Bloody Sunday handkerchief, 1972A History of Ireland in 100 Objects The plain white handkerchief is distinguished only by the small letters spelling out “Fr…Sat Dec 22 2012 - 00:00
A civilised society takes care of citizensThe difference between decency and indecency is luck. In a decent society, you don’t have to be luckyTue Dec 18 2012 - 00:00
Washing machine, 1950sA History of Ireland in 100 Objects The wringer on top of this washing machine makes it look laborious, but in the 1950s its…Sat Dec 15 2012 - 00:00
Kenny's dead words fail to convinceAt 9.16 pm on the night of the budget, the Dear Leader appeared on televisionTue Dec 11 2012 - 00:00
Emigrant's suitcase, 1950sA History of Ireland in 100 Objects In the 1950s one of the most popular Irish songs was Sigerson Clifford’s gently nostalgic…Sat Dec 08 2012 - 00:00
Fundraising frustration? The Minister has a wizard schemeCULTURE SHOCK: The Budget confirmed what we already know: that we have the most philistine Government in the history of the …Sat Dec 08 2012 - 00:00
Key errors of crusade against abortionHere are five key statements repeatedly made by anti-abortion campaigners. Every one of them is factually wrong:Tue Dec 04 2012 - 00:00
The oddly public secret life of Jack B YeatsIreland’s greatest painter, Jack B Yeats, had a secret lifeSat Dec 01 2012 - 00:00
Ireland still great place for shysters and scam merchantsThe late Larry Hagman gave us the greatest single moment in Irish television history, and it wasn’t in DallasTue Nov 27 2012 - 00:00
Boyne coracle, 1928A History of Ireland in 100 Objects: When people first came to Ireland, about 9,000 years ago, it was almost certainly in skin…Sat Nov 24 2012 - 00:00
'Quietly' does it: a pub play with potent purityCULTURE SHOCK: There is life in the old dog yetSat Nov 24 2012 - 00:00
'Democratic renewal' beyond parodyYou have to feel sorry for Mario Rosenstock, Paul Howard or anyone else who tries political satire in IrelandTue Nov 20 2012 - 00:00
Making heavy weather in MiamiFintan O'Toole reviews Back to Blood by Tom Wolfe, Jonathan Cape, 720pp, £20Mon Nov 19 2012 - 10:54
When is an abortion not an abortion?COMMENT: Savita and Praveen Halappanavar walked unknowingly into Ireland’s grey zone of hidden realities, unspoken truths and…Sat Nov 17 2012 - 00:00
'Anglo: The Musical'? It's a demo on stageCULTURE SHOCK: Ideally, a piece of political theatre should be both brilliantly theatrical and potently politicalSat Nov 17 2012 - 00:00
Rejected coin design, 1926A History of Ireland in 100 Objects In January 1926 the minister for finance, Ernest Blythe, told the Dáil that the new Irish…Sat Nov 17 2012 - 00:00
Time to move past north-south mythThere is an old, probably apocryphal story about a Dublin 4 grandee, a well-connected denizen of the world bounded by University…Wed Nov 14 2012 - 00:00
Time to move beyond the northside-southside mythThere is an old, probably apocryphal story about a Dublin 4 grandee, a well-connected denizen of the world bounded by University…Wed Nov 14 2012 - 00:00
We need to make a stand on IBRC debtSo, we’ve now given Irish children a right to have their voices heard on matters that affect themTue Nov 13 2012 - 00:00
All the world's a stage, but not everyone gets accessOne of the more admirable achievements of Irish writing is that it broke new ground for people with disabilitiesSat Nov 10 2012 - 00:00
Time to honour a forgotten vow to the nation's childrenThe children’s rights referendum is a chance to fulfil our abandoned promiseTue Nov 06 2012 - 00:00
What kind of a country is this?THERE IS, IN THE approach to the centenary of the 1916 Rising, a concern with how the declaration of the republic is to be remembered…Sat Nov 03 2012 - 00:00
