14 Feature TWINS PEAK WERE PROBABLY MIRROR IMAGES OF EACH OTHER Whetheritsthehighsofalwayshavingcompanyor thelowsofsensingtheotherspain,thebestpartof beingatwinisneverbeingstuckforafriend ByJenHogan I relands birth rate may be falling, but the incidence of twin births continues to rise, with almost two in every 100 births being twins. Curiosity and fascination have always surrounded twins and their sibling relationship. Some of Irelands best-known twins include Taoiseach Micheál Martin, who has a twin brother, Pádraig; golfers Leona and Lisa Maguire; Jedward and Edele and Keavy Lynch from B*witched. A woman is more likely to have twins if there are twins in her extended family, and more people are having fertility treatments, which also means multiple pregnancies are becoming more common. International Twins Day is celebrated in the first weekend of August. Seventy-three-year-old Kay Murray has experienced twin life in just about every way possible. Not only does she have an identical twin sister, Eileen, shes also mother to a set of twins, and grandmother to nearly eight-year-old twins. And if that wasnt enough, her son, who is a twin, married a twin, And her daughter, who is a twin, married a triplet. My mother had myself and my twin sister when she was 37. I had my twins when I was 37. And my daughter had her twins just the month before she was 37, Murray says. Its brilliant being a twin, she adds. Murray lives in Cork, while her twin sister Eileen lives in Dublin. Were probably mirror images of each other . . . mannerisms, very alike. Speech, very alike. Every six weeks I try to get up for the weekend. And I feel more or less feel complete, she says. Growing up we were very, very close. We really didnt need anybody else . . . We actually worked in the same company. When they were younger even their older brother couldnt tell them apart. We had to wear different shoes, says Murray. Growing up, I was Kathleen and she was Eileen and we were known as Katheileen. So did being a twin herself prepare her for parenting twins? I didnt know until 10 days before they were born [that I was having twins]. My mother didnt know until we were born. And at that stage I had four other children, she says. Murray breastfed her twins, at a time when fewer women in Ireland breastfed. Obviously I couldnt do it out, so I didnt go out much. I breastfed them until they were about three . . . It was easier to get them down for their naps with just the breastfeeding. And itd give me two hours respite. Her father-in-law, who was 79 when the twins were born, was brilliant she says. He was an extra pair of arms to hold them when I was busy, because I used to spend two hours in the afternoon on the road collecting kids from school. There were three different schools. Id run home, breastfeed, run back out again, collect the next lot. After Murrays twin grandchildren were born, she was reminded how much work was involved caring for two babies at the same time when their six-year-old sister was briefly hospitalised. I used to mind the kids for THE IRISH TIMES Weekend Saturday, August 1, 2026 two-and-a-half hours [to allow their mother visit their sister] Id be walking the streets [around] Griffith Avenue . . . I think I lost half a stone. Thats why I dont want any of the others to have twins, she says, laughing. Fifty-four-year-old twins Dervilla Power and Paul ODonovan were their mothers miracle babies, following the loss of two older baby brothers with spina bifida, ODonovan says. The twins have one brother who is five years older than them. We were very close and we never had arguments like lots of siblings do, Power says. We went everywhere together, ODonovan adds. Although they formed their own friendships in their teenage years, they still remained closely connected. All my girlfriends were her friends, ODonovan says. I wouldnt let any of my friends date her, he laughs. The twins spouses learned very quickly not to involve themselves in debates between the twins. As for twin telepathy, ODonovan says he has sensed when things might be up with his sister. But he has also felt it physically. I remember one occasion I started getting these terrible stomach pains . . . It went on for a couple of weeks. I went up to my mum . . . and Dervilla was sitting on the couch. Im looking for sympathy and the two of them started laughing . . . and Dervilla said: Im pregnant. And once she said that, [the pain] was gone. They are in daily contact and when ODonovan moved abroad for work, Power