It’s time Dublin had a statue to unconventional, complex Maud Gonne MacBrideAttitudes to her have been reductive, shaped by the mores of the time and her failed marriageFri Dec 27 2024 - 06:00
During this hard men era, Ireland would do well to remember Seán MacBride’s wordsMacBride asked ‘if those vested with authority and power practice injustice, resort to torture and killing, is it not inevitable that those who are victims will react with similar methods?’Fri Dec 20 2024 - 06:00
Do not, on any account, forget the importance of the perfect Christmas hairstylingHow to achieve the perfect Christmas tree, the perfect table setting, the perfect family time: don’t bother trying. Reject perfection is all its greedy, grabbing guisesFri Dec 13 2024 - 06:00
Is it time for Opposition parties to come together under the banner ‘Put them out’?Given today’s political landscape, the current Opposition might well profit from looking closely at what happened in 1948Fri Dec 06 2024 - 06:00
Diarmaid Ferriter: Greens deemed irrelevant in shallow campaigns with magic money and social media stuntsWeeks of magic money, fantasy manifestos and hand-shaking marathons have come to thisSat Nov 30 2024 - 13:53
Cillian Murphy’s view of Ireland in the 1980s as ‘the dark ages’ misses the pointSmall Things Like These raises a wider question about the communication of our history as one giant, black cloud occasionally interrupted by a lone, bright starFri Nov 29 2024 - 06:00
Contrast between Trump’s cruelty and McCain’s dignity shows how far America has fallenThe absence of an appetite to calm tensions after the storm is the most worrying thing about the American election campaignThu Oct 31 2024 - 17:35
Few would have thought a play about the fraught Belfast Agreement talks could be so grippingThe message that “contradiction is better than violence” is more relevant and urgent than everFri Oct 25 2024 - 06:00
Sinn Féin’s difficulties should not make Fine Gael complacentNeither party can afford to build a campaign entirely around their leader. And both need to overcome a weakness for mixed messagesFri Oct 18 2024 - 06:00
The curtain is coming down on Ireland’s soft power in the USWhether Kamala Harris or Donald Trump wins the presidency in November, Ireland will not be much of a priorityFri Oct 11 2024 - 06:00
The electoral cycle decides the budget, while the fiscal advisory council is ignored The memory of economic crises is not strong enough to withstand the primacy of electionsFri Oct 04 2024 - 06:00
Instead of gushing over Joe Biden, Simon Harris should denounce US funding of Israel It would be ahistorical to suggest that this arrangement has been without tensions. But the money kept flowingFri Sept 27 2024 - 06:00
Our Wild Atlantic Way may be about to get much wilderRainy day funds should surely now take on a literal meaning given the climate’s tumultuous shifts and the reality that our greatest coastal tragedies may lie ahead of usFri Sept 20 2024 - 06:00
Forelock-tugging to Trump in Doonbeg showed how far Ireland will bend for US dollarsWe were bamboozled with jargon in the hope that the resultant fog would distract from what was obvious. The comfort, it seemed, was that ‘there is no single and agreed definition of a tax haven’Fri Sept 13 2024 - 06:00
Sinn Féin’s housing policy ignores that climate change is already here and nowNo one would campaign under the slogan ‘To Hell With the Future’ but it is starting to look like the coming election will merit such a rallying cryFri Sept 06 2024 - 06:00
Social media is destroying young people’s mental health. Why do we keep tiptoeing around this reality?A ban for under-16s may polarise opinion, but we can’t keep highlighting the teenage mental-health crisis while ignoring the root causeFri Aug 30 2024 - 06:00
Nell McCafferty’s empathy and precision defined her, but they were a product of manifold tensions and denialsNell McCafferty lived outside society’s norms and she never stopped challenging themFri Aug 23 2024 - 06:00
Kneecap’s use of Irish is perfectly in tune with Eoin MacNeill’s visionThe co-founder of Conradh na Gaeilge said ‘you might as well be putting wooden legs on hens as trying to restore Irish through the school system’Fri Aug 16 2024 - 06:00
When the Annie Murphy revelations came out, people wore Eamonn Casey T-shirts. How little we knewIt is striking that his own betrayals were paralleled by trenchant denunciations of the supposed sins of others along with a determination to make edgy comments about celibacyFri Jul 26 2024 - 06:00
Diarmaid Ferriter: Ireland isn’t full. Our population could surpass its pre-famine peak in 33 yearsThe slogans ‘Ireland is Full’ and ‘Stop the new plantation of Ireland’ are comically historically illiterateFri Jul 19 2024 - 06:00
The Irish Republican Brotherhood 1914-1924: Diarmaid Ferriter on a very personal Fenian storyThis book, the culmination of a very personal mission, is based on detailed research and, although it does not engage with some of the wider contextual questions posed of the IRB, is valuable and often insightfulSat Jul 13 2024 - 05:00
Keir Starmer may love Ireland, but he won’t be ‘sucked in to the Irish bog’Keir Starmer may find that that bog might not be as perilous as it once was, but it still creates wariness in BritainFri Jul 12 2024 - 06:00
Is Donald Trump a fascist? Historians cannot reach a consensusFormer US president's actions and rhetoric have divided historians over whether he is a fascistFri Jul 05 2024 - 06:00
Diarmaid Ferriter: Narratives targeting the 'Gonzaga Greens' are narcissistic and entirely self-defeatingThose who have crafted this narrative will be louder than most when they’re next looking for Noah’s Ark to rescue them and decrying insufficient supportFri Jun 21 2024 - 06:00
RTÉ reporters were like a political Micheál Ó Muircheartaigh, but no one addressed the big issueOur immersion in the parochial pool is entertaining but the wider picture gets lostFri Jun 14 2024 - 06:00
