Columns - Irish Examiner

Suzanne Harrington

Imagine having to do chirpy small-talk all day long...

A hair salon in Cardiff is breaking with ancient custom by offering clients a ‘quiet chair’. 

Mon, 07 Dec, 2015

We need to think more logically when it comes to events in Syria

So the Turks blew that Russian fighter plane out of the sky. Ooooh, said the internet, panting a bit, it’s World War Three. Which sounds rather over-dramatic. It’s probably all quite simple when you look at it logically.

Mon, 30 Nov, 2015

Terror in Paris takes it toll on refugees in Calais camp

I’D LIKE to tell you how a terrorist organisation impacted on one man’s ability to have a shower. But first, a word about their name. Given that Islamic State is neither Islamic nor a state, it’s probably time to refer to them as Daesh, a name coined by someone in the Syrian resistance.

Mon, 23 Nov, 2015

The Calais refugees know how Parisiens are suffering

Where to start? Firstly, with profound shock and sympathy for those innocent ordinary people who died and suffered in the Paris attacks, and for all those who loved them, and for everyone else in Paris whose ordinary lives are now less ordinary, in the very worst way imaginable.

Mon, 16 Nov, 2015

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