says she really struggled. I Clockwisefrom top:identicaltwins KayMurrayand EileenFinnan;Phil Kane-Flynnsits betweenherthree setsoftwins(from left)Emmaand Rebecca(28), AliciaandMabie (10)andTaraand Emer(27);twins DervillaPowerand PaulODonovan; AnnaFarrenand JohnDohertywith theirtwinsons Seamieand Matthew(3). Photographs: BryanOBrien; EndaODowd; JoeDunne We were very close and we never had arguments like a lot of siblings do found it so difficult. When he told me, I think I cried the whole weekend until he left. I mourned him going away. It was like a living grief. The closeness extends beyond the sibling relationship their children are also extremely close. Power is a special-needs assistant and has a very close bond with her nephew, who is autistic. Three sets of twins may not be for the faint-hearted. But for Phil Kane-Flynn, who is the mother of two non-identical sets of twins and one identical set of twins all girls multiples are all she knows. Its joyful and its challenging at times, as well . . . but Ive no idea what its like to have a single child, she says. The beauty of having the twins, especially with the big gap from the big ones to the little ones, is they entertain each other. Theres 14 months between Rebecca and Emma, and Tara and Emer, and Kane-Flynn was shocked to discover she was expecting twins a second time. My mother was alive and she was a huge, huge help to us . . . I dont think I would have survived it without my mother, to be honest. The oldest two had to grow up pretty quickly, because at that time a quad buggy wasnt heard of. The older twins stood on the back frame of the double buggy, she says. You do learn to live on very little sleep. I dont think you ever sleep ever again once you have children. Twenty-eight-year-old Emma is four minutes younger than her sister Rebecca and that mattered a lot growing up. It was really good having a twin sister growing up. You always DavidSedarisontheseriousbusinessofcomedy.Page8 WalledtownsofIreland:RositaBolandvisitsWexford.Page10 PatrickFreyne:GlenHansardwasIrelandsbandleader.Page5 WEEKEND THE IRISH TIMES Saturday, August 1st, 2026 A WOUND IS HEALED Afterdecadesofheartbreakandnearmisses, Mayofinallyhasitsmomentinthesun By 2 Cover story A HOUSE OF PAIN NO MORE MayosAll-Irelandtriumphreleased75yearsof pent-upemotioninoneunforgettableafternoon ByKeithDuggan M acHale Park in Castlebar has always been best suited to those Saturday-night matches in winter, when the season is young and the promise uncontained. An ideal Cover story meme, the jokes came thick and fast. Through all that, Mayo footballers and supporters never shied away from speaking about it, nor returning to All-Ireland finals. Maybe we make too much of the football, Fr Leo Morahan, the former county board executive, said back in 2007. Mayo has the 4 Cover story 2004, when he was beginning his sec- ond term as Mayo manager. By September, he had the county back in an All-Ireland final, when Kerry defeated his young team. Like most GAA counties, the network of names and connections within Mayo football are impossibly dense: you could fill the People GLEN HANSARD WAS OUR NATIONAL BARD TheFramesfrontmanwasIrelandsbandleader, anditfeltlikehewouldbedoingthejobfor alongtime ByPatrickFreyne I n the 1990s, I wasnt convinced by The Frames. They felt a bit mainstream. A bit major label. I was a young idiot. Later, a friend convinced me that I 6 Music THE PIANIST WHO PLAYS WITH ONE HAND ONLY Freya Terris is the first pianist to pass their Grade 8 piano exam playing solely with their left hand ByJohnOConnor L ike countless other young musicians, Freya Terris discovered her love of music at the piano stool. Yet her journey has been anyt People 7 Fearkeptmefrom doingwhatIreally wantedtodoorsay Q&ARevJanetBroderick The Donegal-based priest on childhood games with her brother actor Matthew Broderick, how people react when she preaches sermons, and who could play her in a biopic Howagreeableareyou? I think life has made me agreeable 8 Interview I DONT LIKE EXTREMISTS. BUT I FIND THEM THRILLING AS CHARACTERS TheUSwriterandhumouristtalksabouttheseriousbusinessofbeingfunny onthepageandathislivereadings ByPatrickFreyne WEEKEND INTERVIEW DAVID SEDARIS A few days after I interview David Sedaris, I receive a thank-you postcard fe Interview 9 I just tried to get through my days [at school] without being found out as gay. Im 69, so no one even really imagined then that anyone could be anything that awful back then DavidSedaris: Idontknowhow tobuyaplane