Kathy Sheridan

No child should have to go hungry, particularly at this time of year

Wouldn’t it be novel if the next taoiseach chose his cabinet on the basis of their qualifications, competence and relevant experience and included a few arithmetic nerds?

Democracy is on a downward arc globally, and we can see the warning signs here in the treatment by some media of Gerry Hutch’s candidacy as a joke. We learned nothing from the ascent of Donald Trump

This was always going to be the danger phase, as a bored and bolshie electorate gets ready to go to the polls

Willie O’Dea called her 'the worst minister for justice in the history of the State' while Jim O’Callaghan said she had copied his ideas

A segment circulating on the internet from Russian TV featuring a 20-year-old nude photoshoot by Melania Trump was interpreted as a coded message to the future president

Come what may, it’s a good day to salute the courage and persistence of the women on whose shoulders Harris’s extraordinary campaign was built

Trump is ratcheting up the racism and misogyny because he needs the young men who have drifted away from the Democrats

Minister is exiting politics amid warm affection from the real world. Her advice about ignoring social media is instructive

Lynch is a prime example of the problem with lazy monikers and a label that lumps all candidates with name recognition, but wildly varying backgrounds, together

Yes, there’s a whiff of pixie dust about the bonanza of payments, but child benefit rightly holds a special place among mothers of all incomes and life choices

The afterlives of political leaders are often greater measures of their character than their times in office are. It’s hard to let go - just watch former leaders who lack the grace to dial down the wise-after-the-event pronouncements

Donald Trump’s gibberish is being played down as news outlets make him sound sane and rational

Ultimately it comes down to the free market, to supply and demand and what people are willing to pay - because they’re superfans or want to be seen. But people exhausted by the relentless hustle have had enough

What kind of global mindset allows preposterous, insecure leaders in Sudan, Israel, Iran, Afghanistan, Russia and elsewhere to cock their legs on their own populations and the wider world?

Complaints that Harris won’t agree to a sit-down interview miss the point: these elections are about anything but issues and policy

We will miss those two weeks of uncomplicated joy which felt like a holiday for the heart

Minister for Justice is exploring ways to ban protesters from wearing masks with the intention to intimidate others and frustrate efforts to identify them

Despite the rain, the cheese, the sneers and the sheer length of it, it was impossible not to feel moved. Like it or not, Thomas Jolly created the most inclusive event in the history of sport

Trump has promised to use a speech to ‘bring the country together’. Just imagine if he mustered the moral courage to say violence is never acceptable and he will accept the results of the election

If not now, if it’s too soon for a woman president, if the stakes are too high this time, when will it be her time?

Complaints about feeling collectively demonised amid allegations cannot be entertained given the pledge of the Defence Forces to the people

Conservative Party faces losing so badly it won’t have enough seats to mount an official opposition. No wonder Tories are suddenly panicking about democracy

The European Parliament is an increasingly powerful institution from which a huge share of our laws and regulations derive – so why do some politicians seem to regard it as expensive training wheels?

I gave the most obnoxious candidate 27, then started down from number 1. But a final review revealed I had awarded two number 12s

There are two responses to the harassing of the Taoiseach in Mayo. Some despair at the protesters, others ask why Harris ran scared

Gardaí are seeing ‘a huge rise in the level of aggression’ at anti-immigration protests despite a sharp decline in such gatherings

Time was in the US when ‘common sense’ informed the notion that the Irish were violent, drunken apes responsible for driving down wages and taking all the jobs

Finding that a third of respondents believed it was definitely or probably true that a “small, secret group of people is responsible for making all major decisions in world politics” should dent some general complacency

One startling fact: the number of Independents elected to the Dáil in recent years has exceeded the combined number elected to all other EU member state parliaments

To step forward and declare you want to serve in spite of all the abuse requires brave, old-fashioned character

In much of the commentary following the recent referendums, the phrase 'enough is enough' was often heard – the implication being that great numbers of people have made enough huge sacrifices by voting for compassion and understanding but that’s all over now

The annual finger-jabbing ignores the fact that there are no meaningful incentives on offer

Varadkar opened up appalling vista where youngish politicians might actually admit they no longer felt up to the job

The far right regards the vote as a big breakthrough, as they should

Unverified allegations made online are now having real life consequences

If the Minister for Media had faced down the opposition and the media and supported the RTÉ chair, public interest in the issue would have faded quickly. Instead, the fallout rumbles on

Men who agitate about labels or being supplanted by hordes of vengeful women should look around them. Fewer than a quarter of our TDs are women

The candidate with openly violent dictatorship ambitions is being allowed to campaign as a normal politician

Her hopeful words were in sharp contrast to Joe Brolly’s cynical appraisal of the mood south of the border