He Never Stopped Loving His First Love
My father was not a sentimental man in public. He was the sort of Dublin man who would call an ambulance “a bit of fuss” and a birthday card “grand altogether” if…
I Fell in Love With My Housemate
I moved into the house in Rathmines because the rent was the least terrifying number I had seen in months. The room was small enough that I could touch both walls if…
The Woman Who Came Back After Twenty Years
I was fifty-one the morning I saw her again, old enough to have made peace with most things and foolish enough to think the heart stays where you put it. I was…
The One Person I Never Stopped Missing
I used to think missing someone was a dramatic thing, the kind of feeling that made people stand in the rain outside train stations or write long letters they never sent. Then…
The Marriage That Ended Over One Secret
I met Cian on a wet Thursday outside the Abbey Theatre, both of us sheltering under the same useless strip of awning while the rain came down like loose change. He offered…
I Thought Lust Was Love Until It Was Too Late
I met him outside Whelan’s on a wet Friday night when Camden Street was shining like someone had polished it with rain. I was twenty-eight, working in a solicitor’s office near St…
The Girl I Met During a Storm in Donegal
I met her in Donegal because I had run away from Dublin without admitting that was what I was doing. I told people I needed air. I told my mother I wanted…
The Woman Who Loved Two Men at the Same Time
I used to think love was a room with one door. You walked in, closed it behind you, and whatever life you had before stayed outside. Then, at thirty-four, I found myself…
The Affair That Started With a Coffee on Grafton Street
I was thirty-eight when I learned how quietly a life can split in two. It did not happen with shouting or slammed doors. It happened on a wet Tuesday outside a café…
She Walked Away Without Looking Back
I met Niamh on a wet Thursday evening outside George’s Street Arcade, when both of us were pretending we hadn’t forgotten our umbrellas. She laughed first, which I liked, because I was…