AM I IRISH YET?

It's Christmas in Manhattan 1932, and Irish parlour maid Ellie is setting the day for her boss Isobel - dreaming of her home in Mayo. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

'I picked up the “Lit Crib” box and just as I reached the top of the stairs, the bottom of it fell open, (the twenty year old cellotape finally disintegrating), and hundreds of cheap, glittery baubles tumbled down the stairs. We added to them every year. In a magazine I had once read that you should buy one, “special” tree decoration every year to remind you of that specific year. Who lives like t...

Christmas can be hard - not least because it is all about those we love - and those we - er - don't...... 'The truth is all the decorating, and cooking and shopping and glittery table dressing is so often used as a distraction for the main business of being with our family. Not the favourite sister, or the adored children – but the extended family. The mother-in-law who makes better gravy than you...

A short reading to help you get through the the turkey stuffing and sprout peeling this Christmas. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

En-suite cabins - stroganoff - Swedish meattballs and soft furnishings - what's going ON lads? Travelling on the boat to English is a far cry from the vomit-comet cattle wagons of my youth. As we journey across on the Stena to Liverpool - English producer Dea and I squabble over the art of Irish passive-aggressive persuasion plus My Father's Wake author, Kevin Toolis, recalls the long childhood va...

Two sons - born and bred in The 'Aul Sod but does that entitle me to the coveted moniker Mammy? Only one way to find out. I grill my eldest about whether I am 'Mum' or 'Mam' and get a surprising revelation from my own Mayo mother. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.