Jennifer O'Connell columns
Whether it is describing a traumatic life experience or a shocking human rights abuse, ChatGPT will do so with the emotional register of a McDonald’s server offering you a meal deal
This is especially true where issues involving women are concerned, and 2025 was no exception
Now that the Australian social media ban is here, surveys that suggested 80% of parents supported it in theory are beginning to look wildly optimistic
Trump uses bullying and personal attacks on his enemies - but we should be wary of the impulse to do the same
A rebellious woman used to be someone who took up arms; now it’s Miriam O’Callaghan revealing she leaves her eye make-up on for a week
Why are we so starved of big ideas that it takes an oped or a throwaway remark by a billionaire to start a national conversation?
Other vulnerable young people like Adam Raine are growing dependent on machines they believe understand them
Some day, if women keep playing our cards right, one us might get to be appointed Minister for Finance or president of the GAA
The eruption of Tricolours by a small group of people who want to make a point about immigration has left the rest of us in a bind
Part of the RTÉ show’s appeal was that it made space for the kind of people we don’t see enough of on our screens
If only Britain had been paying attention, the Irish courts offered a masterclass in how to avoid getting drawn into the culture wars
Spoiler alert: the solution, in many cases, is ‘granny’ or, perhaps less often, ‘granddad’
The photographs coming in on the wires are unfathomable: children with horribly protruding ribs, hollow eyes, scabbed lips and noses, distended bellies
Construction workers who ‘vanished’ from the sector after the Celtic Tiger were humans whose way of life was obliterated
Ireland, I have often thought smugly since my return from California, wouldn’t tolerate such pretentious, self-destructive nonsense as a ban on clothes lines. Enter the row over EV charging arms
Their popularity is a grim statement about a property market in which your best prospect of owning a house may well be to win one in a lottery
We should be wary of narratives that present women – especially those accused of crimes – as either the evil witch or Snow White
A conspiracy of coyness around the troubling origin story of Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte extended to the incident filmed in Vietnam this week
Do you believe in free speech? Do you believe in it for views and people you loathe? Unless you answer ‘yes’ to both questions, you don’t believe in it
Just as every generation is a little taller than the previous one, each is mentally sharper than their predecessors. Until now
Amid more than 2,000 pages of dense legalese and Beckettian obsession with process, there are few glimpses of Grace and even fewer answers
It will be a bitter pill to swallow if we only decide do something about the parenthood penalty now that men are suffering it too
Family of Enoch Burke: The adjective that best describes their fundamentalist views, victim complex and arrogant manner is ‘presidential’
Time to pay tribute to the sisters who are not trailblazers in science, politics or entertainment but are taking no more crap from anyone
The vanity, political machinations and mind games are eye-popping, but it’s the little details that make you most grateful not to be a Murdoch. Unfortunately, their dysfunction is our dysfunction
The boxes attached to bicycle stands are seen as a symbol of overtourism – that sounds like wishful thinking where Dublin is concerned
The plan was to continue to drive my 10-year-old diesel until the wheels fell off, and ideally beyond. That day came sooner than I thought
It won’t be the last time we’re catapulted briefly back into a world of abrupt school closures. So why are decisions on online learning being left up to individual schools?
It now seems inevitable that, for as long as he is not incarcerated, Burke will keep turning up at the gates of Wilson’s Hospital
From the start, JJ did everything on his own terms. He arrived on his own terms. And he left us the same way
Gisele Pelicot did not put herself through a ritual public skinning because she wanted to be some kind of icon. She did it to start a conversation
The till receipts at Brown Thomas, the glittering, almost-nationwide monument to unfettered capitalism, is a decent bellwether for how the haviest-haves in society are doing
The pronatalist movement has roots in creepy tradwife visions, but does that matter if it leads to financial supports for families?
The two sides were not just offering opposing narratives, but speaking completely different languages
Hutch is so successfully laundering his reputation, some manufacturer of washing powder should immediately sign him up as a brand ambassador
There is a generation who feel a bit directionless, a bit aggrieved and are casting about for models of how to be a good man. That’s where sport should come in
Unless you have a reliable and obliging childminder willing to shift their schedule to accommodate the whims of Simon Harris, the election is yet another headache for parents
Heroic women have begun pushing back, refusing to carry a shame that was never theirs
I noticed his predilection for young women. I didn’t notice the climate of fear they were working in
What’s a copper-roofed security hut or a gold-plated bike shed? Symbols of a political class which is increasingly out of touch
Aontú is concerned the proposed extension of the free contraception scheme to 16-year-olds amounts to a State-sponsored behavioural nudge: where their parents got SSIAs or Eircom shares, today’s young women would get Mirena coils
Violent and emotional abuse are part of the rich tapestry of wrongs done to children by the State and its agents
Their contrasting approaches elicit strong reactions because we envy their certainty of purpose
In an cruel twist of timing, swimming’s darkest hour casts a shadow over its bright present
Everyone from the World Health Organisation to wellness influencers are preaching total abstinence. But is moderate drinking that bad?
‘Only in Dubai’ goes the tourism slogan for 2025. It could hardly be more apt
Ironically, it was the actions of a vindictive US, more than anything he did himself, that resuscitated his reputation and made him a hero for press freedom
The big ideological gap is of the past seven years is between younger men and women, and the trend is remarkably consistent across disparate cultures
Things grabbing my attention this week include camogie elbows, sideline parents and how ‘woman’ still seems to be the hardest word
There is a brisk online business in breeding dogs that are best understood as snarling 65kg status symbols
Singapore Airlines flight injuries and New Delhi heat are still not enough to stop business as usual
RTÉ effectively gave presenters a choice: you can work for us or you can work for yourself, but you can’t do both. When you look at the numbers, it’s no surprise which option they’re choosing
It is worth restating that criticism of the Israeli state is not anti-semitism. But it is also the case that anti-semitism never went away, that it still exists and that it is on the rise again
There was a time when we were rightly appalled about the language used about migrants in Brexit Britain. Now it is steadily being normalised here
Crosswords & puzzles to keep you challenged and entertained
Inquests into the nightclub fire that led to the deaths of 48 people
How does a post-Brexit world shape the identity and relationship of these islands
Weddings, Births, Deaths and other family notices
