Time for a rethink among advertising’s blue bloods. PeriodAn upfront ad for a tampon delivery service shows that audiences aren't as prudish as they're imagined to beSat Aug 10 2013 - 01:00
How I furnished my house for nothingBar stools, unused Ikea furniture, Casio keyboards: Australia is a scavenger’s paradiseWed Aug 7 2013 - 01:00
Clutter no more: packing in the habit of outrageous consumptionAs I up sticks for Sydney, I am on a quest to unburden myself of the tyranny of stuffWed Jul 31 2013 - 01:00
Temple Bar: still more Magaluf than Left BankI broke a golden rule recently: do not set foot in Dublin’s ‘cultural quarter’ after 6pmWed Jul 24 2013 - 01:00
Give me a stay-at-home dad over a Master of the Universe any dayWe want women to shirk prescribed gender stereotypes, but we’re much less keen on men doing itWed Jul 17 2013 - 01:00
Women aren’t funny? Don’t make me laughOnly five of the 57 acts at next month’s Vodafone Comedy Festival, in Dublin, are women. Perhaps that’s because women are being funny in ways that don’t always rely on stand-upSat Jun 29 2013 - 01:00
Whoops! Forgot to have a baby in your twenties? Don’t panic yetIt seems those dire warnings about the ‘fertility cliff’ we topple over at age 35 are based on 300-year-old dataWed Jun 26 2013 - 01:00
When it comes to domestic abuse, we’re each just a raised fist away from being the typical victimThe pictures of Charles Saatchi and Nigella Lawson were disturbing. But so too was the public rush to judgmentWed Jun 19 2013 - 06:00
Forget Prism and the National Security Agency. The real threat to your privacy is youIt took the rest of us the entire history of the human race to decide our social norms – and Mark Zuckerberg just a few hours to toss them asideWed Jun 12 2013 - 01:00
I didn’t have a ‘drink problem’, but I had a problem with the way I was drinkingA combination of moments have made me tackle my alcohol intakeWed Jun 5 2013 - 01:00
No place like home‘Kandahar’ star Nelofer Pazira will be in Dublin soon to share her experiences in AfghanistanTue Jun 4 2013 - 01:00
If it doesn’t have anything to do with swimwear, don’t use a bikini to promote itIf the fact that we are still using women’s bodies to sell stuff in 2013 is some brilliant postmodern gag, I don’t get itWed May 29 2013 - 01:00
We must beware of overreacting on the childcare issueOpinion: Outsourcing the care of children can be a fraught and guilt-ridden affairMon May 27 2013 - 01:00
Enough of the fuzzy euphemisms. It’s time for a grown-up conversation about breast cancerDespite being awash in pink ribbons, we’re no better informed about risk reductionWed May 22 2013 - 01:00
Turning marriage-sceptic Merida into Celtic Barbie was not a brave move, DisneyFemale characters are still sidelined, stereotyped, and sexualised in movies and popular culture. Merida was the exceptionWed May 15 2013 - 02:00
Point, click, swoosh, ping: why multitasking is making us all mindlessResearchers gave students 15 minutes to read some coursework. On average, they lasted two minutes before checking Facebook. I know how they feelWed May 8 2013 - 07:00
Facebook and us? It’s complicatedUsers seem to be falling out of love with the social networking service, perhaps because it leaves many people feeling as if the party’s always happening somewhere elseSat May 4 2013 - 06:00
Yes, Amanda Knox was guilty. Guilty of being naive and guilty of liking sexOur obsession with ‘Foxy Knoxy’ says more about us than it does about herWed May 1 2013 - 07:00
You know those tear-jerking Dove ads? They don’t wash with meAn online advertising campaign wants to show that women are too self-critical – but why is beauty seen as so important?Sat Apr 27 2013 - 06:00
Forcing suicidal pregnant women to prove they are serious is cruel and dangerousThe last thing you do when faced with someone who is suicidal is make them prove they’re seriousWed Apr 24 2013 - 07:00
Watching the Boston bombings on Facebook and Twitter plays tricks on usNon-stop news and social-media coverage plays into the hands of those behind such attacksWed Apr 17 2013 - 07:00
I became one of those parents I used to read about and sniggerGetting a school place was a cinch. We just unrolled our sleeping bags and queued outside at dawnWed Apr 10 2013 - 06:00
