I got her present out of the boot of the car in the garage and staggered on tip-toes to the back door. It had been some session all...

It was only 4pm but it was already dark outside when Reverend Mark thought someone was at his front door. He didn’t hear the doorbell or...

Errol Cornshaw believed that if he joined the army, his wife, Betina, would take him seriously. If he got into battle, he would show what...

Anna Fitzgerald stood outside The Shelbourne Hotel and wondered if he was already inside. The five-star hotel on Dublin’s St Stephen’s...

The man walked slowly down the road, his hands buried deep in his pockets, his collar pulled up around his neck trying to protect himself...

For as long as Alfie could remember he checked his watch every 14 minutes to make sure it had not stopped. As he poured his chocolate...

Never meet your heroes (with your Dad) My Dad is a blues man. He's played with Irish blues legends such as Don Baker, Red Peters and...

Tommy woke up, yawning broadly and rubbing his eyes. Excitement coursed through his body, today was the big day! He sat up and looked...

I always like the soothing feeling of getting the hair cut. The thrum of the electric clippers, KFM playing softly in the background,...

The sweeping arc of the bridge to Coronado Island is as breath-taking as it is banal. It rises through the San Diego docks like a...

It’s July, 2007. A Monday night in town, during that odd stretch of time when Westmoreland and D’Olier streets were the places to be for...

The wind was rattling the windows and because it was lashing and because I was a big boy of four and three-quarters, Ma said she’d leave...

A squat grey building of only thirty-four stories. The sky exhaled a sad greyness so that the building merged with the gloom and filled...

The bus rumbled into a staccato rhythm, easing itself into the early evening as it made its way through the lush, green countryside. The...

He's going to meet his cousin at the diner. His cousin told him it's called Russell's now. Apparently they do good burgers. In his day...

Anna watched the neon pink jacket ebb and flow with the crashing tide 300 feet below the clifftop. The waves pounded the rocks and the...

January, and the ground is hard. The bump is hard too, and full of your legs in my ribs. Your name eludes us and we look for it...

To get windows really clean, you need a good, strong right rotation. You need to crumple the paper, two sheets thick, to just the right...

From my upstairs bedroom, I hear the sound of glass breaking on the floor. It wakes me up. It’s 3 am. Slowly, I open my bedroom door and...

Bought a hat yesterday, black felt with a brim - impulse buying - they call it in that Know Yourself , psychology book I also bought- on...