My Biggest Regret Was Letting Her Leave Ireland
I met Clara on a wet Tuesday evening outside Trinity College Dublin, both of us standing under the same thin shop awning, pretending our umbrellas had not betrayed us. She was from…
He Was the Right Man at the Wrong Time
I met him on a wet Thursday evening outside Whelan’s, both of us pretending the rain wasn’t as bad as it was. I was twenty-eight, newly back in Dublin after three years…
The Woman Who Loved Two Men at the Same Time
I was forty-one when I realised love was not the tidy thing I had been taught to believe in. By then I had a husband, Declan, a terraced house in Drumcondra, two…
I Was Only Meant to Be His Rebound
I met him on a wet Thursday evening in Dublin, the kind of rain that makes everyone in the city look briefly forgiven. I was in Grogan’s with two friends, standing too…
The Affair That Started With a Coffee on Grafton Street
It began with the sort of rain Dublin does best, not dramatic enough for an umbrella, but persistent enough to ruin your mood. I had taken shelter outside a café on Grafton…
She Walked Away Without Looking Back
I met her outside the Gaiety Theatre on a wet Thursday evening, the kind of Dublin rain that doesn’t fall so much as hang in the air and follow you around. I…
The Weekend in Galway I Never Told Anyone About
I was twenty-eight, living in a flat near Rathmines, and pretending I was grand at a level that deserved an award. My mother had died the previous winter, my job in town…
I Fell in Love With My Therapist’s Advice, Not My Therapist
I started therapy because I had become the sort of person who apologised to doors after bumping into them. I was twenty-nine, living in a box room in Rathmines, working in an…
Our Love Story Began With a Drunken Kiss in Temple Bar
I used to tell people I met my husband in the most Dublin way possible: in the rain, outside a chipper, after a kiss I could barely remember and never quite forgot.…
The Girl Who Broke My Heart at Croke Park
I met Aoife outside Croke Park on a wet August Sunday, the sort of Dublin rain that doesn’t fall so much as hover, making everyone shine under the grey sky. I was…