Rosita Boland

1 week ago | irishtimes.com | Rosita Boland

They were some distance in advance of me in the queue for security at Bristol Airport, so it was only when the two men turned a corner and were thus now facing my direction that I noticed them. It was a Saturday morning in June. The airport was extremely busy. The two men now facing me were clearly friends, travelling together, chatting away as they waited their turn in the security line. They were, at a guess, in their mid to late thirties.

2 weeks ago | irishtimes.com | Rosita Boland

It’s the first week of a prolonged spell of gloriously sunny May weather, and I’m at the pier at Castletownbere in Co Cork, where several people are gathered, waiting to board the 9am ferry to Bere Island. Among the scattering of tourists in bright walking gear and stout boots are Fiona Hartnett and Aoife Butler. They are both teachers at Bere Island primary school, Scoil Mhichil Naofa, where 25 pupils await them at the other side of the water.

3 weeks ago | irishtimes.com | Rosita Boland

What is the longest period of time you have sat in a venue watching a piece of theatre? Three hours? Four? Maybe six for some rare double or triple bill? Well, from 4pm on Saturday, June 14th to 4pm the following day, actor Eileen Walsh will be spending 24 hours on stage at the Cork Opera House, in a one-off performance of The Second Woman. This is an Irish premiere of the show, running during Cork Midsummer Festival, and a co-production with the Cork Opera House.

2 months ago | irishtimes.com | Rosita Boland

“We had a client who had bought a €20,000 camera for a trip to Africa, but she didn’t know how to use the camera, so she just used her iPhone instead,” Siobhan Byrne says. Byrne is the founder of Adams and Butler, a luxury travel agency based in Dublin. She is telling this story about the client who bought an expensive camera that remained unused for an expensive trip to illustrate the kind of money people who go on their trips have.

2 months ago | irishtimes.com | Rosita Boland

When a person goes missing in Ireland, it’s become routine to see many posters of that person displayed within the area where they were last seen. That’s not the case with Kerry farmer Michael Gaine (56), who was last seen on March 20th; a disappearance described at the time by all who knew him as completely out of character. I didn’t see a single poster with his image anywhere in Kenmare this week; the town closest to the 400-hectare (1,000-acre) property he farmed a few kilometres away.