Patrick Freyne’s favourite TV shows of 2024: An Irish national treasure, bickering hitfolk and the best actor of her generationAndrew Scott in Ripley and Donald Glover and Maya Erskine in Mr & Mrs Smith are among the highlights thus farThu Apr 04 2024 - 05:00
The English now have both our fourth green field and Lindsay LohanWe meet Lindsay Lohan’s character Maddie on the way to a book launch as her scarf gets shut in the door of a taxi that then zooms off with itThu Mar 21 2024 - 05:00
Michael D Higgins’s dogs, Cillian Murphy’s blue eyes and Enya’s voice: Patrick Freyne’s 30 real Irish iconsForget national heroes, martyrs and rank celebs. These are the certifiable emblems of our small but great nationSat Mar 16 2024 - 05:00
Patrick Freyne: 12 reasons why it hasn’t always been cool to be Irish - including Murder, She Wrote and BatmanYoung Irish people are growing up with an unreasonable sense of confidence. St Patrick’s weekend is an ideal chance to correct the recordThu Mar 14 2024 - 05:00
Cillian Murphy: ‘Moving home from London was the best thing we did’The Oscars 2024 front-runner values his family’s ‘normal, lovely life’ in Ireland – especially as the glare of awards season has been ‘such a baptism of fire’Sat Mar 09 2024 - 05:45
Patrick Freyne: I suspect some of the Celebrity Big Brother participants booked beds on Airbnb - the producers thought, good enoughLouis Walsh and Sharon Osborne both seem grumpy. They have either been conscripted against their will under new legislation or they’re each here so they can pay an unexpected billThu Mar 07 2024 - 05:00
‘Racism is so recyclable. It’s toxic. The far-right stuff is on my doorstep’Playwright and activist Rosaleen McDonagh says: ‘The far-right stuff is on my doorstep...I didn’t think people would be burning buildings and blocking libraries. That scares the living daylights out of me’Sat Mar 02 2024 - 06:00
Formula 1 drivers are the dullest stars that have ever bothered reality-televisionPatrick Freyne: Why do Formula 1 drivers bother with expensive, uncomfortable cars? I have a cost-effective Nissan Micra that smells of Haribo SupermixThu Feb 29 2024 - 05:00
Bernie Sanders: ‘We are taking on very powerful people who will fight us tooth and nail’The US senator and left-wing firebrand on the war in Gaza, the rise of oligarchy and why, despite his support for Israel, Joe Biden is by far the preferable presidential candidateSat Feb 24 2024 - 06:00
JLo seems not so much to mix metaphors as to cut them with cokePatrick Freyne: As the singer clambers into her own heart in her musical fantasia, an uncharitable critic might suggest she is climbing up a different body partThu Feb 22 2024 - 05:00
I feel a swell of national pride when I see a big Irish hunk do well on the tellyPatrick Freyne: On Love Island – All Stars, Adam spends much of his time wearing a hat and tiny pants and little else. It’s a classic Irish lookThu Feb 15 2024 - 05:15
Learning from our peasant past: ‘We might have to live on the edge. We may have to learn to be survivors’At the end of 1,000 years of European peasantry, author and historian Patrick Joyce warns us that we might have to relearn their innate survivalismSat Feb 10 2024 - 06:00
How Pat Sheedy used fraud to fund his gambling addiction: ‘I was convincing. I could make you feel sorry for me’Sheedy was 12 when he placed his first bet. His memoir details his spiral into compulsive gambling that ruined his relationships and saw him face years in prisonSat Feb 10 2024 - 05:00
Put the Dancing with the Stars judges in charge of RTÉ. They’d give Mattie McGrath a run for his moneyPatrick Freyne: ‘Have all the money that you want and spend it on what you like,’ the TD would have told the majesterial Lorraine BarryThu Feb 08 2024 - 05:30
Everyone loves Ireland! Why is Irish culture so hot right now? From cinema and theatre to television, folk music and literature, Ireland is enjoying unprecedented creative boomSat Feb 03 2024 - 05:30
Patrick Freyne: In a housing crisis, Room to Improve feels like a barometer of our national derangement There are three people in every Room to Improve marriage if you include Dermot BannonThu Feb 01 2024 - 05:00
A charismatic perpetual child star performing lots of grisly operations? What more could you ask for? Patrick Freyne: Disney+ having the beloved Artful Dodger carry out surgery is a wonderfully deranged, and actually pretty Dickensian, choiceThu Jan 25 2024 - 05:00
