Ireland is the last stand for rare coastal machair habitats in the EU – but it’s failing
Funding nature restoration looks like an easy line to leave blank in the budget. That would be an expensive mistake
Weekend
Stories that appear in the Weekend section of The Irish Times print edition
In pictures: All-Ireland Hedge Laying Championships
‘There’s something really ancestral about staying in touch with the land, staying in touch with the old ways’
Drumcree: ‘We don’t want to go back, we all thought those days were long gone’
More than 20 deaths have been linked to Drumcree, a problem most people thought was settled. On Portadown’s Garvaghy Road, its resurrection is causing deep apprehension
What terrifies me most is a fear that I am inherently not good enough
I’d prefer a politician who occasionally gets it a bit wrong but at their core is evidently a decent person
Is the Irish housing market beginning to turn?
The current easing is not driven by new supply - buyers have reached the limit of what they can afford and the homes available don’t match what people want
Gathering at John McGahern’s grave became a ritual for my friends
Writing a biography of an author with quiet, unshowy charisma has been a humbling and exciting experience
Ardmore village named as Ireland’s Greenest Place
The judges recognised the Co Waterford community’s broad and innovative range of green initiatives, working together for a more sustainable future
‘My youngest child will probably be bearded before the national children’s hospital opens’
A lot has happened - and a lot hasn’t happened - since Michelle Gallen and her husband decided to move from London to Dublin a decade ago
Irish schools are world leaders in a green initiative. So why are most covered in tarmac?
Nature education here has been described by one expert as ‘dismal’. What could be done better?
My SpaceX moon trip was cancelled when the funder pulled out. How could I return to ordinary life?
After months of being whittled down from a million applicants to eight, I got the call: ‘Will you go to the moon with me?’
This creature sways menacingly from side to side looking like a small snake
Biologist and environmentalist Éanna Ní Lamhna answers your notes and queries
The writers behind Blue Lights: ‘I think I fell in love. I thought, I have to work with this guy’
Writers Declan Lawn and Adam Patterson say that despite the ‘love’ in the North for their hit PSNI-centred drama, they were petrified to take on such a ‘hot potato’ topic
Letters from America: ‘I would not advise anyone to come here that can live comfortable at home’
From tenements to wagon trains, a book comprised of letters sent from the US between 1818 and 1972 illuminates the history of Irish emigration in an intensely personal way
Naomi Klein: The super rich need to be abolished and ‘prescribed a middle-class life’
End Times Fascism by noted author and her collaborator Astra Taylor contains a hopeful prescription for neighbourly resistance
Is Ireland ready for a monster El Nino? Expect ugly potatoes, transport chaos and widespread disruption
Climate scientists warn the impending super-strong El Niño will have ripple effects worldwide and have implications for more than just the national weather
Ireland is experiencing a surge in immigration. This raises questions for our tax and welfare system
If we want to take in lots of low-skilled migrants – to do the jobs the Irish won’t do – financial realities must be addressed
Revealed: Ireland’s Greenest Places 2026 shortlist
Eleven entries have made it to the final stage of deliberation in this year’s competition
Could the Australian health service website hack happen in Ireland?
The incident is the first publicly reported breach of a government website by an AI ‘agent’
‘I’d say it will only cover part of a Harry Styles ticket’: Teenagers on proposed Budget 2027 culture cards
Teens have their say on Budget 2027’s proposed €100 ‘culture card’ for 16-year-olds
I’ve lived in city centres for 20 years, and my dream of planting a native Irish forest is getting urgent
Manchán Magan and Eoghan Daltun have shown us we can improve the world right here on our doorstep, acre by acre
My father didn’t believe there was a God. Where I grew up that seemed perverse
Religious institutions organised my sports, my education, even my summer holidays
This red squirrel keeps visiting my flower box. It’s not doing what I thought it was
Eanna Ní Lamhna on reader encounters with a cheeky squirrel, a giant caterpillar and Ireland's only native lizard
Living with breast cancer: ‘I’ve possibly had one of the best years of my life. I’ve got rid of anything that didn’t matter’
A farmer tells of how astonishingly beautiful seemingly ordinary things can be after a hellish year coping with cancer
Remember the iodine tablets? A look back at emergency advice over the years
A nationwide distribution programme will see approximately 2.2 million households receiving the Be Emergency Ready booklets soon
Ireland’s falling reading rates: ‘There’s a crisis of literacy. There’s a crisis of reading’
Teenagers, both in Ireland and globally, are much worse at reading than they were 10 years ago, OECD finds
Manchán Magan’s final part of his trilogy: Ireland was believed to be the outer limit of the known world
The book the late author was working on when he died has been published
Ireland’s largest freshwater lake is dying before our eyes
A perfect storm of problems is leading to a near-collapse in Lough Neagh’s ecosystem
Lebanon’s children lost in Israeli attacks: ‘It’s the grimmest side of this conflict. Children die. Children are burned’
The effects of Israeli attacks on Lebanese children over the last six months have been devastating - and will endure
Mark Little: ‘Protests against data centres is the biggest wave of civic activism since the 1960s’
The broadcaster turned entrepreneur on messianic tech billionaires, and his new book tracking his journey from tech-optimism to disillusionment to a new cautious hope
Students are screen hostages. They’re losing the ability to switch off and knuckle down
By our own high standards, educational results in Ireland are slipping. But not all the problems are technology-related
Catherine Corless: ‘I was always a bit determined. I was teased a lot growing up’
The historian on her difficult upbringing, how it feels for your life to be adapted for the screen, and why Trump’s visit to Ireland made her angry
Ed Sheeran controversy: How his North American tour has ended up in crisis
Were Sheeran to cancel the tour, the total economic loss is estimated to be anywhere from $60-$100 million
‘There’s nothing wrong with the bags’: inside Dublin’s latest waste war
Dublin City Council says it has received more than 400 submissions from Dublin 7 residents on removal of bags
Taking a year out to write sounds romantic. It isn’t
Success and solvency are not the same thing when it comes to trying to live by writing
Crosswords & Puzzles
Crosswords & puzzles to keep you challenged and entertained
Common Ground
How does a post-Brexit world shape the identity and relationship of these islands
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