The Stranger Who Quietly Paid Someone’s 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
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
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
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
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
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
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 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
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
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…