Cillian Murphy on hearing about his Oscar nomination: ‘We were just having a cup of tea, and then my mum brought out the cake’The Irish star earned his first Academy Award nomination today, for his leading role in Christopher Nolan’s film OppenheimerTue Jan 23 2024 - 17:03
Colin Barrett: ‘My biggest fear was who’s going to want to read stories about lads in chip shops in small towns?’The author’s writing, including his excellent debut novel, is firmly rooted in Mayo where he grew upSun Jan 21 2024 - 06:00
Dublin’s heroin epidemic: ‘A man died and his partner died a few weeks later. Grandparents were looking after kids’A former social worker who saw the ravages of addiction up close says policymakers should be ‘open to listening to what’s on the ground, go out and see it themselves, don’t rely on gatekeepers like myself’Sat Jan 20 2024 - 06:00
If I was on Gladiators my name would be Lump or Wheeze, and my ‘little dance’ would be falling over with a gruntPatrick Freyne: Oddly, none of the rebooted show’s contestants says, ‘Well, Bradley, on my days off I like to binge-watch YouTube videos while eating an obscene amount of cheese’Thu Jan 18 2024 - 05:00
Say what you like about Hannibal Lecter, but he had joie de vivre. Unlike Jack ReacherPatrick Freyne: The show, which stars the widest Alan in existence, is the United States’ id as expressed by a malfunctioning AIThu Jan 11 2024 - 06:00
Patrick Freyne’s 10 favourite Christmas films – and what they really meanIncluding the communist message of It’s a Wonderful Life, the nihilistic thuggery of Home Alone and the alternative nativity of Batman ReturnsFri Dec 22 2023 - 05:00
Christmas, rated! Patrick Freyne’s grumpy guide to the festive seasonOld St Nick. The child judger. The Elf on the Shelf’s boss. Should we trust someone who laughs so much for no reason?Wed Dec 20 2023 - 06:00
Lisa McGee: ‘Derry Girls took on such a life of its own. It’s a wee bit everyone’s now’Comic writer says ‘surreal’ win of an Emmy for landmark TV show has afforded her amazing opportunities and that show now has a life of its own, particularly in her home citySat Dec 16 2023 - 06:00
Patrick Freyne’s favourite – and worst – TV moments of 2023An obsessive viewer surveys a year of ups and downs and finds there was an awful lot that was worth watchingFri Dec 15 2023 - 05:00
Godzilla used to be a metaphor for nuclear horror. Nowadays the monsters are metaphors for the lumbering franchises they appear inPatrick Freyne: Monarch: Legacy of Monsters is zippy, characterful and fun, but I could do betterFri Dec 08 2023 - 05:15
‘The most disadvantaged neighbourhood in Ireland’: The Dublin street providing housing for many of the city’s homelessOur reporters investigate support workers’ concerns about the huge concentration of homeless accommodation on Dublin’s Gardiner Street, with fears the area will be ‘ghettoised’Sat Dec 02 2023 - 06:00
Shane McGowan and The Pogues moved Irish music, like most Irish people, from the countryside to the dirty cityMacGowan told the stories of people on the edges of society. He never shirked from their degradation, pain and humanity while also elevating their lives into something rich, beautiful and mythicSat Dec 02 2023 - 06:00
‘My whole life is changed in the year’: How an inner Dublin city group helps at risk teensThe workers at Swan Youth Service put the children and young people of Dublin’s north inner city at the centre of their serviceSat Nov 25 2023 - 05:00
Patrick Freyne: The moment The Crown goes a bit Muppet Christmas CarolI’d love to see Diana’s ghost go unseen to a George Michael gig or warn people about Prince AndrewFri Nov 24 2023 - 05:15
Christmas TV ads 2023: Patrick Freyne on Aldi, John Lewis, Boots and moreWe rate this season’s advertisements for weepiness, capitalism, gluttony and liturgical correctnessFri Nov 17 2023 - 05:15
Steamy sex and secret lesbians: Apple’s content creators muscle in on Bridgerton territoryPatrick Freyne: The Buccaneers is about a bunch of wild and crazy girlbosses who like to party, as Edith Wharton no doubt would have described her novelFri Nov 10 2023 - 09:33
‘Dublin Port was very dangerous 300 years ago’: Inside the port that keeps Ireland goingDublin Port: Out on the balcony the view is incredible, despite the fog. Beneath us, the river Liffey meets the seaSat Nov 04 2023 - 07:00
