Brianna Parkins, Irish Times columnist

Kermit.de.frog

Who is this one who writes for the Irish Times every week? She seems insufferable. She was calling for national service there a few weeks back for under 25's I think (one assumes she's beyond that vintage herself). Seems heroically self absorbed.

https://www.irishtimes.com/life-style/people/2024/08/30/ive-moved-to-a-sydney-suburb-so-posh-it-makes-me-uneasy/

Good for you?

Burt Renaults

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058367007/brianna-parkins-irish-times-columnist

There are a lot of insufferable columnists out there. What is it about this particular young female columnist that irks you so much?

elperello

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058367007/brianna-parkins-irish-times-columnist

Just turn the page and read Sean Moncrieff's column.

Might be more to your liking.

Jim_Hodge

No point linking to a paywall Kermit. She was a Rose of Tralee, then on Ireland AM. She moved to Australia. It's just an Opinion Piece. You're not bound by her opinions and can even drop a letter to the editor refuting her stance if you wish. People do it about different articles every day.

HeidiHeidi

I love her articles. And Seán Moncreiff's, as it happens, so they're not mutually exclusive.

James Bond Junior

She is realtively harmless, easy to read and pretty forgettable. Which isn't exactly an insult, sometimes you want to read something akin to chewing gum for the eyes in a TV programme. A Tipping Point of the newspaper world so to speak.

Jim_Hodge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122564298#Comment_122564298

This is it precisely. Nobody is forced to read any contributor they actively dislike. I buy the IT every day but never read Michael Harding's pieces, as I find them inane. It's easy enough to skip past them.

Try producing a column every week about nonsense, make it appear it's making some sort of point, and dont take the easy way out by making it provocative and controversial.

It takes real skill.

I like Sean Moncreiffe he is well aware he is drifting in to cranky old man territory and has decided to embrace it.

Larbre34

Brianna is a former Rose or Tralee contestant, from Aussie settled here for a while, did a bit of whimsical writing and some telly cos she's a decent looking doll.

And of course, like her millenial professional woman opposite number in the Indo, Stefanie Preissner, she just had to come out as 'neuro-divergent', which of course just means she's a woman.

And now she's taken her quirky Irish boyfriend and they've moved (back) to Sydney, but she seems to still be writing Irish Times columns from there, telling us why everything in Australia is epic and everything in Ireland is hellish. Seems to me you'd get away with that for ONE column piece, but not week in and out, not to the Irish Times audience. So, I expect she'll be taken off the roster there soon enough. And that'll be the story of her.

Kermit.de.frog

Why doesn't she move on and write for an Australian national newspaper? They must be crying out for raw talent like this.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122564658#Comment_122564658

I don't agree with that she's much more subtle that that she says why are things less complicated in Australia and more straight forward to acesses, that's not the same as Australia fantastic Ireland afwel.

Hangdogroad

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122564298#Comment_122564298

Do you still listen to Joe Brolly Doc?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122566282#Comment_122566282

The amount of cranky old people on the boards, really noticing it lately.

EmmetSpiceland

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122566373#Comment_122566373

An awful lot of low T anger out there. Would, usually, read what Parkins has to say, myself. Have heard her on radio before too, always came across as someone worth listening to.

eightieschewbaccy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122566282#Comment_122566282

She works on some Australian channel iirc but keeping an existing column when possible is most likely preferable to any writer these days.

Madd Finn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122566373#Comment_122566373

Well it's been around since the dawn of time, Internet-Age speaking. I'd love to know the average age profile of Boards contributors. I suspect it would start with a 4. At least 😀

Strumms

Parkins : ” I’m leaving Ireland, I don’t have the energy for life here “….. that’s fair enough ok,

So what happens, she does leave Ireland but she’s making a living by writing for an Irish newspaper ( Irish Times ) whose main target audience is Irish people living in Ireland. So she hasn’t the energy for Ireland or life in Ireland unless Ireland is writing her a pay cheque .

I’ve read two of her columns and it looks like the IT are basically paying her for writing a diary / brain fart guff article for them… absolutely nothing impressive, imaginative, interesting or original…

Hardly journalism, most of us could do that…. Give me a page in x publication and hey I’ll offer my opinions and experiences…..

HeidiHeidi

Why don't you pitch for one then?

If it's that handy a number it's surely a no-brainer.…

Strumms

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122568744#Comment_122568744

Because I don’t have the interest and they couldn’t afford me 🤷‍♂️

Former Former Former

she drives me bananas.

Wrote a column every week about how sh1t Ireland is, then moved home and continued to write about how sh1t Ireland is. She has absolutely nothing to say for herself.

