Breda O’Brien: Teachers want rapid Covid-19 testing. NowAs schools return, ongoing test delays will cause virus to spread uncheckedSat Aug 22 2020 - 02:00
Catholic Church faces challenges as places of worship reopenChurch is still living off a legacy of being a much stronger cultural forceSat Aug 08 2020 - 02:00
Schools will not remain open without significant societal sacrificeGetting schools open is a nightmare but remaining open is the bigger challengeSat Aug 01 2020 - 02:00
Autism provision is blocked by lack of partnership and investmentEveryone agrees that children with autism have a right to education. Underfunded, overcrowded schools need significant investment to provide itSat Jul 25 2020 - 02:00
Ireland has an important role to play in challenging Chinese abusesChina’s re-education camps and its persecution of religious organisations rival dystopian fictionSat Jul 18 2020 - 02:00
Breda O’Brien: How many other Baby Christophers are there?Christopher was aborted on grounds of fatal foetal abnormality, although perfectly healthySat Jul 04 2020 - 02:00
Four-day week is an idea whose time in Ireland may have finally comeIncoming government needs to address our destructive long-hours cultureSat Jun 27 2020 - 01:39
Breda O’Brien: Coronavirus crisis should focus our minds on climate actionClimate change remains an abstraction for many in Ireland, but not for those suffering in AfricaSat Jun 20 2020 - 01:00
Breda O’Brien: School reopening is almost impossible to planPrincipals need guidance and funds to help pupils as social distance rules likely to shiftSat Jun 13 2020 - 01:00
Trump could try opening the Bible instead of using it as a propBible was never meant to be used as a way of signalling to a target demographicSat Jun 06 2020 - 01:00
Breda O’Brien: We must not fail the class of 2020Even when results are out, uncertainty will not cease for those leaving schoolSat May 30 2020 - 01:00
Neither side of abortion debate emerges well from McCorvey storyNorma McCorvey, aka Jane Roe of Roe v Wade was exploited by elements of both sidesSat May 23 2020 - 01:00
The groups of students who deserve particular attentionThis year’s Leaving Certs have been the focus, but incoming sixth, third and first years also need concern and planningSat May 16 2020 - 01:00
Breda O'Brien: Seán O’Rourke’s balance will be missed on the airwavesBroadcaster showed rare understanding of centrality of religion in people’s livesSat May 09 2020 - 01:00
Breda O’Brien: The church has been catapulted onlineRather than being in opposition to real community, virtual experience fosters itSat May 02 2020 - 01:00
We have failed our older and more vulnerable citizensNeglect of nursing homes during coronavirus pandemic has had disastrous resultsSat Apr 25 2020 - 01:00
Breda O’Brien: We apologise to Leaving Cert class of 2020Global pandemic prohibits easy answer to question of when to hold final examsSat Apr 18 2020 - 01:00
Need to prove guilt beyond reasonable doubt protects us allQuashing of Cardinal Pell conviction underlines need for safeguardsSat Apr 11 2020 - 01:00
Pope Francis: An icon of hope and solidarity in a time of crisisThe Pope praying before an empty square will linger as an image of this pandemicSat Apr 04 2020 - 01:00
Breda O’Brien: Communicating with ‘screenagers’ in a pandemicTeens are being actively encouraged to spend hours a day on screens. How do we keep a balance?Sat Mar 28 2020 - 01:00
Breda O'Brien: Extraordinary measures need to be taken – even with Leaving CertMinister’s announcement to award full marks for orals and practicals has caused shockSat Mar 21 2020 - 01:00
Breda O’Brien: There is something particularly vile about Jean VanierIn the midst of such darkness, how can one find the light?Sat Feb 29 2020 - 01:00
Us adults should stop rolling our eyes about Greta ThunbergBreda O’Brien: Young people are paralysed with fear about the planet, and we must take actionSat Feb 22 2020 - 01:00
Breda O’Brien: Election result shows the perils of treating people as outsidersThe general election was won by outsiders who know how to listen to the excludedSat Feb 15 2020 - 01:00
Breda O'Brien: If we really valued children we would prioritise their carersSocial engineering caused by tax individualisation has come at a heavy costSat Feb 08 2020 - 01:03
