Category Archives: Unreliable memories

Sitting at a cafe in Dublin at 5.30 pm yesterday, the phone rang. I stepped away from the tables and stood in an entrance just off Ann Street. The head teacher of a Dublin school offered me a post in … Continue reading →

The school would close that summer as the county switched to comprehensive education, the gentle ethos of a bygone age would disappear. But on an afternoon in January 1973, there was excitement among the staff as a teacher at Elmhurst … Continue reading →

In childhood years, did everyone stare into the flames in the fireplace and see shapes and figures and imagine tales of long ago or is it a personal eccentricity? My grandmother on the farm lived frugally, but once the latter … Continue reading →

A Porsche SUV with a personalised number plate was parked outside the convenience store. The driver was at the checkout telling the assistant what she wanted. Her requests were for a variety of different National Lottery scratch cards. Finally, with … Continue reading →

The sound of an ice cream van on a Sunday afternoon, a jingle that has probably not changed in decades. Children line up with excitement to buy lollies that will colour their mouths blue, red or orange, their adult companions … Continue reading →