We’re meant to bask in Saoirse Ronan’s feminist triumph, but I find it all a bit nauseatingAn actor’s entire job is to occupy the mind and body of someone else, not to be interesting themselvesThu Oct 31 2024 - 06:00
The genius of Donald Trump’s McDonald’s stunt Discrediting his moments of rhetorical or aesthetic flair as the work of nasty impulses ensures the Democrats will never learn from themThu Oct 24 2024 - 06:00
God help us all, Russell Brand has found religionChristianity has been around for some time and will weather this particular trend cycle, no matter Russell Brand’s risible public display. And these online Christian gurus will find a new cause celebreThu Oct 17 2024 - 06:25
It’s worse than George Orwell imagined. There’s no need to ban books no one wants to readWhat Aldous Huxley feared has come to pass: we are drowning in a sea of irrelevanceThu Oct 10 2024 - 06:00
Varadkar seems intent on ensuring Ireland continues to haunt Starmer’s BritainIf Keir Starmer wants to be remembered as a prime minister for the United Kingdom, not just England, he needs to address the question of a Border pollThu Oct 03 2024 - 06:00
Politicians must stop being management consultants and become storytellersWithout the energy and charisma of a storyteller - Boris Johnson, Bertie Ahern - a country has nothing to believe inThu Sept 26 2024 - 06:00
Huw Edwards’ staggering fall from grace leaves the BBC with serious questions to answerThe downfall of a newsreader – once beamed into the homes of millions during era-defining events – is also a story about the BBC’s shortcomingsThu Sept 19 2024 - 07:17
Jeremy Kyle Show may have been exonerated, but what about the viewing public? Circus of ritual public humiliation that gripped TV 20 years ago hasn’t gone away - it has moved on to other platformsThu Sept 12 2024 - 06:00
Don’t blame Oasis or Taylor Swift. Maybe fans’ expectations are just too highOasis have never received the Taylor Swift treatment over this bungled ticket sale. No charges of money-grabbing or fan-exploitation for the brothersThu Sept 05 2024 - 06:00
Being Irish isn’t what made Oasis great, but being the sons of emigrants helpedThe factors that pushed Ireland into being a nation of mass emigration have often been tragic but the result is a nation better off for itThu Aug 29 2024 - 06:00
Gen Z are drinking far less than their parents. That’s not all good newsDriving this decline in consumption is an unhappy mental state we have so far failed to reckon withThu Aug 22 2024 - 06:15
The Olympic Games have challenged the narrative of France as a hopelessly fractured nationFrance is a country unlikely to find perfect and cloudless harmony. But perhaps the Games might bandage up some of the worst fault lines for the time beingThu Aug 08 2024 - 06:00
The Debate: Are school uniforms an instrument of positive discipline, or an outdated concept? Creating school conditions for happy pupils and achievement is a multifaceted projectTue Aug 06 2024 - 07:00
Finn McRedmond: Events such as the Southport and Dublin knife attacks expose a country’s fault linesChaos and confusion inflicted by such terror provides the conditions for civil unrest. We saw it in Dublin last NovemberThu Aug 01 2024 - 06:10
Knowing when to quit is a truly inhuman quality. Just ask Joe Biden or Andy MurrayIt is incredibly easy for people to detect when they are at a nadir – the trenches of their career or stardom. But it seems a much harder task to identify when you are at your peakThu Jul 25 2024 - 06:17
Finn McRedmond: Where is Ireland’s Gareth Southgate, our non-political unifying force?I have been wondering recently why he has no Irish equivalent. It is not Michael D Higgins, not BonoThu Jul 18 2024 - 06:00
Don’t blame Jill Biden for her husband’s refusal to bow out of the campaignMedia coverage of Jill Biden as the last bulwark against the authoritarian nightmare of Trump is exactly the kind of thing that - rightly - puts voters offThu Jul 11 2024 - 06:00
The coronation of Keir Starmer and Labour will carry nothing of 1997’s new dawn The UK general election’s outcome is all but assured, yet there is a sense that not too much will actually change in the years aheadThu Jul 04 2024 - 05:00
Lamentations of ‘broken’ Britain are hollow when you see what’s happening elsewhere in Europe Lamentations of onlookers about Broken Britain, total crisis and irreversible damage are hollow when you see what’s happening elsewhere in EuropeThu Jun 27 2024 - 06:00
Austrians taunting the French with baguettes is the kind of nationalism we can all get behindFootball is a good outlet for defanged nationalism but light-hearted spaghetti japes should not be mistaken for signs of unity in a fractured continentThu Jun 20 2024 - 06:00
Nigel Farage, the most impactful UK politician in a generation, who has failed seven times to be electedTo reduce Nigel Farage’s influence to his legislative heft in the House of Commons seriously underestimates his impactThu Jun 13 2024 - 06:00
We don’t need to relate to politicians but they do need to know a Taylor Swift songAs Trump and Johnson show us, relatability is a juvenile value in politics, and a hollow aspirationThu Jun 06 2024 - 06:00
Keir Starmer is ‘in love’ with Ireland. It will take more than that to repair the relationshipThings are looking up for Anglo-Irish relations. But Ireland’s diplomatic model has to work just as well with Tories as it does with a well-disposed Labour. Otherwise the country is exposed, reliant on the whims of personalityThu May 30 2024 - 06:00
No matter what anyone says about Tony O’Reilly’s motivations, he knew how to live a full lifeO’Reilly and Springsteen understand a similar truth about the world - you can’t start a fire worrying about your little world falling apartThu May 23 2024 - 06:00
Bambie Thug should not have been making statements on Ireland’s behalfWhatever the nature of Bambie’s protest - and of course they are right that Netanyahu’s actions in the Gaza strip are abhorrent and deplorable - it was an inappropriate time, place and mediumThu May 16 2024 - 06:00
