Columns - Irish Examiner

Aida Austin

"It might feel sad if I hadn’t painted my eyelashes shut"

MONDAY 1.30pm: I am up a ladder, repainting the back eaves of our house, with a two litre pot of paint — and vertigo.

Sat, 11 Jul, 2015

"My sister's gentle purring ensures I remain just awake"

East London, five o’clock in the morning. I’m in a taxi, heading from my son’s house towards my sister’s apartment and, I hope, complete oblivion.

Sat, 04 Jul, 2015

’That’s a trick question. I’m a fecking writer, give me a break’

IT’S 2am, the witching hour, and I’m in London, standing in my son’s kitchen, holding a coffin-sized box of hopes and dreams; inside it are flowers which I am now going to make up into four “small, affordable, classy bouquets”.

Sat, 27 Jun, 2015

’Flower market? You’ve got the wrong place, love’

IT’S 12pm, midnight — and I’m galloping across Highbury Fields with my son towards the tube station, late for the last train because my son mislaid his wallet.

Sat, 20 Jun, 2015

"This,"I say, "is the bedtime routine I’ve yearned for"

Week one.

Sat, 13 Jun, 2015

"If my sisters and I were a litter of pubs, I would be the runt"

8pm, Sligo — and life has transposed, like it always does, into a scene from The Edwardian Farm. 

Sat, 06 Jun, 2015

"Creative people have a tendency to think that being creative is the only thing they’re good at"

IT’S 11.30am. My mother is on the phone. “Can’t talk long,” I say, “I’ve got a free business-advice meeting at 12pm.”

Sat, 23 May, 2015

"To him marriage meant husband, wife and children"

My dad trained for the priesthood; at 18, he dispatched himself from Blackrock College to Trinidad where he was a seminarian for three years with the Holy Ghost fathers.

Sat, 16 May, 2015