When will there be ever a good time to end the ‘Norma bonus’?Important distinction to be made between adjustments to assessment process and those made after to markingSun Sept 03 2023 - 07:00
Breda O’Brien: When was the last time you saw children playing outside unsupervised?Children have more autonomy about what they eat or wear, but less independence in real termsSun Aug 27 2023 - 07:00
Breda O’Brien: Sinéad O’Connor was a prophetic voice in the Old Testament senseThe Church’s ongoing failure to acknowledge fully the harm caused by sexual abuse continues to overshadow everythingSun Aug 06 2023 - 07:00
Breda O’Brien: I punched Barbie in her perfect face and have no regretsThere are spoilers for Greta Gerwig’s Barbie here, so don't read until you've dressed in pink and gone to see itSun Jul 30 2023 - 06:30
Breda O’Brien: The most successful streamed series you’ve never heard of. It’s about JesusThe Chosen has good production values and was completed despite Hollywood’s blind spot for faith-based dramaSat Jul 22 2023 - 05:00
Groups of men are sexually exploiting children in residential care. Where is the outrage?While the country is convulsed with events at RTÉ, a far bigger scandal has passed by without due attentionSun Jul 16 2023 - 06:30
Tragedies in Greece have left a school community to navigate the long, winding valley of griefAfter the deaths of two St Michael’s College students in separate incidents in Greece, their friends and school community are grappling with the jagged sense of lives cut off too soonSat Jul 08 2023 - 20:30
Anyone who believes RTÉ is ideologically conservative is blind and deafBreda O’Brien: It is hard for those with a self-image of being radicals to realise that they are now the establishmentSun Jul 02 2023 - 06:00
Do Citizens’ Assemblies offer the public a stake or just more liberal groupthink?Breda O’Brien: Even when people are trying to be scrupulously fair, it is virtually impossible to be free of the conditioning of an influential eliteSun Jun 25 2023 - 07:45
Ridiculously challenging Leaving Cert maths exam is no way to build resilienceParents are intervening too quickly to solve their teenagers’ problems. Not every squabble is about bullyingSun Jun 18 2023 - 06:45
Teachers are approaching burnout. Another half-baked educational reform will break themWe should be thankful people still want to be teachers, instead of making it almost impossible for them to live while trainingSat Jun 10 2023 - 05:00
Influence of religion may be waning, but this is far from a secular paradiseBreda O’Brien: The real headline is not the decline of Catholicism but the subtle and not-so-subtle ways our society is being shaped by the object of veneration that is replacing it - capitalismSat Jun 03 2023 - 03:00
Children don’t need bouncy castles so much as to feel part of something biggerBreda O’Brien: There should be more to life than being manipulated by algorithms to consume moreSat May 27 2023 - 05:00
When do children first get exposed to pornography? When they get a phoneEmbarrassing as it is, research shows children want their parents to speak to them about pornographySat May 20 2023 - 05:00
A chatbot that can advise teenagers how to hide pot and lose their virginity? Nothing creepy about that at allBreda O’Brien: Teenagers, not known for their extensive fact-checking or emotional balance, are expected to train Snapchat’s My AI monster for freeSat May 13 2023 - 03:00
Breda O’Brien: Why is it so hard to believe anti-abortion people are just as motivated by human rights?Let’s stop presuming bad faith. The gulf between those who are pro-choice and pro-life isn’t as wide as it sometimes appearsSat May 06 2023 - 03:00
Breda O’Brien: Abortion review is right about one thing – women’s needs are not being metWomen are being failed on systemic level, leading some to feel that their only, despairing choice is abortionSat Apr 29 2023 - 00:45
Ireland has a chance to learn from other countries on assisted dying Breda O’Brien: Canada, the Netherlands and Belgium are troubling indicators of what could happen in IrelandSat Apr 22 2023 - 00:00
Family is the most important factor in having a belief in God Where people were raised by people with visible, sincere, practical faith, they were far less likely to lose their faith in GodSat Apr 08 2023 - 12:00
Pope Francis puffer jacket image suggests we are in trouble when it comes to AI disinformationFrancis is earnestly trying to provide a moral compass, an antidote to the individualism and consumerism that is posing an undeniable threat to our shared, fragile planetFri Mar 31 2023 - 13:32
Breda O’Brien: Micheál Martin needs to swot up on home education before he speaks outThe Burke family are far from representative of the diverse homeschool movement, which in some cases can be far more effective than schoolSat Mar 25 2023 - 00:00
Breda O’Brien: Pope Francis wants a church that gets its hands dirty Church must offer an alterative to contemporary values if it wants to help teenagers grappling with anxiety and frightening levels of meaninglessnessSat Mar 18 2023 - 00:00
Referendum will make women who work full-time in the home feel even less valuedReferendum is likely to devalue the work of mothers and fathers even more, by subsuming their specific roles into a generic caring roleFri Mar 10 2023 - 13:15
State needs an honest investigation of its abortion counselling servicesAre women being informed about all their options - such as continuing a pregnancy or considering adoption - by State-provided services?Sat Mar 04 2023 - 00:01
