Making eye contact with and inexplicably winking at Queen Elizabeth II as her motorcade travelled down Gardiner Street in 2011. This one horrific memory returns to me again and again: The day I gave some tourists the wrong directions to Riverdance. I can tell they’re Americans immediately because they’re dressed like they’re preparing to go to the Superbowl and somehow ascend Croagh Patrick at the same time. They’re on their way to see Riverdance, they say, but are running a little late and struggling to locate the theatre. Not only that, but they’d been running late, and I had sent them on a wild-goose chase to the wrong theatre.

Source: The Irish Times March 12, 2026 15:01 UTC