Breda O’Brien: We must vote against the stifling political and media consensusPublic funding and media visibility stack the deck in favour of ensconced political partiesSat Feb 01 2020 - 01:00
Breda O’Brien: Time to smash Tweedledum and Tweedledee politicsAontú offers pro-family policies to bring much-needed real change to Irish societySat Jan 25 2020 - 01:00
Let politicians know that education mattersBreda O'Brien: Education will only become an election issue if voters choose to make it oneSat Jan 18 2020 - 01:00
What moral authority does the US have to kill Suleimani?We should question the morality of killing any person, even those supposed to be evilSat Jan 11 2020 - 05:00
Breda O’Brien: Binge-watched insights into Teutonic TV landEpisodes of Dark can make you notice stark German and Irish cultural differencesSat Dec 28 2019 - 06:00
Peloton advert a metaphor for pressure on middle-class womenAllegedly sexist commercial unwittingly reveals phenomena far worse than the offenceSat Dec 21 2019 - 06:00
Britain is now divided as never beforeResearch reveals two tribes who intensely dislike each other, and who are not terribly informed about each otherSat Dec 14 2019 - 06:00
Breda O’Brien: Genetic disability tests are misleading couplesLimitations of non-invasive, pre-natal testing are ignored by opinion-formersSat Dec 07 2019 - 06:00
Time to pay attention to the persecution of ChristiansSecular institutions need to end their neglect of 245 million Christians who face extreme persecutionSat Nov 30 2019 - 06:00
Breda O’Brien: We must honour our history and welcome the strangerBetween extremes of open borders and xenophobia, there is a generous IrelandSat Nov 23 2019 - 06:00
Breda O'Brien: A simple, dignified apology from McAleese would sufficeFormer president should say she never intended to imply Pope John Paul II endorsed marital rapeSat Nov 16 2019 - 06:00
Breda O’Brien: Time to get adult about pornEthical porn is doomed. Child protection needs legal and cultural changeSat Nov 09 2019 - 06:00
Married priests and pregnant statues distract from church’s real issuesThe Amazon synod focused on the wrong solutions to very deep problemsSat Nov 02 2019 - 06:00
‘England get out of Ireland’ does not apply to abortionSinn Féin and DUP show abortion ranks higher than nationalism or unionismSat Oct 26 2019 - 06:00
Mental health services for young people need real changeChronic underfunding and understaffing need to be addressedSat Oct 19 2019 - 06:00
Breda O’Brien: UCD to turn on canonisation of John Henry NewmanPrelate failed to establish a Catholic university and Irish education is the poorer for itSat Oct 12 2019 - 06:00
Our emergency departments are a kind of purgatoryDo we have Stockholm syndrome that makes us accept appalling conditions?Sat Oct 05 2019 - 06:00
Breda O’Brien: Euthanasia is symptom of society which does not careMedical killing is motivated not by love but cold functions of sexism, ableism and ageismSat Sept 21 2019 - 06:00
Breda O’Brien: Schools should be teaching instead of beggingPuny capitation grant deprives children of materials and forces staff to fundraiseSat Sept 14 2019 - 06:00
Breda O'Brien: Ireland is not quite as secular as it pretends to beWe now draw a distinction between the deserving and undeserving believersSat Sept 07 2019 - 06:00
Breda O’Brien: We need to mobilise our empathy to save the planetThe complicated ethics of trying to live sustainably cause some of us to just give upSat Aug 31 2019 - 06:00
Breda O’Brien: Legacy of Muckross nuns lives on foreverFar from corrupt religion, these nuns inspired as strong female role modelsSat Aug 10 2019 - 06:00
Breda O’Brien: Boris Johnson’s infidelity shows how some sexism gets a free passBritish prime minister’s living arrangements are modern sexism, not progressSat Aug 03 2019 - 06:00
Breda O’Brien: Child’s voice ignored in surrogacy debateCommittee prioritises doctors and academics over donor-conceived peopleTue Jul 30 2019 - 12:57
Parents need to grasp dangers of children’s online activityParents can unwittingly allow children wander in a treacherous online worldSat Jul 27 2019 - 06:00
