-
Jan 14, 2025 | 
irishtimes.com | Orla Tinsley
I am not a fan of new year’s resolutions. The whole situation makes me cringe. It seems too forced, too twisted. Like when normal-looking balloons at the carnival are plucked from their happy place by clowns who contort them into animal shapes to make kids happy. Sure, they look okay, but what a tragic way to arrive at a desired shape, it can’t be comfortable for the supposed dog/giraffe/horse. I’m never sure what they are meant to be afterwards and with one prick of a pin, they’re back to nothing.
-
Dec 30, 2024 | 
irishtimes.com | Orla Tinsley
A key moment in the recent general election provided a stark example of how ableism and patriarchy work.
-
Nov 12, 2024 | 
irishtimes.com | Orla Tinsley
It was a beautiful Sunday morning when the man exited the church grounds and quickly crossed the street. He approached a younger man who was pushing a buggy. There was a child in it. The younger man appeared to be a recent arrival to our shores. Back at the church grounds, a young woman was begging. I had just arrived and stood beside her while, across the road, the older man wagged one singular bony finger at the man and child. This was in a sleepy, affluent south Dublin suburb.
-
Oct 1, 2024 | 
irishtimes.com | Orla Tinsley
Now that I am free, I’ve been thinking about American novelist Toni Morrison and the powerful words she told O – Oprah Magazine – in 2003. “I tell my students, when you get these jobs that you have been so brilliantly trained for, just remember that your real job is that, if you are free, you need to free somebody else. If you have some power, then your job is to empower somebody else.
-
Jul 23, 2024 | 
irishtimes.com | Orla Tinsley
Since you are reading this in The Future, I cannot tell what has become of us all. Maybe, right now, you are standing in a circle with Stockard Channing and Sandra Bullock chanting a mantra in your livingroom to bring your sister back to life. Perhaps you are watching in horror as hot ER actor Goran Višnjić claws his way up from beneath the Earth with murderous eyes. “Blood on the moon” you scream to no one in particular as the cat, in terror, races beneath the kitchen table.
-
Jun 6, 2024 | 
irishtimes.com | Orla Tinsley
As I stood in the tiny Irish stationery store where Matt Damon’s assistant’s assistant’s assistant had spent hours deciding what birthday card to purchase for the star’s 50th birthday, allegedly, I felt comforted by the simplicity they landed on. The card had a clear message written on it: “Happy Birthday, Dude!”This was relayed to me by an extremely cool person whose wisdom I would never doubt. It is only recently I have come to understand the beauty of the town he spent months on lockdown in.
-
Apr 30, 2024 | 
irishtimes.com | Orla Tinsley
In the room her behaviour is reactive, as though I cannot think for myself – she cannot bear to afford me the space. And that’s what it is about, space – who has it, who takes it and to whom it actually belongs. Amid the whitewashed walls, her occupation is an action that speaks: do not trouble your mind, sick person, I do not expect you to have the critical ability to understand your own needs. But does she understand her own? Isn’t this the problem? Can she even nourish herself?
-
Apr 16, 2024 | 
irishtimes.com | Orla Tinsley
When I am rolling to dialysis in the wheelchair no one is wearing a mask in the lift. I wonder if I should say what’s going on, but these complete strangers have chosen to walk around a hospital maskless. If it was me, I would like to know that I was standing face to face with a potential killer. An instrumental, courtesy of Curb Your Enthusiasm, plays in my mind just for me.
-
Mar 6, 2024 | 
thejournal.ie | Orla Tinsley
THIRTY FOUR YEARS ago civil rights advocate and Columbia professor Kimberlé Crenshaw coined the term “intersectionality’. The term rocketed into the mainstream when in 2012 the hit tv show Girls got called out for its whiteness. The cast of characters did not reflect the diverse reality of New York City or indeed, real life and in response the show attempted to make amends by including more black and brown characters.
-
Feb 13, 2024 | 
irishtimes.com | Orla Tinsley
Whether you find yourself in your own room, your own rectangle on a multi-person ward or the A&E, you can take steps to make your hospital space safe, soothing and sensitive to your own needs. This may sound crazy – especially if you feel extremely ill – but there are some small ways to control your narrative when going through a hospitalisation. 1. Bring a notebook and a pen.Write down the name of every doctor who enters.
