Columns - Irish Examiner

Louise O’Neill

'We are all the same, us addicts, and there are far more of us than people would like to admit'

I am a recovering addict.

Sat, 18 Jun, 2016

Louise O'Neill: My dad raised me to be a warrior, not a princess, and for that, I am forever grateful

From fun-filled days of childhood, to helping her through dark days of anorexia, Louise O’Neill writes how her father has been such an inspirational figure in her life

Tue, 14 Jun, 2016

20 minutes is an awfully long time when you’re the one being raped

I want to talk about rape.

Sat, 11 Jun, 2016

When we sang the rhyme ‘Eeny Meeny Minie Moe’ in playschool, I thought it was ‘knicker’

I see a lot of people shrugging off the idea of White Privilege as ‘PC bullshit’ but it’s very real. 

Sun, 05 Jun, 2016

When I was 21 I would rather have died than get fat

I had a flashback recently. I am 21 and I am in the local Centra near the damp, messy house we rented when I was at university.

Sat, 21 May, 2016

It’s funny, isn’t it? The things you remember, and the things you forget

Memory is a strange thing. It is unreliable, malleable, hauntingly transient, and yet we allow it to shape our present lives.

Sat, 14 May, 2016

I think I would be a good mother; I just don’t want to be one.

I think I would be a good mother. I just don’t want to be one. Maybe I’ll change my mind. (You don’t know. People change. You might change your mind.)

Sat, 07 May, 2016

'I could probably live with making a complete idiot of myself on a Saturday night if it wasn’t accompanied by the Horrors on a Sunday morning'

Whenever I start work on a new novel, I make a conscious decision that I’m going to give up men and alcohol.

Sat, 30 Apr, 2016

I'll explain some of the reasons why I’ve rejected people in the past so that you can learn from their mistakes

Dylan: Strong. Very strong.

Sat, 23 Apr, 2016

The conflation of anorexia with vanity is misguided. Believe me, there is no vanity attached to starving yourself

Deirdre O’Shaughnessy, a co-presenter of Cork’s 96FM programme The Opinion Line, recently interviewed a woman named Sharon whose daughter has been hospitalised with severe anorexia. 

Sat, 16 Apr, 2016