A tangled tale of blood, lost lives, money and betrayalIn August 1982, during the short-lived term of office of one of Charles Haughey's more unstable governments, the Minister for…Fri Aug 29 1997 - 01:00
I'm relieved I was wrongSince I'm off to New York for the next year, this column will not be published again until some time in late 1998Tue Aug 19 1997 - 01:00
Why Albert should go and study his historyIn a moment of acute paranoia this week, I was struck by the thought that the Dana for President campaign might be a cunning …Fri Aug 15 1997 - 01:00
No point flogging a dead play`For my brother," wrote Stanislaus Joyce of the James Joyce of a century ago, "the drama had become a thing of supreme importance…Tue Aug 12 1997 - 01:00
An absence of images, and images of absenceWhatever happened to the Famine? When the process of commemorating what is by common consent the most important event in modern…Tue Aug 05 1997 - 01:00
Libel laws can protect your good name or they can be used to hide bad deedsThere is an air of grandeur about the outcome on Thursday of Proinsias De Rossa's libel action against the Sunday Independent…Sat Aug 02 1997 - 01:00
What are we going to do about the British problem ?The British, bemused by Ireland, used to comfort themselves with the thought that whenever the Irish question was about to be…Fri Aug 01 1997 - 01:00
Tribunal `chain of accidents' cannot give confidenceThe Dunnes payments tribunal, which finished its hearings this week, has been both an investigation into the power of business…Fri Jul 25 1997 - 01:00
Small lives, big eventsIn Frank McGuinness's play about Bloody Sunday, Carthaginians, there is a burlesque of Irish plays about the TroublesTue Jul 22 1997 - 01:00
Questions for former colleaguesLast Wednesday, commenting on Charles Haughey's evidence to the Dunnes payments tribunal, the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, conceded that…Sat Jul 19 1997 - 01:00
Examining our past must help illuminate the presentWho said the following? "We should not be concerning ourselves with rewriting Irish history; we should be making history, whether…Fri Jul 18 1997 - 01:00
Labour has to rethink why it wants to be in powerTHE recent general election was. For the left wing parties the most important in the history of the StateFri Jun 27 1997 - 01:00
MURDEROUS LAUGHTERAT A key point near the end of Martin McDonagh's great gothic soap opera, The Leenane Trilogy, one of the characters looks guiltily…Tue Jun 24 1997 - 01:00
Four steps for picking a successor to Mary RobinsonAFTER Mrs Mary Robinson, we must not have the delugeFri Jun 20 1997 - 01:00
Too much reality, too little credibilityTHE homeless in the modern city present a peculiar paradox. On the one hand they are, by definition, obviousTue Jun 17 1997 - 01:00
Murphy's Law looms with old firm back in business"IT appeared to me that the Fianna Fail Ministers were behaving in a very disorganised mannerFri Jun 13 1997 - 01:00
An accidental cultureIF you walk around a Chinese cemetery in Hong Kong, you will be struck by two thingsWed Jun 11 1997 - 01:00
Back to the future with the Civil War partiesIN most of what is written and said about Irish society just now, the key word is confidentMon Jun 09 1997 - 01:00
An Irish history lesson that must not be forgottenIN HONG KONG, very early on Sunday mornings, some of the world's most expensive real estate is occupied, suddenly and totally…Fri Jun 06 1997 - 01:00
Politics has to be found guilty on all countsFOR all the promises that have been made in the course of the election campaign, it has been almost as remarkable for what has…Wed Jun 04 1997 - 01:00
Seeing is not believing in political broadcastsIF THERE has been something oddly half hearted about the making of promises during this campaign, it may reflect the strange …Tue Jun 03 1997 - 01:00
Not doing anything about abortionONE of the very few certainties about the next government is that it will do nothing at all about abortionSat May 31 1997 - 01:00
Race issue reflects shameful double standardsA HUNDRED and twenty years ago, in the rich cities, it was common for the natives to complain about the influx of immigrantsFri May 30 1997 - 01:00
Keeping things private for the public goodFIANNA Fail leader, Bertie Ahern, has promised that under any government he will form after the election, he will ensure that…Fri May 30 1997 - 01:00
