Frank McNally
@frankie49.bsky.social
📤 4834
📥 1392
📝 350
Chief writer of An Irish Diary, The Irish Times
reposted by
Frank McNally
Gerry Arthurs
about 4 hours ago
Really enjoyed Not Making Hay by The Irish Times’
@frankie49.bsky.social
part memoir, part rumination on writing four columns a week for the last couple of decades. Lovely stuff.
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If that’s a seven-foot Christmas tree, I should be a line-out jumper for Ireland.
1 day ago
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Willie Redmond’s grave, Flanders.
7 days ago
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All quiet on the western front.
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8 days ago
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reposted by
Frank McNally
The Irish Times
14 days ago
Ring of untruth – Frank McNally on how the Irish language gave ‘phoney’ to English
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Ring of untruth – Frank McNally on how the Irish language gave ‘phoney’ to English
A link with telephones was also suspected
https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/an-irish-diary/2025/11/14/ring-of-untruth-frank-mcnally-on-how-the-irish-language-gave-phoney-to-english/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=bluesky
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reposted by
Frank McNally
The Irish Times
15 days ago
Rock of Ages – Frank McNally on the shock of punk turning 50
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Rock of Ages – Frank McNally on the shock of punk turning 50
He had been included in the Sex Pistols mainly for his comic-scary appearance
https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/an-irish-diary/2025/11/13/rock-of-ages-frank-mcnally-on-the-shock-of-punk-turning-50/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=bluesky
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November embers, Dublin
17 days ago
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reposted by
Frank McNally
Diane Duane
23 days ago
Favorite line so far: "The mother herself was half Irish, on her father’s side, so the teenager was in high-risk group for developing symptoms." (Second-most-favorite: "I might also add in passing that 'Polly Amory' would be an excellent name for an agony aunt.") THANK YOU FRANK McNALLY. 😀
add a skeleton here at some point
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“We are well used to visitors outdoing us in the performative aspects of Irishness. The Normans started it, becoming famously ‘more Irish than the Irish themselves’ and so launching the Eight Hundred Years of Impressionism.”
www.irishtimes.com/opinion/an-i...
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Daily Telegraph’s agony aunt faces a conundrum – a mother worried that her son is turning ‘Irish’
We are well used in this country to visitors outdoing us in the performative aspects of Irishness
https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/an-irish-diary/2025/11/05/sure-ill-be-grand-the-continued-infectiousness-of-the-irish-condition/
22 days ago
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This is a godforsaken place’: A despairing letter from a garda stationed in Tipperary in 1940
www.irishtimes.com/opinion/an-i...
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‘This is a godforsaken place’: A despairing letter from a garda stationed in Tipperary in 1940
Written in the outpost of Rearcross, the letter is a bleak portrait of human misery worthy of Samuel Beckett
https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/an-irish-diary/2025/11/04/rearcross-words-a-despairing-letter-from-a-garda-stationed-in-darkest-tipperary-in-1940/
23 days ago
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reposted by
Frank McNally
The Irish Times
about 1 month ago
How Nancy Spain became the unlikely heroine of an Irish folk classic
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How Nancy Spain became the unlikely heroine of an Irish folk classic
Christy Moore’s haunting song immortalised the woman Nancy Spain
https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/an-irish-diary/2025/10/29/how-an-english-tabloid-journalist-became-the-unlikely-heroine-of-an-irish-folk-classic/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=bluesky&utm_campaign=HP-SubDesc
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reposted by
Frank McNally
The Irish Times
29 days ago
Frank McNally: My life as a civil servant in 1980s Dublin
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Frank McNally: My life as a civil servant in 1980s Dublin
Frank McNally on the Department of Social Welfare in Not Making Hay – The Life and Deadlines of a ‘Diary’ Farmer
https://www.irishtimes.com/life-style/people/2025/09/27/frank-mcnally-my-life-as-a-civil-servant-in-1980s-dublin/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=bluesky
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“Driving up north recently, I passed a mural of Bobby Sands with his famous quotation: “Our revenge will be the laughter of our children.” And reflecting on what kids find funny now, I wondered what he would have made of Kneecap.”
www.irishtimes.com/opinion/an-i...
