Columns - Irish Examiner

Suzanne Harrington

Nothing sweet for 6-year-old Honey in the Calais’ mud

Honey has just been on an incredibly long journey - not like those ones when you go on holiday and keep asking ‘are we there yet’ - but a journey where she was hidden inside the hold of a small boat with 55 other people, for 25 hours, writes Suzanne Harrington.

Mon, 09 Nov, 2015

We should be more pigheaded about pork

WINSTON Churchill said that they “look us straight in the eye and see an equal”. GK Chesterton thought that their “actual lines… are amongst the loveliest and most luxuriant in nature… the same great curves, swift yet heavy, which we see in rushing water and rolling cloud”. There was even a Celtic god, Moccus, in their honour

Mon, 02 Nov, 2015

Chinese work conditions like battery chickendom

IT’S a bit worrying when the Chinese start building nuclear power plants next door and are given the full state banquet treatment by our neighbours in Downing Street and Buckingham Palace, writes Suzanne Harrington.

Mon, 26 Oct, 2015

Credit for daughter’s good behaviour is Mary Berry and cakes

BY THE time you read this, my daughter will have reached the frankly astonishing age of 15 without ever having been arrested, been drunk and disorderly, self-harmed, had a psychotic episode, set the house on fire, been expelled from school, got pregnant, been caught shop lifting, or beaten anyone up, apart from her younger brother, which doesn’t count.

Mon, 19 Oct, 2015

Europe could easily absorb all the refugees

THE movies are all about rescue at the moment. Hollywood has just sent Nasa and its Chinese equivalent to Mars to bring back Matt Damon, while Everest focuses on the attempted rescue of a group of rich people who climbed the mountain simply because they could afford to. Spoiler alert — loads of them die. Apart from Matt Damon, obviously.

Mon, 12 Oct, 2015

Teenagers home alone: there's a smartphone for that

Usually my job involves shuffling around the house in my pyjamas talking to myself, interspersed with the odd burst of writing. Occasionally it involves getting dressed and leaving the house, and rarer than a blood moon eclipse, it requires a trip.

Mon, 05 Oct, 2015

Stuck in a jam watching the heroes of Calais

DRIVING to Dover the other day, my friend suddenly says, “I forgot my passport.” We are almost at the ferry to France. Instead of being turned back, we are allowed to travel to Calais on the strength of an Irish passport (mine) and an out of date scrap of paper that used to be a UK driving licence (hers). The ferry operator waves her through.

Mon, 28 Sep, 2015

Every teen should be made to read Louise O’Neill's book 'Asking For It'

Having done my Leaving the year she was born , I hadn’t heard of the writer Louise O’Neill until I was mooching in a bookshop the other day. I randomly picked up Asking For It — largely because of Jeanette Winterson’s recommendation on the cover — and read it almost in one go.

Mon, 21 Sep, 2015

Business as usual for dealers in death

DOING anything this coming week? At a loose end at all? You could always pop over to London to the enormous ExCel events centre, which is hosting an arms fair, writes Suzanne Harrington. 

Mon, 14 Sep, 2015

We need do more than tweet: Deeds, not words

THAT photo has got be the turning point. The dead toddler on the beach. Three-year-old Alyan Kurdi, lifeless in his little black shoes.

Mon, 07 Sep, 2015