Many Irish men and women fought in the second World War fought for reasons far removed from ideologyPerhaps not overly mindful of the horrors that would await them, many Irish people went in search of liberation, adventure or experiences unavailable at homeFri Jun 07 2024 - 06:00
Climate change should dwarf every other issue yet momentum is stallingThe political gains for climate deniers will be remarkably self-defeatingFri May 31 2024 - 06:00
Ireland’s Palestine move a step towards independence in foreign policy formationThis week’s developments are about many things including the Government and new Taoiseach seeking to promote themselves as moral consciences internationallyThu May 23 2024 - 11:11
A simple question stopped Ireland in its tracks: why were so many children incarcerated?Journalist Mary Raftery exposed a shocking culture of abuse 25 years ago this month with her three-part documentary series States of FearFri May 17 2024 - 06:00
No line can be drawn under the Troubles for grieving familiesPrevious official histories of the Troubles have involved privileged access to files unavailable to others and the unhelpful policy looks set to continueFri May 10 2024 - 06:00
We hardly need reminders of how little the Tories think of IrelandCurrent stand-off between the British and Irish governments over immigration is another illustration of the complexities of the ties between the two countries being deniedFri May 03 2024 - 06:00
Themes in McGahern’s That They May Face The Rising Sun have never been more relevantNovelist John McGahern admired those in rural Ireland who were “above all, rooted in their own lives”. And yet, those roots are being disturbed, through extreme weather, globalisation and population pressuresFri Apr 26 2024 - 06:00
Ramping up home building isn’t impossible - we’ve done it beforeFrom 1948 to 1964, roughly 137,000 dwellings were built with State aid, 63,000 of which were by local authoritiesFri Apr 19 2024 - 06:00
United Ireland: money should not be the deciding factor but nor should it be ignoredFor more than 50 years, opinion polls in the South have suggested two-thirds wish to see a united Ireland, but that is qualified when money comes upFri Apr 12 2024 - 06:00
How do you explain to a dying child from Gaza that this is within the accepted limits of Israeli aggression?Binyamin Netanyahu’s only strategy, facilitated by Joe Biden and others, is to unleash the army and pummel Gaza in the hopes that it will shore up domestic supportFri Apr 05 2024 - 06:00
Will TikTok taoiseach Simon Harris succeed in his promise to fight populism?Ireland is going through a period of transition. How Simon Harris navigates the role of Taoiseach will be a test of what the future holdsFri Mar 29 2024 - 06:00
Leo Varadkar did not fulfil his promise for ‘people who get up early’Throughout his career, Varadkar used the media to fly kites or issue provocative statements, but if there was a negative reaction he qualified them almost to the point of meaninglessnessThu Mar 21 2024 - 17:00
In a tumultuous world, we should be wary of taking even our robust democracy for grantedIs the view that the 'ordinary people of Ireland would always get their politics right in the long run' still valid?Fri Mar 15 2024 - 06:00
Despite all the focus on RTÉ, there is disappointingly little political will to decide on a new funding modelSome of the issues raised by politicians one hundred years ago about public service broadcasting still haven’t been satisfactorily answeredFri Mar 08 2024 - 06:00
Heading for the referendums does the electorate know what it is voting for?Some issues do not engage the electorate and that would not be a wholly unfair conclusion given the fog around the upcoming amendmentsFri Mar 01 2024 - 06:00
Lightening the sectarian load associated with sport will take more than funding for Casement ParkIt might be tempting to construct a historical narrative that would present the resurrection of Casement Park as a symbol of transformation and reconciliation, but that would be naiveFri Feb 23 2024 - 06:00
No, it’s not the economy, stupid. Only one issue matters nowGlobal temperatures have breached what is regarded as the red line of calamity - 1.5 degrees - yet we’re still focused on all the wrong thingsFri Feb 16 2024 - 06:00
John Bruton was more complex than his ‘nice, straightforward, violently anti-IRA’ reputation suggestsSome of Bruton’s admirers think his role in the peace process has been unduly neglectedFri Feb 09 2024 - 06:00
History suggests Mary Lou McDonald’s comments on unity are wildly exaggeratedThose on both sides of the unity argument need to find answers that go beyond sloganeeringFri Feb 02 2024 - 06:00
March 8th referendums: Is history about to repeat itself?There may be a danger of replacing one ambiguity with another in redefining ‘family’Fri Jan 26 2024 - 06:00
Conflict, Diaspora, and Empire: Irish Nationalism in Britain, 1912-1922 - A confident and original readDarragh Gannon convincingly persuades that Irish nationalism in Britain was far from just a sideshowWed Jan 24 2024 - 04:43
Let’s be real about the Páirc Uí Chaoimh renaming controversy: money has always been part of the GAAWe tend to be very selective in our attitudes towards commercialism and our national gamesFri Jan 19 2024 - 05:45
Is it any wonder so many Irish people don’t want to end up in a nursing home?The reliance on for-profit care raises crucial questions about power, cost, the stance of the State and the status of older peopleFri Jan 12 2024 - 06:15
Does Jeffrey Donaldson have the political imagination to end the Stormont stalemate?It is striking how similar themes of managing internal unionist tensions and relations with London and Dublin endure a century after the Boundary CommissionFri Jan 05 2024 - 06:00
There was more to Lady Augusta Gregory than her relationship with YeatsTheir deep friendship was intriguing, warm and sometimes spiky – but she deserves more than to be entirely defined by itFri Dec 29 2023 - 07:00