Jerry Seinfeld is right that TV comedy isn’t funny any more - just not about whyThe comedian blames “PC crap” and the “extreme left” but spineless sitcom isn’t solely product of the so-called Great Awokening of the 2010sThu May 09 2024 - 06:00
Has single-sex education had its day? Jen Hogan and Finn McRedmond debateMore schools are moving towards co-education, and research suggests teenagers are in favour of it. But do they really know what’s best for them?Tue May 07 2024 - 06:00
Harvey Weinstein’s conviction overturned: is that it for #MeToo?The movement’s mantra – believe women – was a powerful corrective to a society that was too happy to dismiss their stories. But seven years of hindsight on, we can understand its failings with greater clarityThu May 02 2024 - 06:00
In class-ridden Ireland, the worst thing to be is poshFood and culture need enthusiasts and tastemakers. Certain types of culture are valuable because they are challengingThu Apr 25 2024 - 06:00
The tyranny of small-plate dining: what’s the best way to split these two prawns five ways?Finn McRedmond: We will think of the 2010s and 2020s as the time the industry went mad and insisted that splitting mini flatbread was the apogee of sophisticated diningSat Apr 20 2024 - 05:00
Taylor Swift: The Tortured Poets Department track by track review – A manifesto for all the believers who will try at love one more timeSuperstar’s 11th studio album is the fruit of abject misery but is also steeped in the singer’s trademark indefatigable optimismFri Apr 19 2024 - 11:59
Treatment of Liz Truss shows there is still a bias against middle-aged womenIt is true she was a very bad prime minister. But it’s also true she was never given a proper try. She was too weird, maybe she didn’t have enough friends, her ideas were too radicalThu Apr 18 2024 - 06:00
Nothing is new under the sun: the solar eclipse is the latest shiny object in the culture warsThis week was a reminder that our capacity for rational thinking hasn’t evolved all that much. People still look for celestial signs on how to voteThu Apr 11 2024 - 06:00
Why do the Irish love chicken fillet rolls so much? It’s not all about tasteThe Emerald Eats food stall is mobbed daily with Irish-Londoners on their lunch break looking for a roll or a take on the Dublin spice bag. But it’s not so much selling Irish street food as a storyThu Apr 04 2024 - 06:00
Britain’s narrow stereotype of the Irish could not make sense of Leo VaradkarTories had never seen a politician pursuing Ireland’s interest at Britain’s cost. No wonder they despised himThu Mar 28 2024 - 06:00
String of political departures in the UK and Republic leaves politics in a malaiseVaradkar may have ‘seen the writing on the wall’ for his party while in Britain the Tories, in particular, have relinquished all hopeThu Mar 21 2024 - 06:00
Kate Middleton’s Photoshop fail: Trouble began when the royals confused themselves with celebritiesRecouping the sense of quiet dignity the late Queen afforded the institution - after this communications failure - will not be easyThu Mar 14 2024 - 06:00
St Patrick’s day is more important for the rest of the world than it is for IrelandAre the St Patrick’s Day celebrations still relevant - or if we should be wary of projecting a narrow view of Irishness?Tue Mar 12 2024 - 06:00
I like Harry Styles, One Day and dogs. I hate the algorithm that spoon-feeds them to meWe need fewer algorithms and more people shaping our consumption habitsThu Mar 07 2024 - 06:00
It’s great Guinness is having a moment in Britain. But as Ireland’s soft power grows, so does our boozy national stereotypeIreland’s cultural reputation abroad in the ascendant but stubborn stereotypes abideThu Feb 29 2024 - 06:00
The Mean Girls remake shows girls are as mean as ever. They just do it differently nowThe vehicles for bullying may have evolved - social media, linguistic custom - but people are still who they always were: cruel, forgiving, hierarchicalFri Feb 23 2024 - 10:06
Gen Z and millennials are drinking wine like grown-ups, while their parents are drinking like teensYou know you’re growing up when your parents buy you The Wine Atlas for Christmas and friends can suddenly pronounce Pouillac with breezy confidenceThu Feb 22 2024 - 06:00
Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s relationship is about as American as it getsWatching the glitzy Super Bowl after Saturday’s Six Nations match laid bare many cultural differencesThu Feb 15 2024 - 06:00
King Charles approaching his illness with the same pragmatism he displayed towards IrelandThe former queen’s visit to Ireland may have had more impact but over the years King Charles quietly laid the groundwork for a better relationship between Britain and IrelandThu Feb 08 2024 - 06:00
Calista Flockhart says scrutiny of her weight nearly ended her career. Is now so different?The Ally McBeal star rose to fame when women’s bodies were under a constant spotlightFri Feb 02 2024 - 06:30
Ryan Tubridy’s London dilemma: what to do with the Irishness?It would be far too easy to make his nationality central to his shtick, but that’s not how London worksThu Feb 01 2024 - 06:15
Rise of the ‘trad wife’: Some women are sick of Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In manifestoBut are they yearning for a past that never really existed?Thu Jan 25 2024 - 06:00
Derry Girls did more to explain human stakes behind Brexit fallout than anything elseIt is important to understand the people affected by policies. Lisa McGee showed that comedy can help us do thatThu Jan 18 2024 - 06:00
Worst impulses of populism won’t be quelled by numbers and dataIreland is vulnerable to the populist wave cresting over Europe. As Remainers learned in the UK, expecting cool logic to triumph over emotion is a mistakeThu Jan 11 2024 - 05:45
Emojis were already a generational minefield. Now they’re a legal oneAll of a sudden emojis are fraught with risk and capacity for grave misunderstanding. This is what happens when our language evolves so rapidly it starts collapsing under the weight of ambiguityThu Jan 04 2024 - 06:00