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Laughing for Ireland? Frank McNally on Bobby Sands and Kneecap
Sands would surely have approved of the rap band’s success in helping make Irish fashionable with the young
https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/an-irish-diary/2025/10/24/laughing-for-ireland-frank-mcnally-on-bobby-sands-and-kneecap/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=bluesky&utm_campaign=HP-SubDesc
about 1 month ago
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reposted by
Frank McNally
The Irish Times
about 1 month ago
Laughing for Ireland? Frank McNally on Bobby Sands and Kneecap
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Laughing for Ireland? Frank McNally on Bobby Sands and Kneecap
Sands would surely have approved of the rap band’s success in helping make Irish fashionable with the young
https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/an-irish-diary/2025/10/24/laughing-for-ireland-frank-mcnally-on-bobby-sands-and-kneecap/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=bluesky&utm_campaign=HP-SubDesc
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reposted by
Frank McNally
The Irish Times
about 1 month ago
Faithful departure: Frank McNally on a belated first visit to Knock Airport, 40 years on
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Faithful departure: Frank McNally on a belated first visit to Knock Airport, 40 years on
I had to marvel briefly at its location, on a hilltop bog halfway between Charlestown and nowhere
https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/an-irish-diary/2025/10/23/faithful-departure-frank-mcnally-on-a-belated-first-visit-to-knock-airport-40-years-on/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=bluesky
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reposted by
Frank McNally
The Irish Times
about 1 month ago
A rock in a hard place: Frank McNally hunts an elusive ancient monument in Mayo
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A rock in a hard place: Frank McNally hunts an elusive ancient monument in Mayo
Natural monolith covered with carvings suggests Croagh Patrick was an object of pilgrimage long before Christianity
https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/an-irish-diary/2025/10/21/a-rock-in-a-hard-place-frank-mcnally-hunts-an-elusive-ancient-monument-in-mayo/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=bluesky
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reposted by
Frank McNally
N16Breda Corish
about 1 month ago
Great work here from
@frankie49.bsky.social
Especially pleased to see MOPE (Most Oppressed People Ever) on the hyperbolic list of Irish history. I'd cast a vote for GUBU (Grotesque Unbelievable Bizarre and Unprecedented) as entry #101 😱
add a skeleton here at some point
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reposted by
Frank McNally
The Irish Times
about 1 month ago
Frank McNally: A History of Ireland in a Hundred Hyperboles
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Frank McNally: A History of Ireland in a Hundred Hyperboles
A catalogue of 100 colourful expressions, myths, legends and sayings
https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/an-irish-diary/2025/10/20/frank-mcnally-a-history-of-ireland-in-a-hundred-hyperboles/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=bluesky
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reposted by
Frank McNally
The Irish Times
about 1 month ago
Old Men of the Canal – Frank McNally on the herons of Percy Place
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Old Men of the Canal – Frank McNally on the herons of Percy Place
There is something military-looking about the birds’ appearance
https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/an-irish-diary/2025/10/17/old-men-of-the-canal-frank-mcnally-on-the-herons-of-dublin-4/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=bluesky
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“Despite being born in the same town myself, the astounding fact of Alex Haley’s Irish roots had somehow escaped me until as recently as Wednesday.”
www.irishtimes.com/opinion/an-i...
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Roots and Branch: Alex Haley’s lesser known Irish heritage
The Roots author’s follow-up novel Queen traces five generations of a second branch of his ancestry back to a town in Co Monaghan
https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/an-irish-diary/2025/10/17/roots-and-branch-alex-haleys-lesser-known-irish-heritage/
about 1 month ago
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reposted by
Frank McNally
David Storey
about 1 month ago
A column from
@frankie49.bsky.social
that manages to link Festy Ebosele, James Joyce and Wittgenstein, via Connemara
www.irishtimes.com/opinion/an-i...
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A Feast of Festy: A new lease of life for a colourful Irish name
Festus, from the Latin for ‘joyful’, is a popular boy’s name in Nigeria
https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/an-irish-diary/2025/10/15/a-feast-of-festy-a-new-lease-of-life-for-a-colourful-irish-name/?s=09
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reposted by
Frank McNally
I seem to have written a buke
2 months ago
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reposted by
Frank McNally
The Irish Times
about 2 months ago
Our Man in Havana – Frank McNally on a forgotten Irishman honoured in Cuba
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Our Man in Havana – Frank McNally on a forgotten Irishman honoured in Cuba
James Joseph O’Kelly was also, for a brief period, a man of two wives
https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/an-irish-diary/2025/10/08/our-man-in-havana-frank-mcnally-on-a-forgotten-irishman-honoured-in-cuba/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=bluesky
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reposted by
Frank McNally
The Irish Times
about 2 months ago
Charlie Tango – Frank McNally on revisiting the Charlie Hebdo massacre 10 years on
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Charlie Tango – Frank McNally on revisiting the Charlie Hebdo massacre 10 years on
In keeping with a low-budget production, the movie was projected onto a make-shift screen
https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/an-irish-diary/2025/10/07/charlie-tango-frank-mcnally-on-revisiting-the-charlie-hebdo-massacre-10-years-on/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=bluesky&utm_campaign=HP-SubDesc
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Sunrise on the Beckett Bridge, Dublin.
