Opinion & Analysis | The Irish Times

Labour leader Keir Starmer. The Labour Party has launched an education initiative for its 500,000 members on the Belfast Agreement. Photograph: Jessica Taylor/UK Parliament/AFP via Getty Images

Starmer gives British Labour a lesson in Irish history

Finn McRedmond
January 21, 2021

Labour leader signals he understands need to uphold Belfast Agreement

Deputy First Minister Michelle O’Neill and First Minister Arlene Foster: Stormont is united in bemusement and frustration at the Republic’s stonewalling. Photograph: Brian Lawless/PA Wire

The Republic has never taken cross-Border co-operation on Covid-19 seriously

Newton Emerson
January 21, 2021

Newton Emerson: North’s politicians are baffled at refusal to share passenger data

Availing of the contraceptive pill in this country will set you back anywhere between €150-€215 each year. Photograph: Cyril Byrne

Stigma may be gone but Irish women still face obstacles in accessing contraception

Bláthnaid Corless
January 21, 2021

If Government does not owe women access to free contraception perhaps Catholic Church does

US president Joe Biden, standing alongside his wife Jill Biden, takes the oath of office. Photograph: Michael Reynolds/EPA

Holy Joe – Frank McNally on more Biden relatives and lessons for the president from a seventh-century saint

Frank McNally
January 20, 2021

An Irishman’s Diary

15 Usher’s Island – the house has been empty for several years now, its future uncertain

Mean, Green Grass of Home – Frank McNally on the greatest of all Irish curses

Frank McNally
January 20, 2021

‘May the grass grow before your door’

US president-elect Joe Biden in Wilmington, Delaware: In recent months Biden’s lifelong interest in Ireland has returned to the fore. Photograph: Alex Wong/ Getty

What can Ireland expect from Joe Biden?

Jim Sharkey
January 20, 2021

New US president will defend Belfast Agreement against any undermining by Brexit

US National Guard troops march on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on Tuesday ahead of Joe Biden’s inauguration. Photograph: Amr Alfiky/The New York Times

Kathy Sheridan: There is no fairytale ending to the Trump version of American Psycho

Kathy Sheridan
January 20, 2021

Biden’s inauguration is a moment of hope but myths are too ingrained to be shifted easily

Tuam mother and baby home: managed by the Bon Secours order for Galway County Council. Photograph: Tuam Home Graveyard Committee/PA Wire

Michael McDowell: Church, State and society all owe redress over homes

Michael McDowell
January 20, 2021

Pointscoring on mother and baby homes distracts from what politicians must now do

US President Donald Trump. The Capitol riot tipped the Republican Party into an existential crisis. Photograph: Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images

Biden and US democracy need strong and united Republicans

Shana Cohen
January 19, 2021

Capitol Hill riot can be a catalyst for positive political reform in US

Names of some of the children who died at the Tuam mother and baby home. The moral ground was ceded to the church and with it came the authority over sexual morality and the family and therefore the shaping of national identity. Photograph: Charles McQuillan/Getty Images

Why the State had such a big problem with unmarried mothers

Alyson Staunton
January 19, 2021

Extra-marital sex was a threat to our self-perceived identity of moral superiority

The church had the monopoly on damnation and salvation. The mother and baby homes were the outward sign of this inward terror. Photograph: iStock

5:01 Fintan O’Toole: Spiritual terrorism created world of mother and baby homes

Fintan O'Toole
January 19, 2021

There was no ‘society’ separate from the church’s power to inflict damnation

In the Seanad in 1974, Mary Robinson tackled the personal and legal limbo of children born out of wedlock

Pragmatism v Principle – how the Seanad attempted to tackle the issue of children born out of wedlock

John Horgan
January 18, 2021

An Irishman’s Diary

The Rev. Raphael Warnock, a Democratic Senate candidate in Georgia, at a campaign rally in Stonecrest, Ga., Dec. 28, 2020. One January day, with Senate victories for Warnock and Jon Ossoff and a mob at the Capitol, encapsulated the politics of progress and grievance that have defined the Trump years. (Nicole Craine/The New York Times)

Raphael Warnock and America’s legacy of racial tyranny

Jesse Wegman
January 18, 2021

The election of a black man to the Senate followed hard on by the violent ransacking of the Capitol by an overwhelmingly white mob rang loudly with echoes of the past

A key issue with our obsession with the Leaving Cert is its main focus seems to be acting as a filter for entry into higher education. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill

Plan for ‘traditional’ Leaving Cert pushes obsession with the exam to new levels

Carl O'Brien
January 18, 2021

Cultural obsession with sadistic rite of passage reinforces belief in its exceptionalism

If initial lockdowns offered personal, cultural and economic revelations, then a third one could offer political ones. Photograph: Brian Lawless/PA Wire

Una Mullally: Will Lockdown 3.0 bring about a political awakening?

Una Mullally
January 18, 2021

A desire for radical change may grow out of this latest period of reflection

A lantern at the site of the Tuam mother and baby home. Photograph: Andy Newman

Mother and baby homes report is the story of us as a nation

Helen Shaw
January 18, 2021

Helen Shaw: This was not about a few rogue bad apples. This was systemic in Irish society

Childhood came with a barrage of warnings. You couldn’t pull a funny face without being warned that the wind would change, and your face would stay like that forever. Photograph: Alan Betson

A cautionary tale – Alison Healy on childhood’s rich barrage of warnings

Alison Healy
January 17, 2021

An Irishwoman’s Diary

If numbers of Covid-19 cases rose from a wider reopening for St Patrick’s Day and Easter, it would be a disaster. Photograph: iStock

This Covid-19 lockdown must be the last - even if that means it lasts longer

Cliff Taylor
January 16, 2021

Cliff Taylor: Battle we face before vaccine cavalry arrives is looking more difficult

The Tuam mother and baby home in Galway. Photograph: Tuam Home Graveyard Committee/PA Wire

Mother and baby home adoptions may have been legal but that does not make them right

Máiréad Enright
January 16, 2021

Commission could have put itself in the place of women affected to properly understand decisions

The private equity company plans to float Doc Martens at a valuation of $4 billion. This means that a finance company will, in the space of a decade, make more than 12 times its original investment.

David McWilliams: What a Doc Martens boot can teach us about the wealth gap

David McWilliams
January 16, 2021

The company that made boots for punks and skins is floating on London’s stock exchange

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Editorials

The Irish Times view on closing schools: a cruel blow to the most vulnerable

Last year’s school closures were hugely damaging to the most vulnerable children in our community. Now, they are losing out all over again

The Irish Times view on Alexei Navalny: a vital voice

The opposition figure’s persecution will encourage those who believe the foundations of the Putin regime are not as robust as it might claim

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Our Columnists

Newton Emerson

Newton Emerson -

The Republic has never taken cross-Border co-operation on Covid-19 seriously

Kathy Sheridan

Kathy Sheridan -

Kathy Sheridan: There is no fairytale ending to the Trump version of American Psycho

Una Mullally

Una Mullally -

Una Mullally: Will Lockdown 3.0 bring about a political awakening?

David McWilliams

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David McWilliams: What a Doc Martens boot can teach us about the wealth gap

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