Our Best Relationship Started After We Stopped Trying
I met Niamh in a queue outside a tiny café in Stoneybatter, both of us pretending not to be annoyed by the rain. She was ahead of me, holding a tote bag…
The Night We Shared a Bed but Not Our Feelings
I was twenty-nine when I learned that silence can take up more space in a room than furniture. It happened on a wet Thursday in Dublin, the kind of night when the…
I Couldn’t Hate the Person Who Broke My Heart
I met Anna in the queue for coffee near St Stephen’s Green, both of us pretending not to be annoyed by the rain. She had a green scarf wrapped around her hair…
The Holiday That Made Me Realise I Was Unhappy
I knew something was wrong before we even left Dublin. We were standing in Heuston Station with two coffees going cold between us, and Mark was scrolling through his phone with the…
She Never Knew I Wrote About Her Every Year
I met Niamh on a wet Tuesday outside St Stephen’s Green, both of us pretending we were too proud to run for the same Luas. She had a paper bag of books…
The Conversation That Ended Our Relationship Forever
We had been together for six years, long enough that people stopped asking when we would move in together and started asking when we would get married. I used to laugh and…
I Chose Stability Instead of Passion and Regretted It
I used to think love should feel safe. Not boring, exactly, but steady. Like the 46A arriving when the rain starts, like the lighted windows along Rathmines on a winter evening, like…
The Weekend We Pretended to Be a Couple
It began with a lie told in a queue outside Grogan’s, of all places, with rain tapping on the awning and both of us too tired to correct it. Conor and I…
He Loved Me Only When I Was Leaving
I used to think love would arrive loudly, with certainty, like the first bus pulling into Dublin on a wet morning. With him, it arrived in pieces. A hand on my back…
The Engagement Ring Stayed Hidden in My Drawer for Three Years
I bought the ring on a wet Thursday in October, the kind of Dublin rain that doesn’t fall so much as hover around your face. It was a small vintage ring from…