The Friend I Should Never Have Kissed
I knew the kiss was a mistake before it happened. That is the awful thing about some mistakes: they announce themselves, quietly and clearly, and you still walk towards them as if…
I Learned to Love Again After Forty
I was forty-three when I decided I was finished with romance. I didn’t announce it dramatically. There was no throwing of rings into the Liffey or tearful speech in a pub. I…
He Was Everything Except Mine
I met him on a wet Thursday outside the Abbey Theatre, when the rain was coming down sideways and everyone at the bus stop looked personally betrayed by the sky. He offered…
The Love I Couldn’t Explain
I met Lina on a wet Tuesday evening outside Temple Bar, though neither of us was going in. I was sheltering under the shallow doorway of a closed souvenir shop, pretending to…
The Woman Who Changed Her Mind at the Airport
I had my whole life folded into one blue suitcase at Dublin Airport, and still I was mostly thinking about a half-empty carton of milk in the fridge. That’s the strange thing…
We Shared Dreams but Not a Future
We met on a wet Thursday outside Whelan’s, both of us pretending we were grand with the rain while standing under the same useless awning. I had come from a late shift…
The Last Hug Before Forever Changed
The last hug I remember as a man without a child happened in a corridor of the Rotunda Hospital, under lights too bright for three in the morning. My wife, Niamh, was…
I Never Meant to Break His Heart
I met Conor on a wet Tuesday in Smithfield, the kind of evening where Dublin looks like it has been rubbed with silver. I was standing outside the Luas stop with a…
The Holiday We Never Spoke About Again
I met Aoife on a wet Tuesday outside Dublin Castle, both of us pretending we hadn’t just been stood up by the same walking tour. She laughed first, which saved me from…
The Train Journey That Changed My Heart
I used to believe love announced itself loudly, with certainty, like a song starting in a pub when everyone already knew the words. By the winter I turned thirty-four, I had stopped…