Journalism

As a journalist, Emily has interviewed celebrities including Nigella Lawson, Sharon Stone, Ann Pachett, Louise O’Neill, Iggy Pop and Chris O’Dowd, and written features on subjects as diverse as psychology, business, food, feminism, parenting and culture. In 2021 she was nominated for Entertainment Journalist of the year at the NewsBrands Ireland Journalism Awards. She is a past winner of Business Editor of the year at the PPA Awards, and has been nominated for feature journalist of the year at the Headline Mental Health Media Awards 2020.

She has written extensively about almost every aspect of modern life, always from an understanding that telling a story is the best way to communicate. Although the details of time and place, where and what, may change, the fundamental power of a good story does not, and this is what Emily is particularly successful at understanding and creating.

This is a selection of favourite pieces, written over the last few years for various publications, mainly for The Sunday Independent, Ireland's biggest-selling newspaper, and Image Magazine, Ireland's leading women's magazine.

Easy Navigation

Interviews    2021 / 2017 / 2015 / 2014 / 2013 / 2012 / 2011 / 2010 / 2009 / 2008 / 2007

Features      2021 /  2014 / 2013 / 2012 / 2011 / 2010 / 2007

Opinion      2017 / 2014 / 2013 / 2012 / 2011 / 2010

11 april 2021
“Someone will ask the basic question: ‘Do you want to sleep with your co-star?’”
WITH SHARON STONE

Sharon Stone has led a dramatic life — so much so that being struck by lightning is a minor chapter in her gripping new memoir. In this emotional interview, she talks about a childhood of poverty and abuse; her strained relationship with her mother; and her MeToo experiences in Hollywood.

Published in The Sunday Independent
You can read the on-line published version here

29 MAY 2017
Writer Ann Patchett: 'My parents always encouraged me not to have children...'
WITH Ann Patchett

'Commonwealth' is the seventh novel from award-winning US author Ann Patchett. Emily Hourican talks to her about marriage, love, divorce, and the joys of not having children.

Published in The Sunday Independent
You can read the on-line published version here

16 NOVEMBER 2015
Blurred lines: when it's not rape, but it's not right
WITH Louise O'Neill

Writer Louise O'Neill - short-listed for two 2015 Book Awards and recent winner of Tatler's Woman of the Year Award for Literature - is smart and fearless and willing to tackle the kind of topics that are both important and uncomfortable.

Published in The Sunday Independent
You can read the on-line published version here

10 NOVEMBER 2014
Godfather of punk Iggy Pop's lasting lust for life
WITH Iggy Pop

'I'm old and dirty and creepy, and I want to have as much fun as I can.' As he launches his limited-edition Flash Collection for Sailor Jerry, Iggy Pop - godfather of punk, inventor of the no-holds-barred stage dive and creator of iconic songs - talks to Emily Hourican about the certainty of death, getting in the moment, and how we all need to be held.

Published in The Sunday Independent
You can read the on-line published version here

10 NOVEMBER 2013
The impossible made possible - inspirational story of Colm O'Gorman
With Colm O'Gorman

Courageous campaigner Colm O'Gorman is living proof of the power to change. He has reshaped his life from one of abuse and shame to activism and love. His latest mission is to encourage the rest of us to walk a little way in his footsteps.

Published in The Sunday Independent
You can read the on-line published version here

06 OCTOBER 2013
so not the girl-next-door
With Saoirse Ronan

Saoirse Ronan talks accents, growing up in the public eye and playing the outsider.

Published in The Sunday Independent
You can read the on-line published version here

08 SEPTEMBER 2013
the fine art of going forward
With John Behan

The artist John Behan reaches 75 this year without his beloved partner. Work, he says, is now the easy part of life, and in his art, his family and his friends he finds some consolation.

Published in The Sunday Independent
You can read the on-line published version here

28 JULY 2013
Actor Paul McGann enters his second act
With Paul McGann

Despire Paul McGann retaining his youthful looks he has been offered a 'grandad' role. As he prepares for a role at the Abbey, he is aware he can assume nothing about the future.

Published in The Sunday Independent
You can read the on-line published version here

17 FEBRUARY 2013
your soul has nowhere to hide
With Guggi

As artist Guggi opens his first exhibition in Ireland in four years, he talks to Emily Hourican about the self-relevatory aspects of his work, his strict religious upbringing, his friendship with Bono and Gavin Friday, and how he believes that he has finally found the 'truth'.

