Breda O’Brien: Garda body’s call for a Yes vote undermines democracy‘It is just one of the deeply disturbing aspects of the debate, or should that be non-debate, in advance of the referendum’Sat May 02 2015 - 01:00
Breda O’Brien: Little sympathy for migrants who make it to Ireland’s shores‘In a landmark decision on Wednesday, the High Court ruled that gardaí failed to identify a victim of human trafficking, resulting in a trafficked woman being imprisoned in Mountjoy for two and a half years’Sat Apr 25 2015 - 01:00
Breda O’Brien: Does Mary McAleese understand why people are voting No?‘If the referendum is passed, there will be children born in this country who will never experience a mother’s love’Sat Apr 18 2015 - 12:34
Breda O’Brien: Question of pizza for a gay wedding sparks death threatsSame-sex marriage referendum is not just about saying ‘I do’Sat Apr 11 2015 - 01:00
Breda O’Brien: Domestic violence – men are victims tooWe need a second report on sexual abuse and violence in Ireland – and we must act on itSat Apr 04 2015 - 02:30
Breda O’Brien: Fianna Fáil is alienating core voters without attracting new ones‘There is no party that now represents those who are socially conservative but not economically right wing’Sat Mar 28 2015 - 02:00
Breda O’Brien: Dolce & Gabbana face boycott over ‘synthetic babies’ commentsElton John and Martina Navratilova criticise ‘parenting’ views of designersSat Mar 21 2015 - 04:30
Breda O’Brien: Many of those granted asylum can’t afford to leave hostels‘Kathy feels as if the State has cut her adrift after almost forcibly institutionalising her. She doesn’t want to be dependent . . . She is longing to work in order to provide for her family’Sat Mar 14 2015 - 01:30
Breda O’Brien: Junior Cert debate conceals a bigger problem about educationShould education be about creating a compliant workforce or good citizens?Sat Mar 07 2015 - 03:00
Breda O’Brien: Democratic disaster as Government pushes through family Bill‘The Government has declared that it makes no difference whether your biological parents raise you, or whether two men or two women who may or may not be related to you do so’Sat Feb 28 2015 - 08:51
Failure to ban egg and sperm donation in children and family Bill is a mistakeApparently it is fine for children to be denied their genetic heritage and kinship networks through “modern means of family formation”Sun Feb 22 2015 - 12:02
Breda O’Brien: It’s time we provide couples with perinatal hospicesParents need expert support when they hear their baby faces a life-limiting conditionSun Feb 15 2015 - 12:02
A human dynamo with the power to persuade people to use their God-given talents‘Like all the Dominican sisters who taught, Sr Barnabas Kett believed education was the key to a good life, one where you could be useful’Sun Feb 08 2015 - 12:01
Internet is an echo chamber for illiberal political correctnessTwitterverse is a bubble, removed from most people’s experienceSun Feb 01 2015 - 07:50
Breda O’Brien: Love is not enough when it comes to children’s rights‘The inconvenient truth is that we are altering Article 41 of the Constitution which has a simple heading – the Family’Sat Jan 24 2015 - 09:00
Their lives may be short but they have huge meaning and worthWe don’t deal well with the death of babies with life-limiting illnessesSat Jan 17 2015 - 12:00
‘Charlie Hebdo’: A united front against murder and violence needed‘What is best in religion must now be mustered to defeat peacefully those who represent the worst of religious extremism’Sat Jan 10 2015 - 00:01
Breda O’Brien: ‘Shellackybooky’ – English as my mother spoke itI still have no idea what ‘a bun baked standing’ meantSun Dec 28 2014 - 00:01
Inside Bungalow 3: the revelations raise uncomfortable questions about ourselvesWhat makes some people treat others badly – or well?Sun Dec 21 2014 - 12:02
How the most vulnerable borrowers face the highest rates of interest‘Somehow, we think that it is acceptable and inevitable that those who are most likely need to borrow relatively small sums just to meet everyday contingencies like illness or bereavement, should also pay the highest rates of interest’Sat Dec 13 2014 - 13:01
Why it won’t help to just throw money at the problem of homelessness‘A shy, gentle, wild creature in mortal terror of the people who were clumsily trying to help. He left, and we never saw him again’Sun Dec 07 2014 - 12:02
The real reason teachers are striking over Junior Cert changesGovernment should keep external assessment and develop an education system driven by educational needs, not cost-cuttingSat Nov 29 2014 - 00:02
Why TDs should be responsible first to their own consciencesOpinion: Are large numbers of Irish citizens having a Howard Beale moment, prompted by the Irish Water debacle?Sat Nov 22 2014 - 07:41
Legalising prostitution legalises a fantasy – that sex does not involve the selfOpinion: ‘Why is it that if someone buys a vote from a councillor, it is seen as corruption, but if someone buys the use of someone’s body, it is somehow liberation?’Sun Nov 16 2014 - 12:01
