Rachel Connolly

Otitis media with effusion (OME) is an accumulation of fluid in the middle ear cavity, common amongst young children. It may cause hearing loss which, when persistent, may lead to developmental delay, social difficulty and poor quality of life. Management includes watchful waiting, autoinflation, medical and surgical treatment. Insertion of ventilation tubes has often been used as the preferred treatment.

Why was it so hard to admit that I used my ex-boyfriend for his apartment?

When I graduated from university at 22, I had an idea of a novel I wanted to write. I had the characters and the shape in my head already, and there was a voice, a certain style, that I wanted to try and get down on the page. That felt important to me, for reasons I knew I wouldn’t be able to explain to anyone else and never tried to. I had just finished a math and physics degree at the University of Manchester, so I knew that telling people I wanted to write a novel would make me sound deluded.

When they start the announcements to say the plane is landing, thank you for flying with us, put your seatbelt on and don’t be wandering about, trying to use the toilet, all the rest of it, I press my forehead against the window.

While reading Maradona’s autobiography this past winter, I found that every few pages I would whisper or write in the margins, “I love you, Maradona.” Sadness crept up on me as I turned to the last chapter, and it intensified to heartbreak when I read its first lines: “They say I can’t keep quiet, that I talk about everything, and it’s true. They say I fell out with the Pope. It’s true.” I was devastated to be leaving Maradona’s world and returning to the ordinary one, where nobody ever picks a fight with the Pope.

One eldest daughter speaks.

I'm beginning to worry that the strong “Irish literature” brand may have unwelcome side-effects.

For years now, I’ve been puzzled—and annoyed—by the way people seem to insist on labeling what type of person one can be. I’ve finally solved my problem.

Math brains and creative brains, boy chores and girl chores. Why are we doing this?

When wildfires rage, the immediate threat is obvious — but smoke from the fires actually kills far more people than the flames do. It doesn't have to be so deadly.