Published in The Sunday Independent
You can read the on-line published version here

05 JANUARY 2013
And The Winner Is...
With Michael Winner

Michael Winner was a great restaurant critic. Not because he had the subtlest palate in the world, or because he had any training in restaurants. Or even because he could cook (he couldn't). But because he was an exacting person with ordinary culinary tastes – us, basically, at our most demanding – and because he made restaurants fun. He lifted the lid on a particular type of high-end hospitality, almost by accident, and was among the first to tap into the public fascination with restaurants. Michael Winner died on January 21st aged 77. Six years ago, Emily Hourican interviewed him for this magazine, and found him to be just as sharp-witted, charming and irrascible as expected. Here, we reprint some of that interview, as a reminder of a man who added greatly the gaiety of several nations.

Published in The Sunday Independent
You can read the on-line published version here

12 DECEMBER 2012
The Nick Of Time
With Nick Lander

Nick Lander ran the very successful L'Escargot restaurant in London until the toll on his health became too much. In a gamekeeper-turned-pocaher move, he then became restaurant reviewer for the Financial Times. Now he has brought all of this experience together in a masterful new book, The Art Of The Restaurateur.

Published in Hospitality Ireland magazine
You can read the on-line published version here

04 MARCH 2012
Sheen's just happy to be home
With Martin Sheen

He's had his demons over the years, plenty of them, and he's never won an Oscar. How come? But charismatic Martin Sheen, zealous in his Catholic beliefs, has, slowly but surely, become a contented man. Emily Hourican hears about how it all came right.

Published in The Sunday Independent
You can read the on-line published version here

05 FEBRUARY 2012
Love/Hate star still a misfit at heart
With Ruth Negga

Ruth Negga's talent has been recognised with two IFTA nominations for roles in Shirley and Misfits but as Emily Hourican discovers there are aspects of the acting profession that the Love/Hate star rails against.

Published in The Sunday Independent
You can read the on-line published version here

31 JULY 2011
Banville Blacks out to relieve 'boredom'
With John Banville

John Banville is tired of himself, but not of his crime-writing persona Benjamin Black, finds Emily Hourican´.

Published in The Sunday Independent
You can read the on-line published version here

27 MARCH 2011
Lucinda Creighton: The Iron Lady
With Lucinda Creighton

Everything is fine with Enda. She's planning a low-key summer wedding, and despite what people might imagine, she actually thinks very carefully before releasing her broadsides.

Published in The Sunday Independent
You can read the on-line published version here

31 OCTOBER 2010
'Worrying would drive me mad'
With Nigella Lawson

Alongside the great blessings and good fortune in her life, Nigella Lawson has had much tragedy too -- which is why the TV cook avoids worrying about things beyond her control, such as her looks, sales and ratings.

Published in The Sunday Independent
You can read the on-line published version here

17 OCTOBER 2010
The one and irresistibly Jilly ...
With Jilly Cooper

The majority of characters in Jilly Cooper's bonkbusters are laid bare, literally, but the celebrated author manages to hide behind a cloak of disarming charm when it comes to her own life and choice of content, even as she publicises a new novel.

Published in The Sunday Independent
You can read the on-line published version here

10 OCTOBER 2010
Tara Palmer-Tomkinson: My rehab story has a Martini in it
With Tara Palmer Topmkinson

She's as well known for her triple-A lifestyle -- loaded, connected, well bred -- as she is for her very public implosions. These days Tara Palmer-Tomkinson's cocaine addiction, stint in rehab and recovery are in the past, now she's put her manic energy into a novel. Emily Hourican met the quintessential It Girl.

Published in The Sunday Independent
You can read the on-line published version here

01 AUGUST 2010
Night my hero let me down
With Alex Higgins

As falls from grace go, this was spectacular. Alex Higgins, once the handsome darling of the snooker halls, reduced to a toothless wraith living on benefits. The early death last weekend of the Belfast boy had a tragic inevitability. Hurricane Higgins had long ago boozed and brawled away his glamour and talent, leaving romances and children in his devastated wake. Emily Hourican who spent an evening with him recalls the strange encounter with her one-time hero.

