My First Love Came Back After Fifteen Years
I was buying a bunch of tulips outside Dublin city centre on a wet Thursday when I heard my name spoken the way it used to be, like it had two extra…
The Divorce That Finally Set Us Free
People always imagine divorce as a door slamming. In our case, it was more like a window opening in a room we had both been sitting in for too long, pretending we…
I Couldn’t Forget the Woman I Met at Forty Foot
I met her on a January morning at the Forty Foot, the kind of morning when the sea looks less like water and more like a dare. I had gone there because…
We Were Lovers Every Summer in Dingle
I met Eoin on a wet July evening in Dingle when I was twenty-one and pretending I was only there for the work. I had taken a summer job washing glasses in…
The Secret Relationship Hidden From an Entire Irish Village
I grew up in a village so small that if you bought cough sweets in the shop, three people would ask your mother if you were coming down with something before you…
He Loved Me Until I Said Yes
I met him on a wet Thursday outside The Cobblestone in Smithfield, both of us standing under the same narrow strip of shelter, pretending the rain was not coming in sideways. He…
The Love I Never Had Hurt More Than the Love I Lost
I used to think heartbreak had to be loud. Doors closing, boxes packed, someone crying in a kitchen while the kettle boiled for no reason. When my five-year relationship with Aoife ended,…
The Night We Almost Destroyed Our Marriages
It happened on a wet Friday in Dublin, the sort of evening when the buses hiss at the kerb and everyone in the pub looks relieved to be indoors. My husband, Mark,…
I Fell for My Boss During a Business Trip to Belfast
I used to think falling for someone happened in grand, obvious ways. Music swelling, rain at the right moment, some clear sign that life had turned a corner. In reality, I fell…
The Stranger I Met on the Luas Became My Biggest Addiction
I met him on the Luas on a wet Tuesday evening, the kind of Dublin rain that does not fall so much as hang in the air and wait for you to…