Advertisement

Readers like you keep news free for everyone.

More than 5,000 readers have already pitched in to keep free access to The Journal.

For the price of one cup of coffee each week you can help keep paywalls away.

Support us today
Not now
Saturday 2 December 2023 Dublin: -1°C

Latest

All time
Damien Kiberd: This government's housing policy will - literally - put people on the streets
Willful ignorance or not, the crude approach is going to end in misery. Again.
Damien Kiberd: They say €240 per year for water. Sure. For now.
Damien Kiberd finds the election promise of an ‘average’ water charge is as leaky as a badly-laid pipe.
Damien Kiberd: Some very solid reasons why the banking inquiry will fail to deliver
“This country is suffering from paralysis by analysis”.
Damien Kiberd: Teachers do, literally, run the country
But it hasn’t helped them as those old-school types have made it next to impossible for young qualified types to get a permanent job.
Damien Kiberd: United States of Europe? Then show us the benefits
With the EU forcing us into a ‘devaluation for slow learners’, isn’t it time we look closer at what exactly the euro has done for us?
Damien Kiberd: Michael Noonan wants house prices to rise so we can emerge from this cul-de-sac
There’s a hole in the balance sheets, dear Liza.
Damien Kiberd: Be honest, GAA, the Sky deal IS about cash...
…but this might not be a Bad Thing.
Damien Kiberd: Martin Callinan thought his friendship with Shatter would save him. He was wrong.
The ex-Garda Commissioner was hung out to dry in the most contrived way – but the Taoiseach’s handling of GardaGate was razor sharp.
Damien Kiberd: If prices are deflating, why are we feeling poorer?
Statisticians tell us inflation is a memory but what lies beneath – massive premiums on childcare, health insurance, water tax and more – is a better measure of the pain consumers feel.
Damien Kiberd: The real reason why Frank Flannery's head was served up on a plate
‘Spin doctors? But who the hell is sick?’ To paraphrase the TV drama Borgen, Frank Flannery’s dismissal uncovers some uncomfortable truths about ‘access all areas’ PR in politics.
Damien Kiberd: Why are the Irish not more critical of the EU?
And more to the point – are we “f**ked and brainwashed” by the ‘European Project’?
Damien Kiberd: Government policy on housing is a massive muddle
When the economy collapsed the banks got top priority. Building workers and people who need social housing were far down the pecking order. Now they’re telling us a miracle is on the way…
Damien Kiberd: A new property bubble - but not as we know it
A glut of cash buyers, homeowners anchored by negative equity and tracker mortgages – in Dublin, the situation for young people trying to buy is alarming.
Damien Kiberd: Why neither Ireland nor USA wants to question tax haven
Official Ireland does not like inconvenient truths – which is why Trinity professor Jim Stewart’s spot-on research makes it defensive.
Damien Kiberd: RTÉ thinks it played safe on Pantigate - I beg to differ
RTÉ would do well to remember the story of Jurgen Klinsmann’s dive in the 1990 World Cup and the effect that had on schoolboy footballers for years to come.
Damien Kiberd: Are whistleblowers saints? The ethics can be complicated.
As Ireland has discovered following the row over the cancellation of penalty points for motoring offences, the ethics of whistleblowing can be most complicated, writes Damien Kiberd.
Damien Kiberd: Why was Ariel Sharon's funeral such a lonely affair?
Psychopath or a good soldier? The ‘no show’ of global leaders at his final goodbye nods to a life of contradictions.
Damien Kiberd: Ireland's real friend in Europe is not who you think
When the chips are down, Ireland has always been able to count on Britain – so why don’t we support them if they want to leave the EU?
Damien Kiberd: So what if Kenny and Bruton didn't lecture Middle East on human rights?
Were they not correct to put the business interests of Ireland first? And what about those other human rights abusers Ireland conveniently chooses to ignore?
Damien Kiberd: Why middle-aged men with money invest in Netflix...
…And why their tech confusion means there is no logic in how they price its shares.
Damien Kiberd: Drop the goody-two-shoes approach to economic policy
Job figure increases are welcome – but Government needs to be bolshy to grab the three things it needs for proper growth.
Damien Kiberd: We recover part of our sovereignty - but banks still losing their senses
The target borrower for banks is often a high net worth individual living overseas: ordinary owner-occupiers can go and whistle.
Damien Kiberd: Forbes has Ireland all wrong
Ireland Inc. got the thumbs-up as the best place to do business. The glossy magazine headline hides a less attractive truth about tax, unemployment and Stalinist powers.
Damien Kiberd: Reasons to be cheerful? Maybe - but cautious too
Should we be optimistic or pessimistic? Doing the hokey cokey or pleading poverty at the back door of the Bundesbank?
Damien Kiberd: 'Top-up' payments part of a game whose rules need to change
“The model of social partnership promoted since 1987 relies for its internal cohesion on permitting people at various levels within the system to milk that system for their own benefit.”
Damien Kiberd: Why we need to deliver an Irish version of the NHS
Two million Irish people pay for private health cover out of fear of our public system – but both are broken. Here’s what we COULD do…
Damien Kiberd: Govt won't admit it but we've been battered by new taxes
From the Universal Social Charge to the Local Property Tax, the Government has implemented a labyrinth of new taxes, both overt and covert.
Damien Kiberd: Jihad against Junior Cert is bizarre
Rather than tackle these rather basic issues of numeracy and literacy, we are meddling with exam systems which may not be a problem at all.
Damien Kiberd: If Enda wants cash from his EU mates, he needs to stop ticking the boxes
Taoiseach Kenny wrote a letter to 26 EU heads about their 2012 “commitment” to give Ireland special treatment – but they don’t care for wimpish reminders.
Damien Kiberd: Health is not just Angola, it’s the original Heart of Darkness
What’s to become of the very sick who can’t afford insurance cover and who don’t qualify for medical cards? Does anyone – including Reilly – know?
Damien Kiberd: Budget 2014 arithmetic not just iffy - it's scary
The figures are extraordinarily precise, writes TheJournal.ie columnist Damien Kiberd – as imaginary numbers often neatly are.
Damien Kiberd: Austerity economics have us locked in Permaslump
“Families want to exit their own micro-bailouts too,” writes new TheJournal.ie columnist Damien Kiberd.