Published in The Sunday Independent
You can read the on-line published version here

10 JANUARY 2010
Sinead's crusade on abuse and Polanski
With Sinead O'Connor

The extradition battle of the director who fled the US in the Seventies after pleading guilty to a statutory rape charge is more than just a dinner-party topic for Sinead O'Connor, herself a victim of abuse at the hands of her mother. She tells Emily Hourican why the artistic community, including Neil Jordan, her boyfriend's best friend, must be challenged over their support for Polanski, and why after the Murphy report she's ready to be 'a terrorist' over child sex abuse.

Published in The Sunday Independent
You can read the on-line published version here

11 OCTOBER 2009
The house of Rocha
With John Rocha

In the heart of Dublin, a gentle, inspirational, passionate man is the centre of a mysterious and extraordinary creative hub that is in turn the centre of a €200m-a-year Irish business. As John Rocha and his loyal, dedicated team prepare to take the fashion world by storm once more, he gives Emily Hourican a rare look inside their world.

Published in The Sunday Independent
You can read the on-line published version here

31 MAY 2009
Carving a life out of destruction
With Francis Stuart / Ian Stuart

Ian Stuart was 13 when his cruel father, the writer Francis, left the family to be replaced by a Nazi. And yet the acclaimed sculptor, who readily admits to 'bad but not terrible' things, prides himself on being a naturally good dad.

Published in The Sunday Independent
You can read the on-line published version here

23 NOVEMBER 2008
Over the rainbow
With Suzy Boyt

The songs of Judy Garland struck a chord with writer Suzie Boyt. Like the troubled singer, Boyt had an unusual life. Though her father Lucian Freud's paintings now sell for many millions, her family experienced poverty. She tells Emily Hourican about her childhood and posing for her father's work at the age of sixteen.

Published in The Sunday Independent
You can read the on-line published version here

18 MARCH 2007
The House of Stuart
With Ian Stuart

IAN Stuart is an artist cast in the heroic mould; Hemingway, without the pretension and aggressive masculinity. Today, aged 80, he is remarkably handsome, with a thick head of white hair, massive shoulders, and eyes that are kindled easily to amusement and a witty flirtatiousness. Once one of Ireland's foremost sculptors - chosen to represent the country in two Paris Biennales.

Published in The Sunday Independent
You can read the on-line published version here

Go Up ↑

03 October 2021
‘My lesbian identity was the stuffing in a heterosexual sandwich’
Featuring Bernardine Evaristo

The brilliant writer discusses her memoir, ‘Manifesto: On Never Giving Up’, which lays bare her unconventional upbringing in south London and unpicks her experiences of sexuality, violence, artistic integrity and personal responsibility.

Published in The Sunday Independent
You can read the on-line published version here

26 SEPTEMBER 2021
‘To say there’s a writer whose work you can no longer read because of a political stance – I’m not in favour of that’
Featuring Colm Tóibín

The bestselling author talks about the genesis of his Thomas Mann novel ‘The Magician’, the pros and cons of cancel culture, and what happened when he annoyed a notorious Dublin criminal.

Published in The Sunday Independent
You can read the on-line published version here

09 JUNE 2014
Rachel Kelly's My Journey Through Depression
Featuring Rachel Kelly

Rachel Kelly seemed to have an ideal life, but a sudden, shocking descent into depression forced her to look again at her ideas of success and happiness.

Published in The Sunday Independent
You can read the on-line published version here

04 AUGUST 2013
Heather's new golden ambition
Featuring Heather Mills

In a life of twists and turns that has included modelling, joining a relief convoy to a war zone, losing a limb in an road accident, and marriage and divorce with an ex-Beatle, Heather Mills could finally earn public affection if she wins gold at the 2014 Winter Paralympics.

Published in The Sunday Independent
You can read the on-line published version here

23 JUNE 2013
Fate takes a new bite at Nigella
Featuring Nigella Lawso

Despite her fame, wealth and beauty, the celebrated cookery writer has already known her share of violence and tragedy.

Published in The Sunday Independent
You can read the on-line published version here

14 OCTOBER 2012
light and shade of luggala life
Featuring Oonagh Guinness and Luggala

A new book recalls the heady days of 'Dior and dogs' dinners' at Ireland's upper-class oasis, Luggala, and the lives of those at the centre of its notoriety. As Emily Hourican says, it was a mythical place.

