Why do so many people want spiritualist wedding ceremonies?The Catholic Church cannot and should not attempt to compete with a spirituality which is essentially whatever a couple wants it to bSun Sept 29 2024 - 07:00
Pornography is sending men to ever darker places in search of more extreme imagesThe proliferation of ugly, misogynistic, violent porn online is testament to the fact that sexuality without love or boundaries is damagingSun Sept 22 2024 - 06:00
Attempts to clamp down on the influence of Big Tech may hinge on the fate of one womanLina Khan, the Biden-appointed chair of the Federal Trade Commission, has enemies on both sides of the aisleSat Sept 14 2024 - 05:00
Most teachers love teaching. What they don’t love is knowing they might never afford a houseSeeing teachers as human being who deserve respect would help a great deal to allow more teachers to do what they truly loveSun Aug 25 2024 - 07:00
Palliative care is about so much more than end of lifeMany patients could benefit from an approach that focuses on the whole person rather than just their diseaseSun Aug 18 2024 - 07:00
The good news for parents is you’ll never be perfect and you can’t fully shape your childrenDivisions over parenting have been grotesquely magnified by the insane algorithmic dance of the internetSun Aug 11 2024 - 06:00
Breda O'Brien: ‘Cultural Christians’ Elon Musk and Richard Dawkins undermine Christianity’s foundationsThey claim to applaud the principles of Christianity while professing none of its faithSun Aug 04 2024 - 06:00
What does JD Vance’s Catholic conversion tell us about Donald Trump’s running mate?Vance does not so much flip-flop as ruthlessly shed anything that does not serve his ambitionSun Jul 28 2024 - 06:15
Breda O'Brien: What should the Vatican do when an influential religious artist is accused of sexual abuse?Covering up the mosaics of Fr Marko Rupnik seems infinitely preferable to covering up crimesSun Jul 21 2024 - 06:45
Will Simon Coveney ever be asked about his role in passing the referendum that led to a rise in abortions?In Ireland, you can tell people abortion figures won’t rise and still be unaccountable when they doubleSun Jul 14 2024 - 06:00
If you don’t know what ‘food noise’ is, you probably don’t need OzempicIf enduring weekly injections, nausea and potential muscle loss seems better than being fat, something other than personal choice is at playSun Jun 30 2024 - 07:00
No, Irish women don’t need to ‘breed more’. But some would like to have more children The housing crisis, difficulties of balancing parenting with paid work, declining marriage rates and the limitations of assisted fertility all have a negative effectSun Jun 23 2024 - 06:00
Breda O’Brien: ‘The spiral of silence’ in European and Irish politicsWhile people may remain silent in public on controversial issues, in the polling booth things may be differentSun Jun 16 2024 - 06:37
We should not forget the Christian minority in Palestine and IsraelAid for those in Palestine should not be based on religion, but Christians face specific challengesSun Jun 09 2024 - 00:00
Are the mistakes of Junior Cycle reform about to be repeated in the Leaving Cert?There used to be more than 20 mandatory student practicals in the science subjects but in the new specification there are just 10 to 12 experimentsSun Jun 02 2024 - 07:00
‘Commendable’, ‘meticulous’ and ‘intricate’: the giveaways that students have been using AI But students cheating on essays is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to artificial intelligence and plagiarismSun May 26 2024 - 06:45
How a US university that prides itself on freedom of speech dealt with student protests over GazaInstead of chanting incendiary slogans, I would like to see pro-Palestinian supporters endorsing the work of organisations like The Parents Circle – Families Forum (PCFF) involving bereaved families from both sidesSun May 19 2024 - 07:00
Why does no one give up their seat on public transport any more?A culture of diminishing habits of kindness to strangers teaches children there is no obligation to make even small sacrifices for othersSun Apr 28 2024 - 06:00
Did no alarm bell tinkle from RTÉ's editorial structures about its programme on abortion services? A recent programme about Ireland’s abortion services reminds us there are other systemic flaws at the broadcaster beyond financial mismanagementSun Apr 21 2024 - 06:00
Critics are right to worry that hate speech laws are open to abuseHatred is an emotion or an attitude that surely only constitutes criminality when it results in actions that harm others. Intent must also matterSun Apr 14 2024 - 05:00
Leaving Cert reform plans may result in irreparable damage to exams’ reputationExam reform is badly needed. But not like this, with vague learning outcomes and too much scope for use of ChatGPTSun Apr 07 2024 - 07:00
No smartphones before 14: Is this the prescription for a happy childhood?Jonathan Haidt’s new book has four suggestions for reducing anxiety in teenagers. But he doesn’t go far enoughSun Mar 31 2024 - 07:00
Only Irish exceptionalism can explain the rush to legislate for assisted dyingWhy do we persist in believing we can restrict this when other countries have failed?Sun Mar 24 2024 - 07:00
It is cheap and wrong to associate No voters with Ireland’s tiny number of fascistsThe sneering backfired on the Yes sideSun Mar 17 2024 - 07:00
Nikki Haley isn’t my kind of pro-lifer, but I don’t like to see her routed by TrumpWhether wanting to be a president or just to secure the right to flexible work or work full-time in the home, it is not easy to be a woman or mother in 2024Sun Mar 10 2024 - 06:00
March 8th referendums: The WhatsApp debate, by Breda O’Brien and Justine McCarthy Two Irish Times columnists argue the merits and demerits of the proposed changes to the ConstitutionTue Mar 05 2024 - 06:10
