Donnacha

I never for a second thought anything as banal as that I was the tenor or the baritone and Donnacha was the other singer in the duet.

The Empty Family Colm Tóibín 2011

I had never worked out what to do if she asked me straight out if Donnacha and I had ever been together.

The Empty Family Colm Tóibín 2011

We continued talking as normal but by the time we arrived back to the school Donnacha and I were on fire.

The Empty Family Colm Tóibín 2011

No matter how grim the city I walked through was, how cavernous my attic rooms, how long and solitary the night to come, I would not exchange any of it for the easy rituals of mutuality and closeness that Gráinne and Donnacha were performing now.

The Empty Family Colm Tóibín 2011

It made me feel happy that I was close to Donnacha while I listened to it, and afterwards back in the study hall I composed some poems in response to it, and, I am almost ashamed to say, some prayers that I later showed to Father Moorehouse.

The Empty Family Colm Tóibín 2011

Bradley Davies of Wales is shown the yellow card by the referee, Wayne Barnes, after a tackle on Donnacha Ryan during the Six Nations match between Ireland and Wales.

Six Nations 2012: Wales braced for citing of Bradley Davies 2012

Fergus McFadden, Paddy Wallace, Isaac Boss, Sean Cronin, Tony Buckley, Donnacha Ryan and Leo Cullen, who will captain the side, will be getting their first action of the World Cup.

Rugby World Cup 2011: Declan Kidney makes nine Ireland changes 2011

He may seem a pitiable figure, but to pity him would be to align yourself with Donnacha and Gráinne, the narrator's ex-lover and his wife, overconfident in their sense of entitlement and belonging, and the story has been too well told for that to be possible.

The Empty Family by Colm Tóibín Thomas Jones 2010

Wales are expecting the second-row Bradley Davies to be cited for dumping Ireland's Donnacha Ryan on his head in an off-the-ball tussle during the 23-21 victory in Dublin on Sunday.

Six Nations 2012: Wales braced for citing of Bradley Davies 2012

And there was something about Donnacha that I had never been able to fathom, some deep laziness or contentment, an ease in the world, a way of letting nothing bother him too much, a way of never allowing anything to happen to him that would require close analysis on his part.

The Empty Family Colm Tóibín 2011