Published in The Sunday Independent
You can read the on-line published version here

09 SEPTEMBER 2012
Edna's allure still endures
Featuring Edna O'Brien

Gifted novelist or just literary femme fatale? For over half a century Edna O'Brien has been admired, slighted, lauded and condemned. Now, nearly 82, she's about to publish her memoirs -- the love affairs, the many controversies, the famous friends (she knew everyone from Jackie Kennedy and Richard Burton to Princess Margaret), the endless parties, champagne and first nights. Emily Hourican chronicles the adventures of the enduring Edna.

Published in The Sunday Independent
You can read the on-line published version here

29 APRIL 2012
Kate's class act
Featuring Kate Middleton

One year after her fairytale wedding to Prince William, middle-class girl Kate Middleton's dutiful and demure persona is proving to be a public relations success for the British royals, as Emily Hourican explains.

Published in The Sunday Independent
You can read the on-line published version here

19 FEBRUARY 2012
The tree of Lucian Freud
Featuring Lucian Freud

The great artist Lucian Freud, who died last summer, left an estate of around £120m to be divided equally among his children, their number ranging from 14 to a rumoured 40. Emily Hourican chronicles the remarkable life and loves of Lucian Freud.

Published in The Sunday Independent
You can read the on-line published version here

18 DECEMBER 2011
Van's vale of tears
Featuring Van Morrisson

In a world in which celebrities jostle each other for a place in the headlines, revealing every minor detail of their lives in an effort to gain attention, the few who guard their privacy obsessively are generally admired for it.

Published in The Sunday Independent
You can read the on-line published version here

24 JULY 2011
Flash, brash Johnny becomes 'Ronan reborn'
Featuring Johnny Ronan

After years of fabulous excess and partying, the 'buccaneer' has stepped out of limelight, writes Emily Hourican.

Published in The Sunday Independent
You can read the on-line published version here

17 JULY 2011
Meet the Murdochs: the firestorm consuming the Murdoch empire continues
Featuring Rupert Murdoch

As the firestorm consuming the Murdoch empire continues, the Australian media magnate and his family brazen it out. Who exactly are they and how did they become one of the most powerful families in the world? The reviled and feared Rupert came from newspaper stock and fathered six children, who range from a Melbourne housewife to two small daughters in Manhattan, by his third wife, the formidable Wendi Deng, nearly 40 years his junior. Emily Hourican looks at the Murdoch dynasty and dissects his relationship with Rebekah Brooks who, according to Elizabeth Murdoch this week, 'f**ked the company'.

Published in The Sunday Independent
You can read the on-line published version here

10 JULY 2011
Beauty and bounty at Renaissance prince Tony Ryan's court
Featuring Tony Ryan

He was the ultimate self-made man, thebaggage-handler who became a billionaire.Tony Ryan’s life had it all — the cultivatedbeauties (the late Lady Miranda Guinnessthe most glamorous of them all), exquisitehomes in New York, Monte Carlo and Ibiza,a jet-set lifestyle. Out of the ashes of hisill-fated aviation company GPA, he foundedRyanair, and its success allowed him todedicate his life to the pursuit of beauty.With the auction next week of the contentsof his Georgian mansion Lyons Demesne,Emily Hourican looks back on the life andtimes of the legendary Tony Ryan.

Published in The Sunday Independent
You can read the on-line published version here

06 MARCH 2011
The fall of the king of couture
Featuring John Galliano

It's the talk of tout Paris. Creative supremo John Galliano, world famous for wildly romantic haute couture, has been sacked by his employer Dior for allegedly making racist comments. Is the pressure at the top of fashion so great it turns genius to self-destruction? And what of Dior's unseemly anti-Semitic history? As the damage created by Galliano's alcohol-induced meltdown continues to mount, Emily Hourican and Aoife Drew examine the flamboyant 50-year-old's dramatic fall from grace.

Published in The Sunday Independent
You can read the on-line published version here

27 FEBRUARY 2011
Charles Spencer: Lord of the flings
Featuring Charles Spencer

Charles Spencer won the hearts of a nation when he bared his soul at Princess Diana's funeral. That reputation is now in tatters. Emily Hourican tracks his fall from grace, reflects on the women in his life, his lonely childhood, and assesses whether the tainted aristocrat will take advantage of his chance to set things right at Prince William's wedding.

Published in The Sunday Independent
You can read the on-line published version here

10 APRIL 2010
Miss Dahl writes her own story
Featuring Sophie Dahl

As a curvaceous plus-size model, Sophie Dahl sparked endless debate about the female figure, as a writer, she could not escape the shadow of her grandfather Roald's genius. Now, as a TV chef exciting comparisons to Nigella Lawson, she appears to have all the right ingredients.