Cillian Murphy: ‘People in Ireland are kinder and more understanding and a bit more copped-on’Actor on how famous people are treated in different countries, his BBC Radio 6 Music show and how performing music prepared him for actingSat Nov 04 2023 - 06:00
Why isn’t Donal Skehan swigging from a jug of wine? Why isn’t there food all over his pristine white walls?Patrick Freyne: None of his children have the slack-jawed, sociopathic glares of the children you’re more familiar with, who can typically be found screaming for food while smashing family heirloomsFri Nov 03 2023 - 05:30
Patrick Freyne on Surviving Paradise: Where did the contestants learn about emotional expression? From emojis?Some of the young Americans in this reality mash-up are sent to the forest, where they network and hustle and TedTalk their life stories at one anotherFri Oct 27 2023 - 05:15
Patrick Freyne: The Wolfe Tones love Ireland so much they luxuriate in its tortured historyThe traditional group – the hip new band of 2023 after going strong for 60 years – performed at the 3Olympia in Dublin on SundayMon Oct 23 2023 - 13:15
You can hear the awe in Netflix’s David Beckham documentary. We prefer to be unimpressed by famePatrick Freyne: There’s a bit of fly-on-the-wall family domesticity, but this series is really a brand-consolidating relaunch for the former footballerFri Oct 20 2023 - 05:15
Big Brother reboot: you’ll be familiar with this concept from the Dublin rental marketPatrick Freyne: The smartest thing George Orwell ever did was to turn his book into a reality TV showFri Oct 13 2023 - 05:15
Seven spouses for seven culchies: Love stories, the rural Ireland wayPatrick Freyne: Anna Geary sweeps into the lives of lovelorn farmers being warmly inquisitive. We see a montage in which farmers hold lambs and say things like: ‘My dream is to have two donkeys’Fri Oct 06 2023 - 05:15
Dr Tony Bates: ‘Just because you have trauma in your life doesn’t make you a nice person. If you’re hurt you pass that on’In his painfully honest new book, the distinguished clinical psychologist discusses his own issues with depression and his concerns about the state of mental healthcare todaySun Oct 01 2023 - 06:00
Today lies between Prime Time and Teletubbies, with Dáithí a blend of David McCullagh and a baby-faced sunPatrick Freyne: Dáithí Ó Sé and Sinead Kennedy are back on air to tell us everything is fine. Doctors could prescribe this to overstimulated teens or petsFri Sept 29 2023 - 05:15
On the streets in Dublin: ‘The younger generation are horrible little b****rds to homeless people’Many of the homeless people that Dublin Simon workers Roisin Casey and Elvira Merello deal with find themselves defenceless and marginalised in societySat Sept 16 2023 - 06:00
Teens talk TikTok: ‘I was on it way too much, at least five hours a day. It was mad’Six young people share their experiences of TikTok and other social media platformsSat Sept 16 2023 - 05:00
How to combat the far right in your neighbourhood. Step 1: Don’t counter-protestThe Far Right Observatory has changed its name to the Hope and Courage Collective. Patrick Freyne interviewed coordinator Niamh McDonald and board member Siobhán O’Donoghue about the causes of, and solutions to, anti-immigrant or anti-diversity agitationSat Sept 09 2023 - 06:00
Patrick Kielty: ‘I haven’t had a conversation with Ryan Tubridy or Pat Kenny’New Late Late Show host reflects on taking seat previously occupied by Gay Byrne, Kenny and Tubridy amid the RTÉ dramaSat Sept 09 2023 - 05:00
How to live longer: sweet potato, chairlessness, vegetarianism, religion and the unpaid work of womenPatrick Freyne: Dan Buettner discovers faraway lands with food safety rules and free healthcare and concludes diet and moderate exercise are the key to longevityFri Sept 08 2023 - 05:15
The key Irish question at a property viewing: Does it have more bedrooms than my brother’s house?Patrick Freyne: Selling Super Houses and Crazy Rich Agents both feature hope-filled youngsters performing humiliating tasks for business mogulsFri Sept 01 2023 - 05:15
Young people might own a house now if they hadn’t watched so many Star Wars spin-offsPatrick Freyne: A year doesn’t pass without a Star War being beamed to our eyeballs. This week, with Ahsoka, it’s Rosario Dawson’s turnFri Aug 25 2023 - 05:00
