I Couldn’t Tell My Parents Who I Loved
I was twenty-seven when I realised I had built an entire life in Dublin that my parents only knew in edited pieces. They knew about my job near Grand Canal Dock, the…
Our Story Started With a Wrong Number
I met Aoife because her brother had one digit wrong in his phone. That is the least romantic sentence I know, but it is the truth. I was standing outside Tara Street…
She Loved the Version of Me That No Longer Existed
Niamh and I met when I was twenty-three, outside a pub in Temple Bar, both of us pretending we had only stepped out for air. I was all noise then. I wore…
We Met Again After Twenty Years by Accident
I met him again because of a broken umbrella. That is the ordinary truth of it. I was outside St Stephen’s Green on a wet Thursday evening, trying to force the spokes…
The Last Time I Saw Her She Didn’t Look Back
I met her on a wet Tuesday outside Connolly Station, both of us pretending not to be bothered by the rain. She had a paper bag of chips from somewhere near Amiens…
I Was Her Safe Choice, Not Her First Choice
I met Aoife on a wet Thursday evening outside the Abbey Theatre, both of us pretending we were too grown up to be bothered by the rain. She had no umbrella. I…
The Secret Apartment We Shared for One Summer
I was twenty-six when I learned that a place can keep your secrets better than a person can. It was the summer after I had lost my job in a café near…
The Weekend We Almost Changed Our Minds
On the Friday before our wedding, my fiancée took off her ring in the kitchen and placed it beside the toaster as carefully as if it were hot. We were living in…
I Found Happiness After Losing Everything
For years, I thought happiness was a thing you protected by keeping everything in place. The house in Cabra. The same job in a hotel near St Stephen’s Green. Sunday dinner with…
He Never Knew I Loved Him
I met Ciarán on a wet Tuesday in Dublin, the kind of rain that makes everyone look down and hurry. I was twenty-six, working in a bookshop near Trinity, and he came…