I Loved Someone Who Was Never Mine
I met him on a wet Tuesday outside Connolly Station, both of us pretending the rain was not getting through our coats. I had just moved to Dublin from Mayo and was…
The Goodbye That Took Ten Years
I met Ciarán on a wet Tuesday outside the IFI, both of us pretending we were not too early for the same French film. He had forgotten his umbrella and I had…
He Came Back When I Had Finally Moved On
For nearly two years, I measured Dublin by where I might run into him. I avoided the corner of South William Street where we had our first stupid argument over chips. I…
I Didn’t Know I Was the Other Man
I met her on a wet Thursday in Dublin, the kind of evening when the whole city seems to be shining under streetlights. I was waiting outside a café near Grafton Street,…
She Chose Peace Instead of Me
I met Niamh on a wet Thursday evening outside Whelan’s, where the queue was curling down Wexford Street and everyone was pretending the rain was grand. She had a blue scarf wrapped…
The Promise We Couldn’t Keep
We made the promise outside the old screen at the IFI, with rain shining on the cobbles of Temple Bar and her mascara smudged from laughing, not crying. Or at least that’s…
Our Story Began With a Lie
Our story began on a wet Thursday night outside Whelan’s, with my fringe stuck to my forehead and my pride somewhere around my ankles. I was twenty-nine, recently dumped, and pretending to…
The One Person I Never Expected to Miss
I thought the person I would miss most was Niamh. That seemed obvious. We had lived together in a small flat off Harold’s Cross Road where the kitchen window never closed properly…
The Wedding I Cancelled Two Days Before
Two days before my wedding, I was standing in the alterations room of a small bridal shop off South William Street, watching a woman pin the hem of my dress, when I…
She Loved My Potential More Than Me
I met Aoife on a wet Thursday in Rathmines, the kind of evening where the rain doesn’t fall so much as hang in the air and make everyone look a bit defeated.…