She Wanted a Family, I Wanted Freedom
I met Claire outside Grogan’s on a wet Thursday when the rain had made mirrors of the pavement and everyone in Dublin looked briefly more dramatic than they really were. She was…
The Most Passionate Kiss Happened Just Before Goodbye
I met Clara on a wet Thursday evening outside Trinity College Dublin, both of us pretending we were not lost. She was holding a broken umbrella like it had personally betrayed her,…
I Stayed Because the Sex Was Incredible
I used to think people only stayed in bad relationships because they were afraid of being alone, or because money was tangled up, or children, or mortgages. I didn’t have any of…
He Proposed to Me While Loving Someone Else
He proposed to me on a wet Friday evening in Dublin, under the trees in St Stephen’s Green, where the rain had made the paths shine like dark glass. I had been…
The Irish Holiday That Ended My Engagement
I used to think an engagement ended with one big betrayal, something loud enough for everyone to hear. Mine ended during a five-day holiday in Dublin, in the quiet space between a…
She Loved My Money More Than Me
I met her on a wet Thursday outside Whelan’s, the kind of night when Dublin looks like it has been varnished in rain. She was laughing under a broken umbrella, trying to…
The One Person I Should Never Have Fallen For
I knew I was in trouble the first time he made tea in our kitchen as if he lived there. It was a wet Thursday in Rathmines, the kind of evening when…
We Shared a Bed but Not a Future
I met him outside Whelan’s on a wet Thursday, the kind of Dublin rain that doesn’t fall so much as settle into your clothes and your mood. He was sheltering under the…
The Morning I Realised I Was the Other Woman
I met him on a wet Thursday outside a café in Dublin, both of us sheltering under the same useless awning while the rain came down sideways. He was funny in that…
The Night I Chose Lust Over Love
I was twenty-nine, living in a damp little flat off Clanbrassil Street, and engaged to a woman who knew exactly how I took my tea. That sounds like a small thing until…