The Family and Care amendments aren’t worthy of our ConstitutionThe government has failed to demonstrate that the amendments are worthy of being included in our fundamental statement of valuesSun Mar 03 2024 - 06:30
AI is generating ‘100 bombing targets a day’ for the Israeli army in GazaAttention has been focused on the havoc AI can wreak on elections. But maybe we should have been concerned with its impact on warSun Feb 25 2024 - 07:00
Family referendum: I’m voting No because I will not be hypocritical about marriageAdvocating for marriage or even stable, two-parent families is seen as mean-spirited, judgmental and meddlesome, but ignoring the evidence helps no-oneSun Feb 18 2024 - 06:00
John Bruton’s blog is a treasure trove of wisdom, decency, good humour and the odd rebukeLate Taoiseach wondered why the Irish reaction to a challenge to the consensus was to look for ulterior motivesSun Feb 11 2024 - 05:45
Ireland is not full. Neither does it have to be full of fearWhile many Irish people have reservations about the Coalition’s immigration policy, this unease is not the same as racismSun Feb 04 2024 - 06:45
Meet the son of an Irish emigrant playing Jesus in the most successful crowdfunded series in historyThe Chosen has over 200 million unique viewers and has been translated into more than 50 languages. But you’ve probably never heard of itSun Jan 28 2024 - 07:00
Declining numbers of priests and nuns is bad for the church. But a drop in lay people is worseRecent RTÉ documentaries on the Last Priests and Last Nuns in Ireland showed signs we are ready to embrace the positive contributions of the Catholic ChurchSun Jan 21 2024 - 06:00
A Yes vote would remove two of three references to ‘home’ in the Constitution. This is no accidentA cynic might think the proposed wording reflects that the prospect of owning a home is slipping out of reach for so manySun Jan 14 2024 - 07:00
You’re not imagining it - the internet really is getting worse. Here’s whyThe state of the internet isn’t merely depressing. Given that the US, India, the UK and more than 35 other countries possibly including Ireland are facing elections this year, it is also scarySun Jan 07 2024 - 07:00
This Christmas, spare the young adults in your life the message that they are unique and specialIf you look at the original nativity scene, you do not see the weight of toxic individualism and judgmentSun Dec 24 2023 - 06:00
Euthanasia might be motivated by compassion, but it’s not the most compassionate answerWe don’t need assisted suicide. We need a functioning health service with palliative care for allSun Dec 17 2023 - 06:00
School principals are burned out, depressed and overworked. Something needs to changeIn interviews, principals are asked what they would do if confronted by two students trapped in a lift, a parent calling about a child alleged bullying and three teachers off sick when the inspector arrives. That’s a quiet morningSun Dec 10 2023 - 07:00
Expensive brands are markers of a society that values all the wrong thingsOur collective values both nationally and globally are skewed. As globalisation falters, there is an opportunity for changeSun Dec 03 2023 - 07:30
Artificial intelligence is only as awful as the humans who created itWe should focus less on the terrors of AI and more on the astonishing hubris of those who have created and unleashed itSun Nov 26 2023 - 07:00
To overlook role of religion in the conflict in Gaza would be a mistakeReligion is an important strand in a complex tapestry of motivations that include land, power and resourcesSun Nov 12 2023 - 06:30
We could all learn something about managing conflict from the Vatican’s bootcampSynod on synodality offered a masterclass in listening and was a reminder that conversation needs an imaginative leap into the experience of the other personSun Nov 05 2023 - 07:00
Decriminalise drugs? We haven’t even learned how to handle our drinkHeavy episodic drinking is better known in Ireland as a great night outSun Oct 29 2023 - 07:00
What is going on with bizarre grade deflation in the junior cycle?A distinction in the Junior Cycle and a H1 at Leaving Cert both represent marks over 90. So why is one much harder to get than the other?Sun Oct 22 2023 - 06:00
A devastating diagnosis leads to disenfranchised grief for parents, but there is helpOrganisations such as Every Life Counts are vital in helping families to negotiate their way through a devastating diagnosisSun Oct 15 2023 - 07:00
Labels like liberal versus conservative do not fit Pope Francis or the Church he leadsThe most important gathering of the Church since the Second Vatican Council is under way in RomeSun Oct 08 2023 - 07:00
If AI teachers ever learn to care about students, that will be the least of our worriesLatest AI learning tools don’t just offer answers, they prompt students to figure things out for themselvesSun Oct 01 2023 - 07:00
It shouldn’t have taken Russell Brand to reveal the ugly truth about the sexual revolutionIt didn’t occur to some feminists until too late that there was little that was feminist about adopting a male paradigm of commitment-free sexualitySun Sept 24 2023 - 07:00
Referendums tend to be expensive acts of social signalling – with one exception Pro-lifers are sometimes accused of only caring about children up to the moment of birth. Irish society in general doesn’t seem to care too much for children after birthSun Sept 17 2023 - 07:00
There’s a reason young voters are flocking to Sinn Féin not Fine Gael - it has nothing to do with age gap between leadersVoters don’t tend to consider a politician’s age, otherwise how to explain the appeal of Bernie Sanders and Michael D Higgins to the young?Sun Sept 10 2023 - 07:00
