"My first day was… challenging, to say the least. I got on the bus in Rathmines and handed the driver a fiver, only to be told brusquely that it was “exact change only”; a queue of people tut-tutting as I pushed past them to get off again."

Acknowledge your position of power and try your best not to hurt people who are already vulnerable or marginalised

"I had forgotten what it was like to be trusted with such stories, forgotten what it was like to be witness to those sorrows. But I had also forgotten what a privilege it was, and how humbling too."

I am someone who looks for signs. The number 63 has surfaced and re-surfaced in my life for such a long time now that I sneak the number into every book I write

"We are expected to work and work and work, with the promise of success, and all it will bring us ‘one day’, driving us on."

After 18 months of lockdown, we were yearning to see a new generation of Bright Young Things in uncomfortable bikinis (they must all have yeast infections) making inarticulate declarations of love

"I can’t help but wonder if I’m still okay at making conversation, if I am talking too quickly or leaving too many silences in between sentences."

When individual people have more wealth than the entire GDP of countries, it’s time to acknowledge that we have a serious problem

I think about all the children at home, watching these two men, standing on a podium as the Irish flag is raised and Amhrán na bhFiann is played

Does my dog have face blindness? The memory of a goldfish? It’s a mystery.