Schools plan will end in formalised apartheidThe Minister’s approach to primary school patronage is inimical to the idea of a republic, and will be disastrousTue Oct 30 2012 - 00:00
Stroke City cuts a dash through politics of programmingCULTURE SHOCK: FEW FESTIVALS contain their contradictions in their titlesSat Oct 27 2012 - 01:00
'Titanic' launch ticket, May 1911A history of Ireland in 100 objects: Shortly after noon on May 31st, 1911, a huge crowd gathered at the Harland and Woolf shipyard…Sat Oct 27 2012 - 01:00
Irish society is colluding in its own destructionCAN A country die of shame? Probably not – but Ireland is making a good effortTue Oct 23 2012 - 01:00
Minority report: can theatre avoid the fate of classical music?CULTURE SHOCK : SITTING ON THE bus on the way home from a Dublin Theatre Festival show last week, I suddenly started thinking…Sat Oct 20 2012 - 01:00
A history of Ireland in 100 objects: GAA medal, 1887This gold medal was presented to a Limerick player, PJ Corbett, after the first all-Ireland Gaelic football championship, in …Sat Oct 13 2012 - 01:00
Despair at 'Dorian', feast on 'Famine'CULTURE SHOCK: PERHAPS WE’VE been spoiledSat Oct 13 2012 - 01:00
Somebody please make a drama out of the crisisIMAGINE SOMEONE from an alien culture where theatre is unknownSat Oct 06 2012 - 01:00
The Ulster Covenant: loyalist or nationalist, where would we be without it?CULTURE SHOCK: One hundred years ago this week, 500,000 Ulster people pledged to defend their UK citizenship and to defeat the…Sat Sept 29 2012 - 01:00
Dark stain of Irish gulag system not yet addressedALMOST EVERY European state has a dark stain on its conscience – totalitarian violence at home and/or colonial violence abroad…Tue Sept 25 2012 - 01:00
Yemen and Zimbabwe pay their cultural dues, but Ireland acts the miserCULTURE SHOCK: AFGHANISTAN IS A MEMBER, as is Zimbabwe. Yemen pays its dues, and so does RwandaSat Sept 22 2012 - 01:00
Sympathy for the devilMEMOIR: Salman Rushdie has salvaged a brilliant book from the lost years he spent in hiding from Ayatollah Khomeini’s fatwa…Sat Sept 22 2012 - 01:00
Parnell silver casket, 1884A history of Ireland in 100 objects: This ornate silver casket, with the by now standard imagery of round towers, wolfhounds…Sat Sept 22 2012 - 01:00
This is theatre, baby, and there are three things you need to make it workCULTURE SHOCK : EVER SINCE the advent of cinema and television, theatre has existed on the edge of irrelevance, which is not…Sat Sept 15 2012 - 01:00
We ourselves are fit to make a new republicChange could happen if the 66 citizens set for the constitutional convention did not fall in with the tame planTue Sept 11 2012 - 01:00
Even with the Smiths - Robert and Patti - the Picnic is not just about the musicCULTURE SHOCK: THE ENGLISH ACTOR Ernest Thesiger, when asked to recall his experiences on the western front during the first…Sat Sept 08 2012 - 01:00
Emigrant's teapot, late 19th to mid-20th centuryA history of Ireland in 100 objects This humble object tells two stories of wandering peopleSat Sept 08 2012 - 01:00
Gothic realism in the here and now: haunted houses of a dead boomCULTURE SHOCK: IT’S A SIMPLE, three-letter word: “now”Sat Sept 01 2012 - 01:00
Campaign against abortion is a phoney warIT IS now 30 years since anti-abortion groups succeeded in pushing their issue to the top of the Irish political agendaTue Aug 28 2012 - 01:00
So long, middle AmericaSOCIETY: Two powerful new books document the ongoing destruction of ordinary working communities in the USSat Aug 25 2012 - 01:00