Today’s column was jaw dropping. Obnoxious humble bragging with no humour and no discernible point. Absolutely up her own hole.

elperello

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122568908#Comment_122568908

Got you thinking all the same.

Even exercised enough to go online to complain about it.

Job done.

Day Lewin

She's a whinger. Whiny and depressing. By now, I just turn the page right past it every week.

I wish they would get someone cheerfuller - or at least more balanced - to write these opening-page pieces.

Yesterdays column was dire.

Her Grandparents or was it her parents, eimmigrate to Australia from iner city Dublin.

That would make a far more interesting column.

It's a topic we don't read a lot about.

Irish emigration stories tend to be about Kerry/west if of Ireland people doing well for themselves in America.

Rothko

A lot of anger coming your way from the usual suspects, OP.

ednwireland

I was in Australia last year the people I know who have lived there 20years don't think it's so great, cost of living house prices etc etc.

Norrie Rugger Head

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122564471#Comment_122564471

That started a long time ago. His rant about people saying "and good morning from here" was cringe.

Along the lines of "you're coming onto a show in this timezone, say good afternoon " and the fact that he grumbled into the next day about it.

Sean of "The End" would have torn that version to shreds

Raysin

I too, irrationally hate people that I hate, irrationally.

Don't like it, don't read it. Seems simple enough.

ThePentagon

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058367007/brianna-parkins-irish-times-columnist

She's an absolute pill. Endlessly whining about Ireland in any of her articles I've been foolish enough to read. The Irish Times has gone to s**t over the past few years, unfortunately. Gone from being the 'paper of record' to a poor imitation of The Guardian, publishing hoax articles about fake tan being a type of cultural appropriation.

elperello

It's probably worth noting that two other articles about life in Australia were published in the main paper on Saturday.

https://www.irishtimes.com/abroad/2024/08/31/i-think-i-would-have-had-a-very-fixed-life-in-ireland-i-feel-very-light-in-australia/?

https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2024/09/01/in-australia-rents-are-high-costs-are-rising-can-it-remain-a-mecca-for-irish-emigrants/

Jim_Hodge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122573089#Comment_122573089

I noticed that. There seems to be a fixation with Australia at the IT recently.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122573096#Comment_122573096

Yes, lot of that lately, it's like Australian has become a shining beacon, the perfect society.

Its gone beyond, it's always better somewhere else.

A bit odd.

ThePentagon

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122573241#Comment_122573241

The I.T. has a regular column these days, each one written by a different Irish expat/emigrant (in Australia, or Germany, or Singapore, or wherever) harping on about how wonderful their new country is, and how Ireland was so rubbish they were forced to move abroad, etc, etc. Meanwhile, another regular feature in I.T. is written by immigrants to Ireland, usually writing about how absolutely great life is here, the best thing since sliced bread. The paper is either deeply confused or making an attempt at balance 😄

awec

People who leave Ireland and think they've become incredibly cultured as a result are absolute bores.

As if we Irish are sitting at home now reading in absolute amazement what life is like in this far away place called Sydney. Apparently it's really hot there, and Christmas is in the summer time. Did you know you can get a spice bag in Australia?

In today's world, where various cultures have been exported all over, where the internet lets people interact with anyone, anywhere, it amazes me that people are actually paid to write this crap. Especially for places like Australia, where hundreds of thousands of Irish people have gone and come back from over many, many decades. Does she think she's done something new and interesting?

Brianna Parkins is an incredibly dull writer with pretty much nothing interesting to say, but she's not the only one up to this.

AMTE_21

In her column a few weeks back, she said her parents were retired on good pensions implying they couldn’t if they were in Ireland, but her father was a firefighter and her mother worked in a bank, both would have decent pensions in Ireland and a comfortable life in retirement, you have to make choices in life, a steady job, good pension, or a job doing what you feel passionate about, but maybe less benefits.

chrissb8

(Deleted)

pjohnson

I think Brianna thought she could make a career here but her whining/dullness got old way to fast.

She had a few days filling in for Matt Cooper on TodayFM before dissappearing from the air altogether and then huffing off home.

GAAcailin

She was a guest on 'Sunday with Miriam' yesterday and omg having to listen to her 'Ireland bashing' was way worse than just reading it in the IT. I used to like her columns before she decided to move home to Oz. Now all she can do is criticise virtually everything about Ireland.

I have a sister living in Oz, I mean Sydney isn't exactly cheap; yes the weather is generally better but it gets dark at 5/6pm in the evening. Nice place and all that but don't get why the IT are continuing to employ her when all she can do is criticise Ireland.

