Opinion & Analysis | The Irish Times

Telephone operator with protective gauze during the 1918-1919 flu epidemic: a great many were affected.

Flu epidemic of 1918 warns us of coronavirus risk to frontline workers

Ida Milne
March 31, 2020

Rite&Reason: Social distancing can help us all protect our clergy, police and health workers

UK health policy on coronavirus has ignored both experience elsewhere and the relevant international bodies. Photograph: Kirsty O’Connor

Gabriel Scally: North and Republic must harmonise Covid-19 response

Gabriel Scally
March 31, 2020

Two approaches to coronavirus testing and contact tracing are dangerously incompatible

Siobhán McKenna in 1967, the year she appeared in Brian Friel’s play The Loves of Cass Maguire. Photograph: Dermot Barry

‘Filth’ at the Abbey – An Irishwoman’s Diary on Siobhán McKenna and Archbishop McQuaid

Emer O’Kelly
March 30, 2020

A nurse holds a nasal swab and vial as she prepares to administer a coronavirus test: disease has spread rapidly. Photograph: Lindsey Wasson

In pandemic, individual rights secondary to those of public

Mellisa Stobie
March 30, 2020

Amid scarce resources, treat everyone as if they have Covid-19. No one is immune

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar with Minister for Business Heather Humphreys. Photograph: Julien Behal/PA Wire

Sam McConkey: Tough next steps against coronavirus will require political consensus

Sam McConkey
March 30, 2020

Cross-party Oireachtas subcommittees should be debating draconian powers now

When Fine Gael pulled the tablecloth off the national dining table to tackle Covid-19 and left the crockery still standing, it really was some trick. There were no consultancy fees or communications agencies. It just…happened. Photograph: Getty Images

Una Mullally: Coronavirus response is like providing fire exits only during a blaze

Una Mullally
March 30, 2020

The equitable social model we are using to guide us through Covid-19 can be a guiding light to how we rebuild society

Burying plague victims. Miniature by Pierart dou Tielt (Tournai, circa 1353).

Witness to catastrophe – An Irishman’s Diary on the Black Death in Ireland and Franciscan friar John Clyn

Ronan McGreevy
March 29, 2020

The ECB has opened up the taps and indicated it will do whatever it takes to prevent a recession becoming a depression. Photograph: Lisi Niesner/Reuters

David McWilliams: We need to totally reimagine economics

David McWilliams
March 28, 2020

Our Central Bank has unforgivably abdicated in this crisis, precisely when it was needed

Social distancing during a press briefing with Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin at Leinster House. Photograph: Gareth Chaney/Collins

Eamon Ryan: Why we need a national unity government

Eamon Ryan
March 28, 2020

United administration for six months could continue recent collaborative approach

‘The women and men who are keeping the supermarkets going most probably make about €13 an hour.’

Fintan O’Toole: We are learning how much we rely on low-paid workers

Fintan O'Toole
March 28, 2020

The coronavirus pandemic exposes that those who keep us alive are deeply undervalued

At a superficial level, the GNU sounds great: it is the political equivalent of the round of applause for the healthcare workers. Photograph: Alan Betson

Pat Leahy: Five reasons a government of national unity is a bad idea

Pat Leahy
March 28, 2020

Having everyone in government would make decision-making harder, not easier

Empty street in Naples due to coronavirus: if Italy is made to survive alone or with differential and unequal costs, its disenchantment with the lack of EU solidarity could prove terminal for its membership. Photograph: Cesare Abbate

‘Coronabonds’ row could endanger the European project

Paul Gillespie
March 28, 2020

Deep solidarity, including a common debt instrument, is needed if euro zone is to survive

Remote learning is now demanding that teenagers spend many hours in front of screens. Photograph: iStock

Breda O’Brien: Communicating with ‘screenagers’ in a pandemic

Breda O'Brien
March 28, 2020

Teens are being actively encouraged to spend hours a day on screens. How do we keep a balance?

A passenger arriving into Hong Kong international airport wears a quarantine tracking wrist band as a measure to stop the spread of coronavirus. Photograph: Anthony Wallace/AFP via Getty

Jennifer O'Connell: Covid-19 is normalising mass surveillance of citizens

Jennifer O'Connell
March 28, 2020

Track-and-trace strategy to contain coronavirus uses citizens’ personal data

St Fridolin (detail) by Albrecht Dürer (1514). Courtesy of the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam

A light in the darkness – An Irishman’s Diary on St Fridolin

Oliver O’Hanlon
March 27, 2020

An empty Westmoreland St in Dublin city centre during the week. Photograph: Conor Pope

Cliff Taylor: A big recession is coming but it’s not a rerun of 2008

Cliff Taylor
March 27, 2020

Wages, house prices and numbers at work will recalibrate, but Irish economy can recover

What Michael Gove was really trying to say – he has since clarified – is that experts are liable to get things wrong too sometimes. Photograph: Lewis Whyld/PA Wire

Finn McRedmond: No one is sick of experts now

Finn McRedmond
March 27, 2020

There is less room for Brexiteer-style bluster and windbagging when people are dying

Simon Harris has said ‘there can be no public versus private here’. Photograph: Aidan Crawley/EPA

Coronavirus has created an opening for a fairer health service

Diarmaid Ferriter
March 27, 2020

Legacy of crisis should be a system based on health need, not ability to pay

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar: the fact he and his Ministers have shown great leadership skills over Covid-19 has bought them time but they cannot continue indefinitely. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw

Stephen Collins: FG and FF will struggle to create stable majority

Stephen Collins
March 27, 2020

Momentous decisions already made to fight Covid-19 but another coalition partner vital

Rinville Park, Oranmore, Co Galway. File photograph: Joe O’Shaughnessy

Out on a limb – An Irishwoman’s Diary on National Tree Week

Mae Leonard
March 26, 2020

1
2
3
4
5
Next ›

Editorials

The Irish Times view on government formation: the crisis must force a deal soon

The only feasible arrangement now is one that will have Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil as its core

The Irish Times view on coronavirus in the US: Nobody at the wheel

Donald Trump has repeatedly demonstrated a complete lack of comprehension of the disease and its spread

Subscriber Only

Our Columnists

Una Mullally

Una Mullally -

Una Mullally: Coronavirus response is like providing fire exits only during a blaze

David McWilliams

David McWilliams -

David McWilliams: We need to totally reimagine economics

Pat Leahy - Political Editor

Pat Leahy: Five reasons a government of national unity is a bad idea

Paul Gillespie

Paul Gillespie -

‘Coronabonds’ row could endanger the European project

Most Discussed

Letters

Most Read

1 A letter to Ireland from Italy: this is what we know about your future

2 Coronavirus: Ireland should ‘look seriously’ at closing borders to keep new infections out

3 Sam McConkey: Tough next steps against coronavirus will require political consensus

4 'The last time I saw her was when she was being put into the ambulance'

5 Insolvency lawyer warns of ‘disaster’ if firms reject Covid-19 wage subsidies

Real news has value

Sign In

Forgot Password?

Sign Out