood a French film we had only come to see because it was raining.… - [The Coffee We Never Finished](https://humansofireland.ie/the-coffee-we-never-finished-2/): I met Clara on a wet Tuesday in October, the kind of Dublin day that makes everyone look like they are apologising for being outside. We had arranged to meet in Bewley’s… - [The Coffee We Never Finished](https://humansofireland.ie/the-coffee-we-never-finished/): I met Clara on a wet Tuesday in Dublin, which is to say I met her in weather that made everyone look like they had survived something. We were both sheltering under… - [The Silence Between Us Grew Louder Every Year](https://humansofireland.ie/the-silence-between-us-grew-louder-every-year/): I met Niamh in a queue outside a small cinema in Rathmines, both of us pretending not to be freezing. She had forgotten her gloves, and I offered her one of mine… - [The Friend I Should Never Have Kissed](https://humansofireland.ie/the-friend-i-should-never-have-kissed/): I knew the kiss was a mistake before it happened. That is the awful thing about some mistakes: they announce themselves, quietly and clearly, and you still walk towards them as if… - [I Learned to Love Again After Forty](https://humansofireland.ie/i-learned-to-love-again-after-forty/): I was forty-three when I decided I was finished with romance. I didn’t announce it dramatically. There was no throwing of rings into the Liffey or tearful speech in a pub. I… - [He Was Everything Except Mine](https://humansofireland.ie/he-was-everything-except-mine/): I met him on a wet Thursday outside the Abbey Theatre, when the rain was coming down sideways and everyone at the bus stop looked personally betrayed by the sky. He offered… - [The Love I Couldn’t Explain](https://humansofireland.ie/the-love-i-couldnt-explain/): I met Lina on a wet Tuesday evening outside Temple Bar, though neither of us was going in. I was sheltering under the shallow doorway of a closed souvenir shop, pretending to… - [The Woman Who Changed Her Mind at the Airport](https://humansofireland.ie/the-woman-who-changed-her-mind-at-the-airport/): I had my whole life folded into one blue suitcase at Dublin Airport, and still I was mostly thinking about a half-empty carton of milk in the fridge. That’s the strange thing… - [We Shared Dreams but Not a Future](https://humansofireland.ie/we-shared-dreams-but-not-a-future/): We met on a wet Thursday outside Whelan’s, both of us pretending we were grand with the rain while standing under the same useless awning. I had come from a late shift… - [The Last Hug Before Forever Changed](https://humansofireland.ie/the-last-hug-before-forever-changed/): The last hug I remember as a man without a child happened in a corridor of the Rotunda Hospital, under lights too bright for three in the morning. My wife, Niamh, was… ## Pages - [Stories](https://humansofireland.ie/stories/): What’s your story? Share it here and connect with others. - [Contact](https://humansofireland.ie/contact/): Write Your Story with us. - [Typography](https://humansofireland.ie/typography/): Its sometimes her behaviour are contented. Do listening am eagerness oh objection collected. Together happy feelings continue juvenile had off one. 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