EmmetSpiceland

I think the IT know, exactly, what they are doing. Irish people are, incredibly, “thin skinned” when it comes to criticism.

Rightly, or wrongly, this journalist is putting up articles that seem to be, quite, “negative” about the place and this is getting a lot of feedback, or engagement.

It’s the sort of thing ‘Live Line’ or Newstalk’s, dreadful, afternoon rip off show tend to get some “mileage” out of.

pjohnson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122881031#Comment_122881031

that was her shtick while here. Just added bitterness she couldn't make a career here.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122564324#Comment_122564324

Oh Harding's insufferable.

But in fairness, regarding the Irish Times, it ran a feature about people who have come to live in Ireland, and it was really positive. People talking about how much they love it here - one very moving story from a young Venezuelan woman who said she could finally relax and not worry every day when she woke up that she might be killed. Naturally the social media comments to this positive sentiment around Ireland were scathing. Damned do, damned don't. Although I don't think there's that much sensitivity about Ireland from Irish people - the opposite actually (although there is that type who gets bitter about those emigrate and prefer their adopted country to here).

elperello

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122885031#Comment_122885031

Au contraire as they say in Leitrim 😊

Michael Harding is a national treasure.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122885062#Comment_122885062

I know - people love him. I don't get it! He just sounds like the fella rambling and slurring in the snug.

EmmetSpiceland

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122885062#Comment_122885062

Always love to hear him on the “airwaves”.

chrissb8

It's the continuous Ireland bashing, and generally, it's really poor takes with a contrived effort at wit. I'm just remembering off the top of my head some articles….

One where Irish people are implored to move to Australia, why is this place seen as a promised land? It's roasting, expensive and half way across the world. Some of us love this country, not the way it's run but the people, the land itself. It's something deeper and she completely missed the mark by saying it's all bad so just move.

Then another one about people using exercise as a means of running away from their problems with mental health. And if you were to find her with a drink and cig dancing in a bar just know she's happy. Ok. Weirdly sanctimonious and too pointed to just be a bit of fun.

Then all the general nonsense of picking apart Irish culture. Yes, yes we are this that and the other, when are you going to write a piece that is novel and entertaining? Instead of robbing from the Irish comedians observational humour on Ireland.

I just want Roisin Ingle back. You know, someone who is Irish gets "it" (humour, way of speaking, cultural norms, the experience of being and growing up Irish).

It really isn't much to ask for in a national paper. While I may read different articles from different publications I read the Irish times for a generally Irish centric view on things.

Someone who has only been in the country 5 years (or whatever) could only offer a limited perspective. And that is exactly what Brianna Perkins view is, someone writing for Irish people about Irish matters but not actually understanding us in a more complete sense.

Probably teetering on xenophobia but as I said, Irish Times, a slice of life column, I can't relate much to an Australian's woes and ills about Ireland much. I can't imagine too many Irish people would be able to either.

That said all this would be forgiven if she was genuinely funny, but that is rarely forthcoming.

Former Former Former

Today’s column is about how it doesn’t matter that Dee Devlin sent out all those posts about Nikita Hand during the week.

Day Lewin

I gave up reading the opening page of that magazine. A pity for the publishers, because it's easily the most visible and most accessible page.

But it's ALWAYS a whiner. I don't like whingeing, and it's incessant. Can they not find some cheerful or at least optimistic journalist to put in a few paragraphs?

It doesn't HAVE to be a woman - there's no law that forces you. They don't HAVE to complain, either - it's a free country, you can comment on anything!

This is satire, by the way, lest anyone misunderstand me.

But it's a true fact that I went right off that Brianna: she's a depressing bore to read.

chrissb8

Maybe unrelated but, Laura Kenneddy evangelising about Australia, again:

https://www.irishtimes.com/abroad/2024/12/04/laura-kennedy-australia-offers-me-a-more-dignified-life-than-the-one-i-had-in-ireland-its-not-unpatriotic-to-say-so/

Between her and Brianna, I feel they're sleeper agents for the Australia tourist board. No one cares about Australia, please just give up already, you have nothing to talk about.

whisky_galore

Oh look, I'm yet another paddy living in Oz, how wonderfully original and groundbreaking.

coffey87

I cannot stand ex pats bashing where they came from, and that's coming from someone who once was an ex pat. If they are so concerned about their home country, go back and try and fix things. Otherwise, enjoy your adopted country and worry about how that country is

L1011

I don't see the relevance of having a column written from Australia. I thought it was gone when it was missing for a few weeks but no, it's back.