John Waters

John Waters

John Waters has been a columnist with the Irish Times since January 1991, having joined the newspaper as a feature writer the previous year. He is also a former Media Correspondent of the Irish Times. He is the author of nine books, and a sometime playwright and songwriter. He is originally from Castlerea, Co Roscommon. He began part-time work as a a journalist in 1981, with Hot Press, Ireland’s leading rock ‘n’ roll paper, becoming a full-time journalist with the paper in 1984, when he moved to Dublin. His books are: Jiving at the Crossroads; Race of Angels: Ireland and the Genesis of U2; Every Day Like Sunday?; An Intelligent Person’s Guide to Modern Ireland; The Politburo Has Decided That You Are Unwell; Lapsed Agnostic; Beyond Consolation – How We Became Too Clever for God... And Our own Good; Feckers: 50 People Who Fecked Up Ireland; and Was It For This? – Why Ireland Lost the Plot. He has written plays for radio and the stage, including Long Black Coat, Holy Secrets, Easter Dues, and Adverse Possession. He has a teenage daughter, Róisín. He lives in Dublin, but sometimes in Sligo.

One analysis would suggest that we are happy because Irish glasses are always on the way to being full. Photograph: PA
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Gardaí at a graduation ceremoney at the Garda college in Templemore. “An Irish person who dons a uniform – far from representing the community, becomes somehow alien to it.” Photograph: David Sleator
Deep down, we Irish would prefer to be occupied

Column: It is a truism of Irish culture and society that we never got our heads around the idea that the State now belongs to us (...)

“The ‘exorcism’ lasted 10 seconds. When Pope Francis arrived, he immediately rested his left hand on the young man’s head and spoke with a priest standing behind the wheelchair. The young man kissed the pope’s ring, suggesting that the devil was not in total control.” Photograph: AP/APTN
Real story on Pope Francis ignored by the media

Column: I saw no exorcism in St Peter’s Square last Sunday, because nothing of the kind occurred

People hold candles at the annual Console “service of light” in St Patrick’s Chapel, Maynooth College, last December, to remember those who have died by suicide. Photograph: Aidan Crawley
Men’s place in society ignored in renewed media focus on suicide

Column: There is no talk about what happens to men when their relationships break down, or what role society might play

Amber Weiss and Sharon Papo walk through City Hall in San Francisco after exchanging wedding vows on the first full day of legal same-sex marriages there in 2008. “Abortion, euthanasia, homosexual marriage – all these have in common that they represent a repudiation of existing understandings and belief systems.” Photograph: Erin Siegal/Reuters
Media ignores the news in pursuit of liberal agenda

Column: It is difficult to identify where journalism ends and ideology begins

Members of the Pro-Life Campaign in a protest outside the Dáil this week. Photograph: Alan Betson
Bill a further step along road to industrial abortion

Column: The destination of what is termed the ‘liberal’ agenda is the unpicking of the prevailing social edifice

Frankie Gavin of De Dannan is being honoured in Verona today, but he must work most of the year abroad to make a living. Photograph: Brenda Fitzsimons
Why does Irish trad music play second fiddle at home?

Ireland is home to some extraordinary talent, yet they often need to travel far to be recognised as such

A participant in an anti-austerity march in Dublin last November. Photograph: Alan Betson
‘Austerity’ deflects us from true nature of economic crisis

Artificial scarcity is imposed to satisfy markets in absurd system

President Michael D Higgins and European Parliament president Martin Schulz address journalists during a press briefing at the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Wednesday. Photograph: Fred Marvaux
The President has momentously said the unsayable about our economy

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A firefighter tries to put out a fire at a plantation in Rokan Hilir district, Riau province, Indonesia. Riau authorities have deployed two fire brigade teams in Bengkalis district and Dumai to control peatland fires, Antara News Agency reported. The fires are being blamed for dense smog in neighbouring Singapore. Photograph: Aswaddy Hamid/Reuters Singapore smog blamed on Indonesian fires
This is Nanoweek 2013, and to mark it an exhibition, NanoArt 13, of 100 ‘nanolandscapes’ (research images, at a scale thousands of times smaller than a grain of salt) is being held at Trinity College Dublin, the Tryskell Arts Centre in Cork and the Tyndall National Institute at UCC. Here is a selection of the images. Above, 'Insect egg on a Leaf' by Patrick Carolan, Tyndall National Institute. Insect egg on underside of leaf. Stuff you never get to see

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