The Cost of Being a Control Freak (Situational Irony)
In "Like a House on Fire," the narrator slips a disc in his back while trimming a stray branch. He's a manager at a landscaping company, and it's not even his job to trim the branches, but he is such a perfectionist and, according to his wife, a control freak, that he had to trim the branch. The irony is that in trimming the branch and consequently herniating a disc in his spine, he loses all control, and everything around him in fact falls to clutter—just the opposite of what he had hoped to achieve.
A Man of Secrecy (Situational Irony)
In "Ashes," Chris reflects on the irony of how the only reason he knows his father was a secretive man is because he, himself, is a secretive man. On his death bed, his father made a comment that suggested that he knew Chris was gay; so, Chris's secret draws out his own father's secretive nature in the sense that his father never mentioned it before and took the information to his grave, not even telling his wife as a way of "protecting" her from the truth.
Des's Lies (Dramatic Irony)
In "Five-Dollar Family," Michelle's boyfriend Des has many secrets, or so he thinks. But at every turn, Michelle (and by extension, the reader) is one step ahead of him. He hides the fact of his assault charges from Michelle, but when the people from the court come to serve his papers, she's home, not him. He also hides an affair from her, but she finds the receipt for condoms in his jacket pocket. She never confronts him about these things, so Des goes through the story thinking his secrets are well-kept; but the reader knows that Michelle knows, and that deeply influences their dynamic.
The Crinkley Pillow (Situational Irony)
In "Five-Dollar Family," Michelle's uncomfortable, plastic-wrapped hospital pillow crinkles at night and keeps her awake when she's on strict orders from the midwives to be sleeping. The irony of this is that her pillow, an object meant solely for the purpose of aiding sleep and rest, is actually the very thing keeping her awake.
