Irish history

Sent to Coventry (with Captain Boycott and Peeping Tom)

Niall O'Donnell 10 Comments

I’ve often wondered about this expression: to send someone to Coventry. It’s a little old-fashioned, so you may not have heard of it. It means to deliberately ostracise someone, by ignoring them, refusing to talk to them. The obvious question about this phrase is: why Coventry?

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Coat of Arms (Featuring Neither a Coat nor Arms)

Niall O'Donnell 7 Comments

Today, you can get an idea of how my “creative” process works. On Saturday morning I was going for a run around the university here, NUI Galway. In order to ensure I met my modest distance target, I went down a little-used path, behind the old quadrangle.

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