about 2 months ago
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reposted by
Frank McNally
The Irish Times
about 2 months ago
Howya Heid? - Frank McNally on a visit to one of Glasgow’s toughest pubs
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Howya Heid? - Frank McNally on a visit to one of Glasgow’s toughest pubs
We had only dropped in for the proverbial one drink
https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/an-irish-diary/2025/10/02/howya-heid-frank-mcnally-on-a-visit-to-one-of-glasgows-toughest-pubs/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=bluesky
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“I don’t expect to be a conscious participant at my own wake when the time comes, but I had a sneak preview of that event while attending a book launch last week.”
www.irishtimes.com/opinion/an-i...
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Waking Dream – Frank McNally on having intimations of mortality at a book launch
There may even have been ghosts present, as I was reminded by the attendance of some of my maternal cousins
https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/an-irish-diary/2025/09/30/waking-dream-frank-mcnally-on-having-intimations-of-mortality-at-a-book-launch/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=bluesky
about 2 months ago
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I seem to have written a buke
2 months ago
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I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and sky. (Me on a slipway in Oban, Scotland, as pictured by my son Daniel.)
2 months ago
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reposted by
Frank McNally
The Irish Times
3 months ago
Skipping pages – Frank McNally on trawling through the discarded library of a lifetime
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Skipping pages – Frank McNally on trawling through the discarded library of a lifetime
A full-blown bibliophile, the deceased was said to have had up to 100,000 volumes
https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/an-irish-diary/2025/09/12/skipping-pages-frank-mcnally-on-trawling-through-the-discarded-library-of-a-lifetime/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=bluesky
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On the corner of Hope and Waterloo.
3 months ago
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In deepest Glasgae
3 months ago
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reposted by
Frank McNally
The Irish Times
3 months ago
For the Birds – Frank McNally on an encounter with Dublin’s Pigeon Man
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For the Birds – Frank McNally on an encounter with Dublin’s Pigeon Man
When I got a word in edgeways, finally, I wondered why Dublin’s rapacious seagulls never came near him
https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/an-irish-diary/2025/09/10/for-the-birds-frank-mcnally-on-an-encounter-with-dublins-pigeon-man/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=bluesky
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reposted by
Frank McNally
The Irish Times
3 months ago
Blades and Fades – Frank McNally on New York’s ‘Lads of Kilkenny’ and a Joycean Fenian in Paris
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Blades and Fades – Frank McNally on New York’s ‘Lads of Kilkenny’ and a Joycean Fenian in Paris
Washington Irving was a native New Yorker who had no known connection with Kilkenny
https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/an-irish-diary/2025/09/09/blades-and-fades-frank-mcnally-on-new-yorks-lads-of-kilkenny-and-a-joycean-fenian-in-paris/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=bluesky
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reposted by
Frank McNally
The International Flann O’Brien Society
3 months ago
✨Mark your calendars✨ If you are in Dublin 24 September be sure attend the launch of long-time Flaneur and Irish Times columnist Frank McNally's 'Not Making Hay: The Life and Deadlines of a 'Diary' Farmer'. Top shelf pun,
@frankie49.bsky.social
!
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Gorgeous
add a skeleton here at some point
3 months ago
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reposted by
Frank McNally
The Irish Times
3 months ago
If you go down to the woods: Frank McNally on a long dark night of no soul in Stradbally
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If you go down to the woods: Frank McNally on a long dark night of no soul in Stradbally
A day trip to the Electric Picnic does not go as planned
https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/an-irish-diary/2025/09/02/if-you-go-down-to-the-woods-frank-mcnally-on-a-long-dark-night-of-no-soul-in-stradbally/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=bluesky
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reposted by
Frank McNally
The Irish Times
3 months ago
Tour de farce: Frank McNally on the dubious ‘facts’ Dublin tourists get told
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Tour de farce: Frank McNally on the dubious ‘facts’ Dublin tourists get told
I began to feel some Swiftian indignation on the part of the innocent Americans who were listening to the tour guide’s claim
https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/an-irish-diary/2025/08/30/tour-de-farce-frank-mcnally-on-the-dubious-facts-dublin-tourists-get-told/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=bluesky
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Mellow guitar and a polite cyclist (“Sorry bro”), Dublin.
