Mairia Cahill

Ireland, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom

Columnist at Freelance

Columnist at Irish Independent

Writer, former Senator, waived anonymity 2014. No 1 Bestselling Book Rough Beast, Shortlisted for Non-Fiction book of the year. https://t.co/nO9LwTTiwu

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Articles

Máiría Cahill: People like me with holiday homes are not to blame for shambolic planning and the housing crisis

2 weeks ago | independent.ie | Mairia Cahill

Máiría Cahill: People like me with holiday homes are not to blame for shambolic planning and the housing crisisTom Gilligan suggested holiday homes should be boycotted. Photo: Michael McLaughlinWe never knew the man who lived around the bend, but he grew the most spectacular purple flowers in pots and trained honeysuckle around his cottage door. He’d wave at every car as they passed, tipping his hand to his hat, shirtless and basking in the sun with a beer after his labour.
Máiría Cahill: Letting learners drive unaccompanied is a dangerous idea – Fianna Fáil’s Cathal Crowe should know better

3 weeks ago | independent.ie | Mairia Cahill

Máiría Cahill: Letting learners drive unaccompanied is a dangerous idea – Fianna Fáil’s Cathal Crowe should know better Fianna Fáil TD Cathal CroweMy uncle Jim was 36 when he was killed on September 16, 1998. The sun hung low in the afternoon sky, rays shimmering above the tarmac, making it hard for drivers to see. He was in slow-moving school traffic, which snaked up Belfast’s Falls Road, on a motorbike he had bought just weeks earlier.
Máiría Cahill: Skirting around the camogie skorts fiasco is an insult to our sportswomen

4 weeks ago | independent.ie | Mairia Cahill

Máiría Cahill: Skirting around the camogie skorts fiasco is an insult to our sportswomenThe row about camogie skorts has led to a final being postponed. Photo: SportsfileIreland, 2025. Can you believe Munster’s Camogie Council postponed yesterday’s championship game between Cork and Waterford simply because players signalled their intention not to wear an extra panel of material converting shorts into a skirt? Well done for courageously standing up for your players’ rights, Munster Council.
Máiría Cahill: Painfully slow wheels of justice add to Kingsmill suffering

1 month ago | independent.ie | Mairia Cahill

Máiría Cahill: Painfully slow wheels of justice add to Kingsmill sufferingKingsmill massacre survivor Alan Black in Belfast following the publication of the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland report into one of the most notorious incidents of the Troubles.
How one voice shattered the shameful silence on clerical abuse: ‘You don’t know what happened there. You haven’t the foggiest... You don’t know the hurt’

1 month ago | independent.ie | Mairia Cahill

The funeral of Michael O’Brien heard how his courage illuminated a path for others to speak outWhen Mary Raftery’s groundbreaking 1999 RTÉ series States of Fear aired, one line, narrated by Áine Lawlor, stood out.
Máiría Cahill: A rush to judgment over Grace report won’t help us to fix errors it highlights

1 month ago | independent.ie | Mairia Cahill

Only the established facts of this disturbing case can point the way to a better care system We know her as Grace. She cannot speak for herself, make independent decisions, or answer questions. The one constant in her life is a set of plastic keys. She sucks them, bangs them on her mouth or head, plays with them, and gets distressed if they are taken away. Grace is 46 years old.
Máiría Cahill: Leo Varadkar should realise that Irish unity is not our most pressing issue

1 month ago | independent.ie | Mairia Cahill

Máiría Cahill: Leo Varadkar should realise that Irish unity is not our most pressing issueLeo Varadkar at Dublin Castle in 2024. Photo: GettyBelfast is famous for its walls. On my primary school route, pictures of skeletal men symbolising the hunger strikers adorned the gables of houses, propaganda which petrified this five-year-old who baulked at the images of coffins and distraught mothers. Republicans realised the importance of claiming space.
Máiría Cahill: We are sick and tired of petulant politicians who exist in their own little bubble

2 months ago | independent.ie | Mairia Cahill

Máiría Cahill: We are sick and tired of petulant politicians who exist in their own little bubbleTensions in the Dáil chamberThe Leinster House bubble effectively forms a field of protection over all who tread its corridors of power. Sometimes, this is a good thing, sheltering fragile political egos from increasing levels of abuse on the street and the internet.
Máiría Cahill: Parenting is no walk in the park at the best of times, never mind if you're a 66-year-old working mother

2 months ago | independent.ie | Mairia Cahill

Máiría Cahill: Parenting is no walk in the park at the best of times, never mind if you're a 66-year-old working motherRobert De Niro had his seventh child at 79. Photo: Getty“Ugh, that’s disgusting,” said my daughter when I mentioned in April 2023 that Robert De Niro had just become a father again at the grand old age of 79. “Why?” I asked while bracing myself for an awkward teenage analysis of how people post-40 shouldn’t be making babies, love or anything remotely like it.
Máiría Cahill: Conor McGregor is Donald Trump’s pawn - and that should concern us

2 months ago | independent.ie | Mairia Cahill

Máiría Cahill: Conor McGregor is Donald Trump’s pawn — and that should concern usConor McGregor speaks with reporters alongside White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt before meeting with President Donald Trump on St Patrick's Day. Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty ImagesAt home, we call his exaggerated swagger “the Belfast dander”.

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Máiría Cahill

Máiría Cahill @cahillbooks

30 May 25

July 19th. https://t.co/E5FVrNndfd

Máiría Cahill

Máiría Cahill @cahillbooks

30 May 25

RT @cahillbooks: https://t.co/E5FVrNndfd https://t.co/eSXcBXT80k

Máiría Cahill

Máiría Cahill @cahillbooks

30 May 25

This wee bird (I think Housemartin) keeps tapping at my window. https://t.co/xT71JDahtc