We are united by common urges: Freedom. Justice. The need to go to the toilet
Unthinkable: Looking for the meaning of life? You may be sitting on the answer
George Orwell
It’s worse than George Orwell imagined. There’s no need to ban books no one wants to read
What Aldous Huxley feared has come to pass: we are drowning in a sea of irrelevance
In times of war, ‘we have a duty to hope, as without hope all is lost’
Unthinkable: Always treat humanity not as a means but as an end, said the philosopher Immanuel Kant
Five accessible reads to begin with if you’re new to philosophy
If you’re not already an enthusiast, don’t start at Kant or Nietzsche
Nineteen Eighty-Four turns 75: the older George Orwell’s dystopian novel grows, the more urgent it feels
Truth, it turns out, is among the most difficult things to cling to
Chris Agee: ‘I never considered my writing after my daughter’s death as therapeutic. Nor did I find it difficult’
The poet and editor on keeping a loved one’s memory alive, his literary journal Irish Pages and his regard for Seamus Heaney’s work
One Fine Day: Exposing the myth of benevolent imperialism
Without preaching, Matthew Parker tells the stories of a variety of colonies and uses imperialists’ own words and deeds to shed light on an enterprise that was very far from glorious
Utopia is an idea worth clinging to. Otherwise, why get up in the morning?
In a Word: Dystopia dominates so much of modern literature, for obvious reasons
Big Brother reboot: you’ll be familiar with this concept from the Dublin rental market
Patrick Freyne: The smartest thing George Orwell ever did was to turn his book into a reality TV show
Why we need philosophy to help us navigate modern life
Rite & Reason: In Irish public affairs, philosophical thinking could facilitate the kind of changes needed today
In a Word...Beginning
The best opening lines have poise, excite immediate attention or simply impress
20 great audiobooks to get stuck into this summer, from recent award-winners to all-time classics
Whether you’re crammed on a bus on the way to work or lounging with a cocktail by the pool, audiobooks are a perfect way to transport you to another place
State’s data watchdog criticised with ‘Big Brother’ award
German privacy groups claim Irish regulator behind ‘sabotage’ of EU data privacy laws
Look to George Orwell for judgment writing tips, High Court judge tells colleagues
Judge to donate profits from new book on judgment writing to Ukraine relief
Orwell Road residents: ‘Are we allowing Putin stain the name of this road?’
Residents of Russian embassy road ponder name change to Independent Ukraine Road
Russian embassy in Dublin could be located on Independent Ukraine Road
Councillors propose changing the name of Orwell Road where embassy is located
Ian O’Riordan: Sport is war minus the shooting for Russia
Derval O’Rourke won a rare non-Russian medal in discredited 2006 World Indoors
Passenger locator – Frank McNally on a century of poputchiks, Mitläufers, and fellow travellers
An Irishman’s Diary
Money merrygoround exposes football’s greed and graft
Soccer’s sleight of hand: chaotic expense evidence of life, vigour and stable future prospects
Streaming of a white Christmas? Festive movies online
A round-up of digital movie services and the entertainment content they offer this year
Breda O’Brien: Fudging truth about Covid risks in classrooms damages public confidence
Society needs schools but we must not bury health risks in constructive ambiguity
Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead: a pacy, rollicking read
The double Pulitzer prize winner’s latest is set in 1960s Harlem’s criminal underworld
West in danger of repeating Soviet ideological assault on science
New ideologies should be carefully discussed, not uncritically insinuated into general culture
Turbulent Priest – Frank McNally on John Ball, the Peasants’ Revolt, and the last of the English Villains
An Irishman’s Diary
(No) Danger Here – Frank McNally on how George Orwell got it badly wrong about football
An Irishman’s Diary
Kerry’s Paul Geaney: ‘We’re fully behind the management team’
After ‘torture’ of losing to Cork in championship, footballer is relishing return to play
News Corp agrees $349m deal for consumer arm of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Purchase of unit is Murdoch company’s second publishing buy in less than a week
You could fill a book with doubleplusungood uses of ‘Orwellian’
George Orwell is common shorthand for ‘mean people are being mean to me because they’re mean’
Bertelsmann wins battle for Simon & Schuster with $2.18bn deal
Penguin owner ‘very confident’ of regulatory approval despite competition concerns
Joan Armatrading: ‘I’ve had people say I’m too black, or not black enough’
The singer-songwriter has been doing extraordinary things ever since she arrived in Britain alone aged 6
Fintan O’Toole: Voters can get Trump out of office and our heads
The president’s success in forcing himself into our thoughts will be his downfall
Brave New World gets the 2020 treatment: ‘No privacy. No family. No monogamy’
Aldous Huxley’s novel gets 21st-century makeover in new Sky One series
Fintan O’Toole: Covid-19 pandemic might be good for the arts – eventually
Current scenario heightens our perceptions and new artists will emerge from it
Jennifer O’Connell: Ireland has its attitude to travel back to front
The Government needs to worry about who is flying in, not who is flying out
51 days on a ventilator: How ‘Miracle Larry’ survived coronavirus
New Yorker suffered seizures, infections, fevers, pneumonia and cerebral haemorrhages. But he overcame it all to keep his promise to his wife: ‘I’ll never stop fighting’
Book quiz: ‘A plague on both your houses’ is from which Shakespeare play?
Welcome to The Irish Times book quiz: 10 questions to test your literary knowledge
The Irish Times view on literature in a time of crisis: If we winter this one out...
At this time of social isolation, books offer not just consolation but a portal to the most profound human connection
Bafta awards: Two Irish stars lose out to Renée Zellweger for best actress
Saoirse Ronan in running for Little Women, while Jessie Buckley competed for Wild Rose
FC Cologne pull out of deal to run football academy in China
‘We cannot support such a brutal and totalitarian dictatorship’
Fintan O’Toole conferred with honorary degree by Trinity College
Former tánaiste Mary Harney and Joan Freeman among other recipients
Is your ‘true self’ a kind of ghost?
Unthinkable: One of philosophy’s great debates may be down to a misunderstanding
Judge excoriates State’s bid to avoid full legal costs in deportation case
Application only served to add a day’s worth of costs to bill – Justice Richard Humphreys
How to turn climate-change denial into acceptance and action
Denial makes us feel better in the short term but is not the way to deal with problems
Decay of English language makes it perfect for lying
Political rhetoric of our time is conditioned by insult and hardly concealed violence
Degrowth fetishists, just be honest: you would make people poorer to fight climate change
It is a fact that if people do less and use less, then GDP will fall
Of dogs and dogma – Frank McNally on Orwell, Marx and history repeating itself
Marx repeated something his friend Friedrich Engels had just written about Hegel
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE...
Crosswords & Puzzles
Crosswords & puzzles to keep you challenged and entertained
Stardust
Inquests into the nightclub fire that led to the deaths of 48 people
Common Ground
How does a post-Brexit world shape the identity and relationship of these islands
Family NoticesOpens in new window
Weddings, Births, Deaths and other family notices