Our Story Ended Before It Really Began
I met him on a wet Thursday evening outside Dublin Castle, both of us standing under the same narrow strip of shelter like two strangers pretending not to notice each other. My…
The Last Dance We Never Finished
I met Aoife on a wet Thursday outside Whelan’s, both of us pretending we were not looking for the same missing taxi. She had a blue scarf wrapped twice around her neck…
I Couldn’t Compete With His Memories
I met Cian on a wet Thursday outside the Dublin City Library, both of us standing under the same narrow strip of shelter like two strangers pretending not to be stranded. He…
The Marriage That Looked Perfect From the Outside
From the outside, our marriage had a kind of polish on it. We had the little red-brick house in Drumcondra, the wedding photo on the mantelpiece, the matching coats we wore on…
The Girl I Could Never Stop Looking For
I first saw her on the upper deck of the 46A, somewhere between Stillorgan and Dublin city centre, on a wet Tuesday morning when the windows were fogged and everyone looked half-asleep.…
He Loved Me Until I Needed Him
I used to think love was proven in the soft things. His hand on the small of my back crossing Grafton Street. The way he kept the last chip for me outside…
The First Time We Held Hands Was the Last Time We Met
I met her in the kind of rain that makes Dublin look like it has been painted in watercolour. It was outside Hodges Figgis on Dawson Street, where I had stopped under…
She Married Someone Else but Wrote to Me Every Birthday
I met Clara in a queue outside the old Screen Cinema when we were both nineteen and pretending we knew more about foreign films than we did. It was raining with that…
I Stayed Because Leaving Hurt More
I came to Dublin for a woman and pretended for years that I had come for work. That was easier to say at parties. “There are more opportunities here,” I’d tell people,…
The Stranger Who Understood Me Better Than Anyone
I met him on a wet Thursday outside Dublin Busáras, the kind of evening when the city looks like it has been crying before you have. I had my phone in one…