Brittany Maynard and Lauren Hill will leave very different legaciesOpinion: More and more patients request euthanasia because they are fearful of being a burden, as the ‘right to die’ becomes the ‘duty to die’Sun Nov 09 2014 - 12:01
A community mothers’ scheme that helps struggling families is under threatOpinion: Local women are trained to help young mothers before other services might be neededSat Nov 01 2014 - 00:01
The evangelical zeal and appeal of Sinn FéinOpinion: ‘While many look at Gerry Adams and think of the thousands who died in an unwinnable battle, his acolytes see the man who prevented thousands of more deaths’Sun Oct 26 2014 - 12:01
Synod on the Family: Pope Francis is calling on us to end indifference and engage with peopleOpinion: Priest helped unmarried parents to gradually build foundation for familySun Oct 19 2014 - 12:01
We promise to improve care for children, but we demonstrate that we don’t really mean itOpinion: ‘Early intervention and support could prevent a great deal of grief later on’Sun Oct 12 2014 - 12:01
Synod to tackle wide range of challenges to modern familiesOpinion: Complex pastoral challenges raised by cultural norms and demographic shiftsSat Oct 04 2014 - 00:01
Revised children and family proposals fail to tackle tangle web of family lifeOpinion: Unmarried fathers are still not automatically entitled to guardianship rightsSun Sept 28 2014 - 12:01
Lourdes pilgrimage a miracle of service and selflessness‘People rarely talk about how so many charities would fall apart without the fundraising done by students ’Sat Sept 20 2014 - 01:04
Two families faced very different traumatic events this weekOpinion: Would better communication and a change of culture have helped both the Kings and Monica O’Connor?Sat Sept 06 2014 - 00:01
Lessons from the Rotherham child abuse reportOpinion: It is naive to believe the Irish Child and Family Agency can overcome all the flaws of the previous regime in a short timeSat Aug 30 2014 - 00:01
No-one seems to have responded to the pregnant woman on a human levelOpinion: ‘There are two very vulnerable people in this nightmare who have been let down by our selective indignation’Sat Aug 23 2014 - 00:01
After the Leaving Cert: another tough battle for an asylum-seekerOpinion: Their parents are not permitted to work, and neither are theySat Aug 16 2014 - 18:49
Defending the right to home educate childrenOpinion: When they refused to pay the fine imposed on them, they were each sentenced to 10 days’ in prisonSat Aug 09 2014 - 00:01
We need to change way we do politics to attract more womenOpinion: Ireland is among the 10 lowest-ranked EU countries when it comes to political and economic representation of womenSat Aug 02 2014 - 00:01
Politics dying a death by focus groupsNew Labour’s legacy is not progressive – it is narcissistic. And has affected our politics tooSat Jul 26 2014 - 01:31
The internet may be socialising your children into near absolute conformityOpinion: Tumblr presents a virtually parodic version of allegedly liberal valuesSat Jul 19 2014 - 01:00
Bert and Ernie’s romance offers a lesson in toleranceOpinion: Reporting the Christian bakery sends the message that it is not okay to disagreeSat Jul 12 2014 - 01:00
Leah Libresco engages Catholics and atheists in ‘better fights about religion’Opinion: Personalised abuse indicates if someone says “I hate you!” they may really be in pain, she suggestsSat Jul 05 2014 - 00:01
Writing your way through the Leaving CertOpinion: Could the keyboard be mightier than the pen when it comes to exams?Sat Jun 14 2014 - 00:01
Protestant or Catholic, the short lives of these children must be given some respectOpinion: If you are small and powerless, even the most basic respect of having a marked grave may be denied youSun Jun 08 2014 - 12:01
Closure of All Hallows is a loss to third-level education as well as to churchOpinion: A significant number of its students came from families where there was no tradition of higher educationSun Jun 01 2014 - 12:01
Closure of All Hallows is a loss to third-level education as well as to churchOpinion: A significant number of its students came from families where there was no tradition of higher educationSat May 31 2014 - 01:00
#BringBackOurGirls campaign is not enough to tackle difficult issuesOpinion: Simple slogans can’t replace dialogue and hard bargainingSun May 25 2014 - 12:01
How did Jackie Kennedy come to place such trust in Fr Joseph Leonard?Opinion: Such an exchange between an elderly priest and a famous woman is hard to imagine todaySat May 17 2014 - 00:01
A significant minority of voters now feel politically homelessMany Irish voters are socially conservative, but are not particularly right-wing economically. Where is the party that represents them?Sun May 11 2014 - 12:01
Will courts be understanding when disadvantaged children are in trouble with the law?Opinion: Schools at breaking point over cuts in provision for special educational needsSun May 04 2014 - 12:01
