Sunday Miscellany

On embracing the soft dark abyss of memory

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300 years ago the Dean wrote a book with serious potential for trouble; would Gulliver's Travels find a publisher?

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On tending to the perfect apple glade in East Mayo

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Marking the 30th anniversary of the establishment of TG4, and the early pioneers pursuing their vision for the Irish language

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A decade on, one old friend remembers another - the incomparable Leonard Cohen 

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Remembering the old Harcourt Street Railway Line, and mourning its rapid disappearance from the landscape

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How Eileen Gray created her modernist villa in 1920s France, and a visit to the crumbling house many decades later

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Describing the Spanish ritual of the ‘paseo’, and comparing Sunday customs in Dublin and Barcelona

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On 'nature's infirmary', as it runs through the heart of the country.

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Recalling the simple pleasures of a favourite West Cork beauty spot, and wondering what might be lost as modern tourism rapidly develops

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On a lifelong fascination with mountains, and the sense of awe and spiritual discovery they inspire

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Some amusing local anecdotes of Ireland during World War 2, stories that might otherwise have been forgotten

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"The town fills its lungs full, and sweeps shawls and scarves and suits along streets…”

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On volunteering for Zaide, starring a young Lesley Garrett

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Rich and complex Irish history is on display in this small Protestant church

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The night the starlings gatecrashed the opera house

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On growing up with the lore of Wexford

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Man bags, scarves, and “the lads”, blessed with love

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45 years on and this soprano's 3-minute Beethoven performance is still seared into the memory

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Man bags, scarves, and “the lads”, blessed with love

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The physical items inevitably subsumed by the bog - human and otherwise (pic: Marguerite Sheridan)

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Why the Irish Architecture Foundation wanted to build a Bog Bothy in the midlands

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A childhood in the boglands taken for granted until it becomes a source of wonder for visitors

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Translation challenges for the words 'turf' and 'bog' in cultures where they don't exist

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Connecting with our Iron Age ancestors, who created something amazing in a bog in Corlea, Longford

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What it takes, and the knowledge you need, to become a 'true' Monakeeba bog woman

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‘Pen in hand, a monk sat, bored –

This translation had him floored…’

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An emotional education in a Raphoe boarding school

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On a pioneering female-led family business of scriveners in 19th Century Dublin

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On a few wee Donegal and Derry sayings

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On the delights of taking charge of an allotment in Inchicore 

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A life-expanding correspondence with a beloved children’s author

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"They flock like brittle songbirds, chorusing after her to this impressively-sized Asda..."

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"Mr Heaney was at his desk, solid as the Sugarloaf, still cheerful after a day of lectures..."

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The kindly uncle who was instrumental in the restoration of  800-year old Ballintubber Abbey

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Cross-border hands of friendship and getting to grips with Irish linguistic idiosyncracies

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Rejection-guilt subsequently mollified by the eternal good grace of this world class poet and gentleman

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Why there's something special to be found in almost all places of worship, whatever your faith, your beliefs, or none at all

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Post-war packages from Germany that make authorities nervous but were really literary treasures from the writer who made a home in Achill

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Centuries of refugees fleeing religious persecution and the Methodist who came to rest in Limerick's Golden Vale in 1765

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The wondrous varieties of life that share the waters around Co Waterford 

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An Irish-German theatrical exchange - a reminder of the vital role of culture in national identity

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Autumn, a season that demands our gratitude and awe  

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Three friends on motorbikes, a torrential Irish summer and lifelong bonds secured along the Cork/Kerry coastline 

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On a remarkable friendship with the engineer of the Twin Towers, Leslie Robertson

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On the much-maligned Irish domestic servants in the US in the late 19th century

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How a childhood friend's destiny became entwined with the Ground Zero site

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On an uncle's treasured gold watch and "the nicest man he ever met"

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Supporting an American couple on holiday in Ireland in their hour of tragedy

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Marvelling at the enchantment of travellers from southern Africa to a Donegal garden

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Losing Leonard, a labrador non-pareil

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Brawling, carousing and sapient pigs at the famous Dublin festival through the centuries

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One family's very personal ties to the very origins of Irish national broadcasting

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Relocating to Japan, where the weather, the language and the way of life mean major re-adjustments

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Automatic responses when nature strikes, even in the most unforgiving of places

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A retiring school principal clears out his office

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A school spelling bee, and the moral dilemma posed by the prize of a green iced lolly

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Memories of school in London at the outbreak of war, and the day the author and her classmates were evacuate

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A schoolboy business venture involving homemade lemonade, and the painful consequences of its success

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Reflections on parenthood and the passage of time, as a daughter is about to begin secondary school

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His children beginning school marks a new beginning for Seamus Heaney

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A chance encounter with an old schoolmaster, and an unexpected musical request

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Considering the fickleness of memory, and why seemingly insignificant moments can remain with us for a lifetime

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On life in a lodging house called Kilkenny House in Dublin – an All-Ireland mecca

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A childhood summer on the family farm, and a scene perceived from a hiding place in the long grass

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The closure of the Grafton Gallery evokes memories of the artists, writers and characters of Dublin’s bohemian life

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Recalling childhood memories of family life, and understanding why a father was “always looking backwards”

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An appreciation of the writer and academic Seán Ó Tuama, and his contribution to Irish-language literary criticism

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A glorious serenade to the power of song

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A mother's knowledge and love of music passed on through the Pye record player

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Early musical experimentation that ranged wildly before finally settling at the organ in a Limerick cinema

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Choral competitiveness in a small Welsh village, with a legend-in-waiting amongst the performers

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The eternally patient piano teacher striving to teach less-than enthusiastic pupils...and one less-than-competent sight reader

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The transportive powers of Count John McCormack stretch across generations - and oceans

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Meditations on character from the Miscellany archive, with John Ryan, Bill Kelly, Catherine Marshall, Michael Harding, Val Mulkerns and Maria O'Rourke.

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The mysteries of cricket, the joy of the Park Run, celebrations of writer Maura Laverty and musician Glen Hansard — and a tempting treat for a magpie, with John O'Donnell, AM Cousins, John Egan, Breda Joyce, Denis Tuohy, Jackie Lynam and Grace Wells.

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From a mighty session in Dingle to Croagh Patrick to the Heinrich Böll cottage in Achill, an All-Ireland state of mind, with Séamus Moran, Grace Wells, John Lawler, Mary Lavery Carrig, Frank Shouldice and Geraldine Mitchell.

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Limerick and Galway All-Ireland hopes, a Ukrainian love story and the sweet pleasures of a day on the bog, with Antonia Gunko Karelina, Barry Houlihan, Anne Marie Kennedy, Mike MacDomhnaill, Ann Lane O’Connell, John Vincent Cunningham and Bob Kelly.

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