Women’s jobs are not luxuries to be ditched along with the second holidayForty years on, Government ideology still sees men as breadwinnersWed Apr 3 2013 - 06:00
Threesomes advice is no worse than what’s in most young women’s magazinesA recent Spun Out “threesomes” controversy is a distraction from issues such as sexual aggression and pornWed Mar 27 2013 - 06:00
I quit a dream job to be at home, but I’m no surrendered wifeToo much of what passes for feminist commentary involves slagging off each other’s choicesWed Mar 20 2013 - 06:00
Don’t tell me sugar isn’t addictive. I’ve been quitting it all my adult lifeThe latest image problem for the soft drinks industry may be the most damaging yetWed Mar 13 2013 - 06:00
If you want me to work in an office, I demand to commute in a flying carIt was a conversation like thousands of others we must have had during the decade or so that my father drove me to school every…Wed Mar 6 2013 - 00:00
Our casual racism against Travellers is one of Ireland's last great shames“Trouble.” “Dirty.” “Disgusting.” “A thorn in the side of society.”Wed Feb 27 2013 - 00:00
The ghoulish spin in the Steenkamp caseRupert Murdoch knows how his newspapers’ readers like their girls (I use the word advisedly: in the world of tabloid publishing…Wed Feb 20 2013 - 00:00
Our confused relationship with foxes: cull them, feed them, hunt them, kill themUntil about eight weeks ago, I was quite clear where I stood on the fox issue.Wed Feb 13 2013 - 00:00
You wouldn't hit a partner for their own good, so why would you hit a child?Earlier this week, I conducted a grim little experimentWed Feb 6 2013 - 00:00
I told the interviewer I wasn't planning on having more children. I got the jobSheryl Sandberg strikes me as a sensible, smart, ambitious womanWed Jan 30 2013 - 00:00
Why did the chicken cross the continent? So it could go cheap, cheap, cheapWaiter, waiter – there’s a pun in my burger. And I’m failing to see the funny side.Wed Jan 23 2013 - 00:00
I'm no Rihanna fan, but it's time to stop agonising about oversexualised girlsI am on the brink of a terrible crisis, one that could arrive any time in the next four to six years, and is likely to last at…Wed Jan 16 2013 - 00:00
Politicians: try using social media before you start legislating for itWhen I was a child, I had a collection of trollsWed Jan 9 2013 - 00:00
There's something about Molly and Martha - but nothing about MaryThere’s something about MaryWed Jan 2 2013 - 00:00
We didn't need this ritual humiliation to learn that DJs can be devastated, tooThere was something unsettling about the reaction to the television appearance earlier this week of Michael Christian and Mel…Wed Dec 12 2012 - 00:00
Begrudgery hasn't worked. It's time to break our addiction to 'failure porn'Look away now, those of you revelling in our collective misery – it’s not all bad news for Ireland IncWed Nov 28 2012 - 00:00
Calling all Twitter users: if you believe in the internet, regulate yourselvesThere is a moment in Monty Python’s Life Of Brian when Brian wakes up in bed with his new girlfriend, and opens the shutters…Wed Nov 21 2012 - 00:00
Why should boys get to take it to the max while girls are left with pink play sets?Parents: if you want to curtail your daughter’s ambitions, limit her imagination, and stymie the development of her analytical…Wed Nov 14 2012 - 00:00
We need to talk about suicide, but it's not a social-media conversationWhat could have driven Erin Gallagher to take her own life? Asking this question in the aftermath of a suicide is almost always…Wed Nov 7 2012 - 00:00
I don't want James Reilly telling me what to eat, but we need a fat taxTHERE ARE many good reasons to oppose the introduction of a fat taxWed Oct 17 2012 - 01:00
Blaming the victims of sex crimes lets the perpetrators off the hook‘DEAR VICTIM,” the letter began. “To be honest I’m not bothered or sorry about the fact I burgled your houseWed Oct 10 2012 - 01:00
Kitchen confidential: my 54 closed cook books and six-dish repertoire‘ALL I have to do now is consider my meatzza,” Nigella Lawson said in last week’s episode of her new cookery series, Nigellissima…Wed Oct 3 2012 - 01:00