Published in The Sunday Independent
You can read the on-line published version here

14 JANUARY 2007
What'll Kate do next?
Featuring Kate Middleton

EVERY little girl dreams of being a princess, and no sane woman would consider it. Not since Diana. Before Diana there was still some mystique - the illusion of romance and wonder behind the closed doors of splendid Gothic castles. Now there's a new 'New Diana', a decent Home Counties girl from a solid middle-class background. Kate Middleton is the 25-year-old girlfriend of Prince William, and may or may not one day be queen.

Published in The Sunday Independent
You can read the on-line published version here

Go Up ↑

13 SEPTEMBER 2017
Forget 'friendship audits'. Old friends should be cultivated, not culled

Emily Hourican takes a long, hard look at attitudes to friendship, from the sentimental to the ruthless.

Published in The Irish Times
You can read the on-line published version here

28 AUGUST 2017
Who will teach our children?

From mutterings over the uselessness of homework for primary school children, to all-out rejection of the Leaving Cert as 'broken', dissatisfaction with our education system is running high. But something interesting may be happening at last, says Emily Hourican, as the hardcore achievement-orientated parents and the more hippie-dippy just-let-them-be-happy types, find common cause.

Published in The Sunday Independent
You can read the on-line published version here

15 AUGUST 2017
Where The Heart Is: Why Ireland Will Always Be The Place I Call Home

In an ongoing effort to "get away," EMILY HOURICAN has hung her hat in a lot of places, but she's discovered Ireland to be the place she wants to call home?

Published in Image Magazine
You can read the on-line published version here

09 JUNE 2014
Damn hipsters: The young rebels without a cause

It will come as no surprise to anyone living in the capital that south Dublin is considered one of the world's hipster hotspots. With their Abe Lincoln-style beards, super-retro bikes and skin-tight chinos, they're hard to miss and have fast become a modern-day target of ridicule. While Emily Hourican acknowledges that without the hipsters there would be no offbeat ethnic restaurants, artisan food shops and good coffee, she wonders if there is any substance to their style.

Published in The Sunday Independent
You can read the on-line published version here

20 APRIL 2014
The revolution in your head

Her mind is well able to flit from work to Twitter, from work to email, and from celebrity websites to the demands of her kids, says Emily Hourican, but she worries about her diminishing concentration span and her ability to slow down and focus her mind.

Published in The Sunday Independent
You can read the on-line published version here

04 MARCH 2014
The Female Midlife Crisis

The midlife crisis is not strictly a male, Lycra-clad phenomenon. Women, too struggle, suffer and succumb to affairs and flights of fancy in the years between 40 and 50. Whether you throw yourself into charity work, cosmetic surgery, extreme exercise or Eastern mysticism, says Emily Hourican, it's a time of massive change, but the role models for middle age are all around.

Published in The Sunday Independent
You can read the on-line published version here

OCTOBER 2013
The Tedium of Perfection

Published in The Sunday Independent
Download the PDF version

SEPTEMBER 2013
The Perfect Mother Myth

Published in The Sunday Independent
Download the PDF version

JULY 2013
Feminism

Published in The Sunday Independent
Download the PDF version

JULY 2013
Over-sharing

Published in The Sunday Independent
Download the PDF version

MAY 2013
Marathons

Published in The Sunday Independent
Download the PDF version

MARCH 2013
Too Much Too Long: The State of Modern marriage

Published in The Sunday Independent
Download the PDF version

NOVEMBER 2012
Sweets

Published in The Sunday Independent
Download the PDF version

SEPTEMBER 2012
How Much Do We Owe Our Children

Published in The Sunday Independent
Download the PDF version

JUNE 2012
Back to the Bridal Future

Published in The Sunday Independent
Download the PDF version

APRIL 2012
Sweet Little Lies

Published in The Sunday Independent
Download the PDF version

NOVEMBER 2011
Backhanded compliments

Published in The Sunday Independent
Download the PDF version

AUGUST 2011
Why The World Hates Working Women

Published in The Sunday Independent
Download the PDF version

JANUARY 2011
Good babies

Published in The Sunday Independent
Download the PDF version

MARCH 2011
Financial infidelity

Published in The Sunday Independent
Download the PDF version

JULY 2010
Guilt

Published in The Sunday Independent
Download the PDF version
 

Go Up ↑