Child benefit works as intended - and not just by buying votes for politicians
Yes, there’s a whiff of pixie dust about the bonanza of payments, but child benefit rightly holds a special place among mothers of all incomes and life choices
Kathy Sheridan columns
Yes, there’s a whiff of pixie dust about the bonanza of payments, but child benefit rightly holds a special place among mothers of all incomes and life choices
The afterlives of political leaders are often greater measures of their character than their times in office are. It’s hard to let go - just watch former leaders who lack the grace to dial down the wise-after-the-event pronouncements
Donald Trump’s gibberish is being played down as news outlets make him sound sane and rational
Ultimately it comes down to the free market, to supply and demand and what people are willing to pay - because they’re superfans or want to be seen. But people exhausted by the relentless hustle have had enough
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
Crosswords & puzzles to keep you challenged and entertained
How does a post-Brexit world shape the identity and relationship of these islands
Inquests into the nightclub fire that led to the deaths of 48 people
Weddings, Births, Deaths and other family notices