Parties laying claim to the economic miracleIN the arguments in recent days over who can best manage the Irish economy, each side has been making claims about the last 10…Thu May 29 1997 - 01:00
Law-and-order plan has the backing of some real expertsONE party that cannot be accused of having little first-hand experience of the issues it is campaigning on is Sinn Fein.Wed May 28 1997 - 01:00
Many questionable answers in McCole caseTHE case of Mrs Brigid McCole refuses to go awayTue May 27 1997 - 01:00
Kavanagh without tears"THE best way to love a country like this," Tarry Flynn's Uncle Conall Morrison's often delightful new adaptation of Patrick …Tue May 27 1997 - 01:00
PDs add to the myths of teenage pregnancyTEENAGE pregnancy and single parenthood are very important issues for Irish society, expressing as they do the social consequences…Sat May 24 1997 - 01:00
Bertie's late conversion to "zero tolerance"LAUNCHING its proposals on criminal justice on Wednesday, Fianna Fail repeated its by now familiar promise of "zero tolerance…Fri May 23 1997 - 01:00
Imminent decision that arrived on timeA FEW minutes walk from the centre of Killarney is the southwestern entrance to the National ParkFri May 23 1997 - 01:00
Hepatitis C pledge raises McCole case questionsIN Labour's manifesto there is a promise to deal with the compensation claims of the victims of the hepatitis C scandal with "…Thu May 22 1997 - 01:00
Fish quota pledge - a red herring or a codUNDOUBTEDLY the most spectacularly unreal promise of the campaign so far is Fianna Fail's pledge to increase Irish fish quotas…Wed May 21 1997 - 01:00
A slice of life on a decorated platterONE of my favourite cartoons is from Dublin Opinion in the 1930sTue May 20 1997 - 01:00
Tax proposals will widen gap faced by poorSO far at least the election campaign has been remarkably fair - the largest amount of dishonesty has been lavished on the most…Tue May 20 1997 - 01:00
Mammon wins in sale of church owned city havenIF social justice was easy, we'd all be at itFri May 16 1997 - 01:00
Government with real choice in shaping Ireland of new millenniumA STRANGE contradiction hangs over the election due to be called today, at lastThu May 15 1997 - 01:00
When the system fails, who protects the citizen?THEY are all the same. Only out for what they can get for themselvesFri May 09 1997 - 01:00
NOWHERE MANTHE Druid Theatre in Galway has been cleared for rehearsals of Martin McDonagh's trilogy of plays, and now the writer is being…Sat Apr 26 1997 - 01:00
Has Larry ever asked to give help to Haughey?BEN DUNNE and I go back a long wayFri Apr 25 1997 - 01:00
A corner of an Irish field that is forever AfricaWHEN my eldest son was learning to speak, fragments of a troubled world would sound every now and then through his jabberingFri Apr 18 1997 - 01:00
Less than zeroNEAR the start of The Collection, the first play in the Gate's new Harold Pinter festival, there is an exchange between two characters…Tue Apr 15 1997 - 01:00
Vasectomy row more than a blast from the pastIN 1486, two Dominican priests, Heinrich Kramer and James Sprenger, wrote Malleuv Malleficarum (The Hammer of Evil), a manual…Fri Apr 11 1997 - 01:00
Education Bill offers little choice on Church controlIN her new book Goodbye to Catholic Ireland, Mary Kenny expresses the view that George Bernard Shaw "got it right when he said…Fri Apr 04 1997 - 01:00
An island lightly mooredDo you not feel that this island is moored only lightly to the sea-bed, and might be off for the Americas at any moment?Sat Mar 29 1997 - 00:00
The fifth question to which an answer is still soughtLAST October, a few days after Brigid McCole died, her family wrote to the Minister for Health, Michael NoonanFri Mar 28 1997 - 00:00
Exploding the story to meld many worlds into one taleCONSIDERING how much popular interest there is in Irish history, it is remarkable there are so few history plays in our theatre…Tue Mar 25 1997 - 00:00
Standards differ for nurses and for beef exportersIF YOU ever wondered what the term "news management" might mean, just remember all those stories over the last fortnight about…Fri Mar 21 1997 - 00:00
Striving to get a grip on myth and realityWHEN writers write about writers, it is often a sign that they to get out more, that their world has shrunk to the dimensions…Tue Mar 18 1997 - 00:00
Poisoning mothers who were protecting the unbornIN September 1983, seven years after the hepatitis C scandal began, but 11 years before it became public, the people of Ireland…Fri Mar 14 1997 - 00:00
