Why it took months for the world to declare ‘likely’ famine in GazaA more interesting question is why there wasn’t a major famine in Gaza, given the bombing, displacement and blockade. Part of the answer surely lies in Gaza’s human and social capital
Depressed by the news? Be a ‘happy warrior’ - and other tips to raise hopeA warning to pessimists: This column is ‘a no-moan zone’
Betting on elections and matches is one thing. Gambling on war is something else entirelyIf you’re feeling cheery, there are online platforms where you can bet on the prospect of a looming nuclear test by Russia
My fear rose up and my trust faltered on the mountainIt’s not a bad lesson at any age, to know how to take our pleasures at a lower altitude
Trump said something unexpectedly revealing in an old interview with PlayboyIf there is one thing that seems to complicate the US leader’s bottomless nihilism, it is the market
I won’t be using most SEAI grants to retrofit my house and expect to save money as a result The only SEAI home energy grant I availed of is for solar roof panels. My experience is that the retrofit grants are inflexible and cumbersome
Now that my children live abroad, my uncle’s ‘bás in Éirinn’ has a new meaningEverything from a stray sock beneath a bed to an old photo album shouts of the ones no longer here with us
Homelessness has been a problem in Dublin for decadesRite & Reason: There remains an enduring view among most Irish people that homelessness is fundamentally wrong
Ruins of Meath house should be preserved as a monument to Celtic Tiger hubrisNotion that you’re better off asking for forgiveness than permission has long been one of the unspoken principles of the Irish property market
This energy crisis is utterly unpredictable – how much help should Irish households get now?A good guide for any measures is that they be targeted as far as possible and temporary in nature
Trump is stuck and looking for options – an Irish former US adviser warns this is riskyTom Wright, who worked in the Biden administration, believes the president is in ‘a real bind’ in Iran
This week’s events brought us no closer to understanding the enigma that is Gerry Adams‘You must pick your battles when dealing with Gerry,’ noted one senior Belfast lawyer, not at all surprised by the outcome of the case
Entrepreneurial, local Irish business is the real employment miracle in IrelandThe people we call entrepreneurs are the ones who make the economy dance. Without them, there’s no products, sales or demand for workers
Israel’s strategic aims, rather than America’s, are shaping the war with IranWorldview: Netanyahu’s primordial Zionism and Trump’s National Security Strategy have a lot in common
Everybody needs good neighbours. Like Ireland and Britain right nowCommunique issued after last week’s meeting in Cork revealed depth of growing co-operation since PM entered Downing Street
Catriona Crowe: The brave few risking everything to unmask Putin’s RussiaThe Oscar-winning documentary Mr Nobody Against Putin is a record of something totally unseen in the world outside Russia
Dolores Keane’s honesty about her demons was as piercing as her singingBeing the custodian of so much was no easy path, but she knew she could not stop singing
We need to understand the financial cost of a divided society. It might surprise usHaving this number to hand would be transformative
Ireland’s plans to deliver housing and infrastructure are a roll of the diceJudicial reviews are increasing – but it is not Nimby residents’ associations who are behind them
Zohran Mamdani has no opinion on a united Ireland. That matters more than you thinkThis is a story about two things: the changing nature of the left and the diminishing power of Irish America
Louis Theroux’s exploration into the manosphere chills the bloodThe ones who should worry us are the boys who have been sold the idea of a matrix – a conspiracy designed to make men fail
Ireland needs to grow up and get serious about its interestsIn the infantile recent debate about the Mercosur deal, for example, politicians from all sides fell over each other to criticise an agreement profoundly in Ireland’s interests
Should the Tricolour be replaced in a united Ireland? The tricolour may no longer mean what its creators intended - but is that a reason to abandon it or to re-embrace its potential?
Trump’s war on Iran could spell the end of the EUA deep economic crisis, shocking terrorist attacks in EU cities plus an unprecedented wave of refugees would lead to a far-right surge that the EU may not survive
Maria Steen: St Patrick’s Day is a celebration of everything other than ChristianityList of festivities reads more like a Government-sponsored hook-up weekend
An almost vacant shopping mall in Nairobi could be a template for DublinGenerally, I find malls uninspiring places. And yet I just spent an inspiring week in one
There’s something missing from Ireland’s debates on foreign policy: our interestsBollocking the president of the United States on St Patrick’s Day is probably not what the people want their political leader to do
Violent aggression against violent repression will never bring peace to IranTrump is not offering liberation for Iran, and the Islamic regime is not offering resistance to empire. Both are bullies buying time
Fighting over the bill in Ireland: I’ve seen people elbowing friends and throwing cashThe Irish arrangement affirms bonds through generosity and obligation
Pete Hegseth and Pedro Sánchez embody two types of virtue signallingUnthinkable: Committing publicly to a moral standpoint can change you for the better, or the worse
Ireland has long been an outlier in the EU. We’ve just never had the courage to admit itOnly a multi-speed Europe – in which certain countries decide to move to closer integration, with others opting out – can save Ireland now
The majority of Americans oppose the Iran war. So why aren’t they protesting?The section of the US public that opposes Donald Trump is exhausted by relentless right-wing dominance of public life
‘Even if the US president is an idiot ...’ Six lessons from Seán Lemass for today’s politiciansThe former Taoiseach recorded a memoir in the 1960s in which he spoke of the lessons he learned from five decades in politics
St Patrick’s Day celebrations are not a new inventionRite & Reason: The evidence for the spread of Patrick’s renown in medieval Europe is found in a whole range of objects, stories and sites
Welcome to the first war of the brainrot eraPumped-up White House videos about Iran conflict are extreme even by recent US standards
The starter home has become the forever homeWith the second hand market hugely short of supply, many people are turning their three-bed home into a four-bed and staying put
How Micheál Martin should handle Trump for St Patrick’s Day: ‘Lie back and think of Ireland’From ‘silence, guile and cunning’ to ‘don’t go’, here’s some advice for the Taoiseach on how to survive the Shamrock Ceremony
Two Chinese companies, Shein and Temu, are undercutting retailers in every countryIf the Chinese juggernaut continues to make things better than Europeans, what is there for Europe to make?
Caoilfhionn Gallagher: We must remember the unnamed women who changed this island for the betterNo one knows who they are, what they went through or the landmark legal change they secured, but we owe them a debt
Real legacy of Elvis may be contested, but his story recalls a better AmericaIt is the vitality and soulfulness of Elvis on stage that lingers in Baz Luhrmann’s film, a powerful antidote to the usual preoccupation with his private demons
Opinion: Ireland’s power class has a colonial attitude to the Irish languageA language revival oblivious to the erasure of its existing speaker communities is a contradiction in terms
Timothée Chalamet is right: no one cares about opera or balletThe arts are in trouble, and what’s needed is some realism - not head-in-the-sand holier-than-thou pap
How the right to plonk a bungalow in your dad’s field caused all hell to break loose Twenty years ago, NI officials tried to put restrictions on one-off rural house-building, and faced blowback from all sides
Trump’s ‘little excursion’ could leave Iran even more fragmented, unstable and violent For now, the most likely outcome is a shift to even greater levels of authoritarian control. Beyond that, the future is less certain
I won’t be using most SEAI grants to retrofit my house and expect to save money as a result By Sadhbh O'Neill
Homelessness has been a problem in Dublin for decadesBy Eoin O’Sullivan, Mike Allen, and Sarah Sheridan