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3 months ago
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reposted by
Frank McNally
The Irish Times
3 months ago
Dedicated to the one I hate: Frank McNally on how a book inscription came back to haunt Patrick Kavanagh
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Dedicated to the one I hate: Frank McNally on how a book inscription came back to haunt Patrick Kavanagh
Signed first American edition of Tarry Flynn is dedicated to ‘poet and painter’ Brendan Behan
https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/an-irish-diary/2025/08/26/dedicated-to-the-one-i-hate-frank-mcnally-on-how-a-book-inscription-came-back-to-haunt-patrick-kavanagh/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=bluesky
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Street furniture, Dublin.
3 months ago
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reposted by
Frank McNally
Nadia Dobrianska
3 months ago
Happy Independence Day of Ukraine. We owe it to the thousands defending the country today. Fad saoil daoibh go léir 💙💛
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reposted by
Frank McNally
Roger O'Keeffe
3 months ago
A "thank you" bouquet for
@frankie49.bsky.social
😄
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reposted by
Frank McNally
The Irish Times
3 months ago
Field Study – Frank McNally on the night a ‘sputnik’ crash-landed in rural Wexford
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Field Study – Frank McNally on the night a ‘sputnik’ crash-landed in rural Wexford
A garda arrived immediately to cordon off a crater in the field, then the Army was called in
https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/an-irish-diary/2025/08/22/field-study-frank-mcnally-on-the-night-a-sputnik-crash-landed-in-rural-wexford/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=bluesky
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reposted by
Frank McNally
Enda o Dowd
3 months ago
Frank McNally is in great form, mastered the diary without going mad - perhaps a first. ‘A breakthrough in the case of my stolen Dublin Bike and the subsequent €150 fine’
www.irishtimes.com/opinion/an-i...
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‘A breakthrough in the case of my stolen Dublin Bike and the subsequent €150 fine’
I am no wiser as to where the bicycle spent its long, lost weekend
https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/an-irish-diary/2025/08/21/happy-return-frank-mcnally-on-a-breakthrough-in-the-case-of-his-stolen-dublin-bike/
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reposted by
Frank McNally
The Irish Times
3 months ago
A daisy with a doctorate? Frank McNally on the enrolment of ragwort in the rewilded lawns of Trinity College
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A daisy with a doctorate? Frank McNally on the enrolment of ragwort in the rewilded lawns of Trinity College
Who knows how ragwort will evolve with the benefit of a few years in university? It might lose the latter part of its name, Jacobaea vulgaris, for a start
https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/an-irish-diary/2025/08/21/a-daisy-with-a-doctorate-frank-mcnally-on-the-enrolment-of-ragwort-in-the-rewilded-lawns-of-trinity-college/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=bluesky&utm_campaign=HP-SubDesc
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reposted by
Frank McNally
The Irish Times
3 months ago
Ballet Go Backwards – Frank McNally on Patrick Kavanagh’s short-lived career as a dance librettist
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Ballet Go Backwards – Frank McNally on Patrick Kavanagh’s short-lived career as a dance librettist
This strange incident came about because of another surprising phenomenon little remembered today
https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/an-irish-diary/2025/08/19/ballet-go-backwards-frank-mcnally-on-patrick-kavanaghs-short-lived-career-as-a-dance-librettist/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=bluesky
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reposted by
Frank McNally
John Kelly
3 months ago
Long Day’s Journey Into Night –
@frankie49.bsky.social
on Monaghan's only All-Ireland final appearance. The programme for the 'last battle of the civil war' between Monaghan and Kerry in the All Ireland football final of 1930 features in 'The GAA Covered'.
irishtimes.com/opinion/an-iri…
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reposted by
Frank McNally
Irish News 🇮🇪
3 months ago
The Irish caminos: Climbing the ‘passage of the birds’ - a Connemara rival to Croagh Patrick Frank McNally on an ancient Connemara pilgrimage, once suppressed by the church but now happily revived
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The Irish caminos: Climbing the ‘passage of the birds’ - a Connemara rival to Croagh Patrick
Frank McNally on an ancient Connemara pilgrimage, once suppressed by the church but now happily revived
https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/2025/08/17/the-irish-caminos-climbing-the-passage-of-the-birds-a-connemara-rival-to-croagh-patrick/
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