Nicola Sturgeon stepped away from ‘brutality’ of politics. Kate Forbes stepped right into itBreda O’Brien: It is not enough for Kate Forbes to be talented. She must also avoid thoughtcrimeSat Feb 25 2023 - 00:00
Ireland must advocate for Nicaraguan prisoners who resisted Ortega’s ‘dictatorship’Persecution of Catholic Church, including jailing of Bishop Rolando Álvarez, must be challengedSat Feb 18 2023 - 00:00
Breda O’Brien: The Leaving Cert Class of 2020 are still dealing with the Covid shock Mental health has been deteriorating for years among the young but this cohort has had a particularly rough timeSat Feb 11 2023 - 00:00
Breda O’Brien: Brigid of Kildare is not a Rorschach inkblotBrigid can be revered as a goddess and as a saint but the abbess of a powerful monastery cannot be erased in favour of a goddess with scant sourcesSat Feb 04 2023 - 05:00
Breda O’Brien: Norma Foley’s half-baked reform of the Leaving Cert ought to be abandonedStudents and teachers are now united in opposing rushed plans that would create more problems than they would solveSat Jan 28 2023 - 00:00
Breda O’Brien: ChatGPT is the ultimate plagiarism tool. How can teachers respond?Reforming the Senior Cycle to allow for more continuous assessment has suddenly become a lot riskier thanks to this pioneering piece of AISat Jan 21 2023 - 00:00
Breda O’Brien: Cardinal George Pell’s complex legacyAustralian cleric won respect for the dignity with which he endured 404 days in prison, mostly in solitary confinement, for crimes he did not commitSat Jan 14 2023 - 00:00
Breda O’Brien: If Sinn Féin fails when in power, Ireland’s smug status quo could be at riskSinn Féin is benefiting from politics of houses trumping history. But what if it fails?Sun Jan 01 2023 - 00:01
Breda O’Brien: Bring back the power of the parish Parishes and local authorities are weak in Ireland, but fruitful partnerships may yet emergeSat Dec 24 2022 - 00:00
Breda O’Brien: School hiring rules need to be reformed to make it easier to find substitute teachersEasing restrictions and other reforms are essential at a time when demand for teachers is outstripping supplySat Dec 17 2022 - 00:00
We have a cooling-off period when shopping, so why not when accessing abortion? Allowing women the space to reflect on a matter of life and death is something both sides should agree onSat Dec 10 2022 - 00:00
Breda O’Brien: Ableist legislation shows lives of those with Down syndrome are less valuableIn run-up to Repeal referendum, some 56% of babies diagnosed in-utero with Down syndrome were abortedSat Dec 03 2022 - 00:00
Breda O’Brien: Junior Cert results delay another symptom of teacher shortage crisisGovernment must provide incentives to people to remain in or enter teaching to address significant issueSat Nov 26 2022 - 00:00
Tolerance only of those with whom you agree is no tolerance at allThe Catholic Church richly deserves opprobrium for acts of horrifying evil, but that does not mean religious orders should have no right to speak or even existSat Nov 19 2022 - 00:00
Breda O’Brien: It’s nonsense to say violent porn damages children but is fine once viewers are over 18Women and men are being conditioned to see practices such as strangulation as normal, and women are dying because of itSat Nov 12 2022 - 00:00
Breda O’Brien: The online world was broken long before Elon MuskTruth cannot compete with an evermore rapidly spinning toxic brew of tweets, clips and soundbitesFri Nov 04 2022 - 00:00
Chaotic, confused, commercialised WitchTok may signal a hunger for meaning and controlChristian churches might meditate on why they are failing to meet the spiritual needs of young peopleSat Oct 29 2022 - 05:00
Breda O’Brien: Catholic higher education is being downgradedEclipse of Catholic institutions not inevitable, but a policy decision; Irish bishops seem incapable of resistance on their ownSat Oct 22 2022 - 00:01
Breda O’Brien: Euthanasia is not a slippery slope. It’s a precipiceExperience elsewhere shows that once it is introduced the laws governing it become more and more laxSat Oct 15 2022 - 00:00
Breda O’Brien: Why are today’s children so full of anxiety?Parents tend to blame themselves for their kids’ emotional troubles but, mostly, they are wrong: the problem is a much wider oneSat Oct 08 2022 - 04:50
Breda O’Brien: Daly and Wallace equivocate over Nicaraguan regimeNicaraguan regime’s crackdown on the Catholic Church is part of a broader move to silence all opposition voicesSat Sept 24 2022 - 05:00
Breda O’Brien: Big Tech is now the global monarch, answerable to nobodyAn unholy alliance between Big Tech, Big Finance and the Chinese Communist Party has allowed the values of Silicon Valley to dominate the planetSat Sept 17 2022 - 05:00
Breda O’Brien: Grief is the price we pay for love but we should not have to pay it aloneFaith can ultimately provide some sense of meaning, but it offers little protection against the rawness of grief, particularly the death of a childSat Sept 10 2022 - 01:00
Breda O’Brien: Botched Leaving Cert reform is worse than no reformAnnouncement of change without extensive consultations about a modular exam is predictable and demeaningSat Sept 03 2022 - 01:00
Ireland needs to address root causes of acute shortages of teachersUntil everyone joins to raise a chorus of protest, it is unlikely anything will be done to fix itSat Aug 27 2022 - 00:00
Catholic Church is not a democracy so don’t expect radical change Outcome of synod on synodality likely to disappoint many Irish participants seeking changes in doctrineSat Aug 20 2022 - 00:01
