My Ex Invited Me to Her Wedding in Cork
The invitation arrived on a wet Tuesday in Portobello, the kind of rain that makes the canal look tired. I had just come home from work, shoes soaked, bag full of groceries…
She Left Ireland Without Telling Me She Was Pregnant
I met Clara on a wet Thursday outside Whelan’s, both of us pretending we weren’t waiting for the same taxi. She had a green coat, a cigarette she never lit, and a…
The Girl I Met at Electric Picnic Changed My Life Forever
I met Niamh at Electric Picnic in 2018, in the kind of rain that makes everyone look equal. Hair stuck to faces, glitter sliding down cheeks, shoes ruined beyond repair. I was…
I Married the Wrong Person Because I Was Afraid of Being Alone
I knew I was making a mistake three weeks before the wedding, standing outside the registry office on Grand Canal Street with my dress fitting receipt folded in my coat pocket. It…
He Cheated Once and It Destroyed Three Families
I used to think betrayal had to be dramatic to be real. A hidden phone, a second apartment, a whole other life. What happened in my family was smaller than that, which…
Our One-Night Stand Turned Into Twenty Years of Regret
I met him on a wet Thursday night outside Whelan’s, when the whole of Camden Street was shining under the rain like somebody had polished it for heartbreak. I was twenty-four, working…
The Woman I Met at a Galway Pub Never Left My Mind
I met her on a wet Thursday in Galway, in a pub so full of raincoats and fiddles that it felt like the whole city had come indoors to dry itself. I…
I Lost My Virginity on an Irish Beach and Lost My Heart Too
I was nineteen the summer it happened, working the breakfast shift in a café near O’Connell Street, smelling of toast and coffee no matter how often I washed my hands. I was…
She Kissed Me Goodbye and Married Another Man
I met Aoife on a wet Tuesday outside the Abbey Theatre, both of us pretending we weren’t sheltering under the same narrow bit of roof. She had a paper bag of books…
The Affair That Started During the Dublin Marathon
I met her at mile nine, just after the long green hush of Phoenix Park, when my left calf had begun to tighten and my confidence had slipped somewhere behind me on…