Kathy Sheridan

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

As immigration creeps up the opinion polls, we would do well to pay attention

When many people take democracy neither seriously nor literally, we’ve got a problem

Age is in the eye of the beholder. Biden may be older but with 91 indictments and a possible jail term looming, Trump is hardly a safer bet in terms of presidential longevity

Fellow human beings are being dehumanised, and we are being played

Politicians will be thoughtful, truthful and boring. Candidates will not be interchangeable with entertainers. RTE political coverage will be monitored for excessive excitement

Women still face a spectrum starts with an almost concealed disdain, a certain contempt, an ingrained prejudice, and runs all the way to violent hatred

After initial disbelief and anger over the Galway hotel fire, the overriding feeling this week is of sadness

The word ‘anger’ isn’t big enough to cover the naked aggression some people see as their entitlement

While the eyes of the world are on Gaza, Russia thrives - billions have been returned to its economy by oligarchs, construction is booming and restaurants are packed

The manufactured outrage unleashed by the Israeli foreign minister’s tweet was something to behold

Survivor and witness testimony, many from the Supernova rave, describe seeing women being raped before they were shot

Braverman is the latest in a long line of mediocre-to-really-terrible women in the Tory Party

Wilful indifference to one of the world’s most consequential oligarchs (yes, he’s an oligarch) is nothing to be proud of

At a superficial level, Cosgrave may be considered a martyr to corporate censorship. Another look might suggest he was brought down by his own restless, scattergun bellicosity