Dáithí It has been almost a year since Dáithí Ó Sé joined the Irish Examiner as our resident agony uncle. His ‘Dear Daithi’ column every Monday sees him answer readers’ questions on everything from Christmas with the in-laws to Junior Cert holidays. “Help,” one reader wrote, just days from the Cork Clare showdown, “my boyfriend’s GAA obsession is wearing me down.
” “Outside of this man’s GAA fetish,” Dáithí wrote back, “he really seems to have a lot going for him and as you say he ticks all the boxes: Right age; doesn’t live with his mother, and hasn’t ghosted you ...
Years ago, we would have settled for own house, own car, and own teeth.” As a self-conscious teen with a penchant for Rimmel Coffee Shimmer lipstick and blue hair mascara, magazines like J17, Kiss, Mizz and more were my bibles/burn books/manuals to puberty. I wrote into those magazines’ problem pages more than once, asking for advice on friendships, boys, and kissing.
I never did find out whether I should practice kissing with my pillow? (Spoiler alert: I did — and got no complaints). Reading Dáithí’s column, it feels a little like the problem pages — but for adults: More sound and practical, much less haughty. His advice is peppered with that West Kerry charm we’ve come to know and love.
It’s tongue-in-cheek, but always grounded, from the heart, practical, and well-meaning. The kind of soothing, yet no-nonsense life experience you might have gotten fr.