ticket.Idontopen anymailthat doesntlooklike fanmail. Photograph: Leonardo 10 Feature HISTORY EMBRACES US EVERY DAY IN WEXFORD In the first of a four-part series on Irelands walled towns, we visit Wexford, where history is quite literally in peoples back gardens ByRositaBoland I f Billy Colfer talked to you about history, youd sit up and listen, Paul Walsh tells me. W Feature field. We discovered that Sparrow was a surname of ship owners back in the 1830s, Hussey says. Hussey brings me out into their back garden to show me where, more than a century ago, a house was built against the other side of their wall. The medieval wall thus became a party wall. It towers 12 Photo essay Formedtotacklethe siltingissueintheriver Liffey,thereservenow extendstotheentirety ofthebay WILD AT HEART Photographs: DaraMacDónaill andEndaODowd Words: EndaODowd O f the 797 Unesco biosphere reserves across 147 countries, Dublin Bay is the only one to include a national capital Photo essay DublinsNorth BullIsland,partof theDublinBay Unescobiosphere reserve,isnow hometo180 differentspeciesof bird.However, conservationists warnthat,asworks tostopcoastal erosionareerected alongthecoastline, theirlong-term impactonthe ecologyand landscapemaybe difficulttopredict. Photographs: 14 Feature TWINS PEAK WERE PROBABLY MIRROR IMAGES OF EACH OTHER Whetheritsthehighsofalwayshavingcompanyor thelowsofsensingtheotherspain,thebestpartof beingatwinisneverbeingstuckforafriend ByJenHogan I relands birth rate may be falling, but the incidence of twin births continues to rise, with al Feature 15 Its sometimes fun and its sometimes not, because they could steal your stuff had a friend beside you. In fact, the twins only really went their separate ways when they went to college and that was a major shock, Emma says. Rebecca says there are lots of upsides to being a twin, but the T 16 Essay he vintage front page shows a street full of Dublin holidaymakers smiling at the camera, sitting on the kerb, waiting for the bus in the sun. But these early queues soon dissipated. Bank holiday spoiled by weather, announces the reusable headline. The citys thoroughfares were WEEKEND E Essay 17 Governments might fancy deploying bank holidays to foster cohesion and goodwill, but that doesnt mean everybody has to play along crashing out of the Fifa World Cup was that Friday, July 24th, became the bank holiday that never was. Would Keir Starmers mooted last act have applied across 18 Feature BE LIKE JOHN LENNON AND BUY AN IRISH ISLAND Four islands for sale off Mayo, Donegal, Tipperary and Galway, with bidding starting at 299,000 ByJessicaDoyle W hen you attract screaming fans everywhere you go, what do you do to get some peace and quiet? You buy an island, of course. Tha People 19 SARAH MOSS Teenage dieting made me an expert in mental arithmetic I bofin. It is suitable for grazing and features two natural freshwater lakes. The island measures 1.2km by 0.4km and rises to a maximum height of 63.3m above sea level. It is a Special Protection Area under the EU Bird 20 Environment TOMAÍ Ó CONGHAILE Our beautiful, troubled planet needs a skilled reconciler T he World Cup may be over but the fallout continues: Trumps unwanted interventions; Germanys early exit; football not coming home; Argentinas post-final petulance. Not to mention, of course, that banner. Environment 21 British navy, spent several days imprisoned in the Tower of London on corruption charges, and died of smallpox before reaching 40. Initially, a strait running between the two main islands was named after him and, by 1765, the Falkland Islands had become the English name for the entire 22 Obituaries FIRST WOMAN DIRECTOR OF A NATIONAL INSTITUTION, LIBRARIAN AND ACADEMIC Patricia (Pat, Patsy) Donlon Born: January 28th, 1943 Died: July 23rd, 2026 Patricia (Pat, Patsy) Donlon, who has died peacefully aged 83 at Blackrock Hospice, Dublin, was a leading light in that remarkable generat Obituaries 23 RENOWNED ORNITHOLOGIST AND COMIC ACTOR WHO STARRED IN THE GOODIES Bill Oddie BillOddiewasamemberofcomedy trioTheGoodies,whoseanarchicTV sketchshowairedinthe1970sand 1980s.Photograph:IanGavan/Getty Born: July 7th, 1941 Died: July 25th, 2026 Bill Oddie, who has died aged 85, was a mul 24 Last word DAVID McWILLIAMS ThefirstvictimofAI? Theeconomy W e are in an era of great technological advances, or so say all the tech bros who are championing not just AI, but a whole host of technological innovations from finance and healthcare to supply chain management and communications. In