Appropriated Twerking, Joffrey Bieber and the Reign of The Selfie… 2013 was full of ostensibly casual moments over which we could bond and track how our society is changing.
The ECHR was introduced as a result of a pledge in the Good Friday Agreement to provide “at least an equivalent level of protection of human rights” in the Republic as in Northern Ireland. Ten years on, we have failed to live up to our promises, writes Michael Farrell.
We live in an advanced and constantly evolving technical world, where our children learn to swipe and browse before they can read or write. So how have technological advances changed the world of animation over the years?
From an imagined post-2020 perspective, Dr James Heaney, Lecturer in English and Irish Studies, considers how our current third-level education crisis might play out in the near future.
Our reliance on processed and convenience food has created eating habits that are having an increasingly negative effect on our bodies. Detoxing in a gentle, sustainable way can be a great way to redress the balance, writes Dorcas Barry.
Several people working in the digital sector in Dublin share their impressions of the industry – and give some career advice to those wanting to pursue a path in that area.
This week, as shopping centres heave with last minute shoppers, frenziedly hoovering up iPads and Playstations, clothing and jewellery, to the incessant strains of Jingle Bell Rock, what do the Jews do?
Our control centre handles fire and rescue calls for the whole of Leinster, so we’re always busy, but Christmas and New Year can often be when we’re needed most, writes Trevor Hunt.
According to the Bible story, the Star of Bethlehem – or the Christmas Star – led the Three Wise men to the birth of Jesus 2,000 years ago. But was it an actual astronomic event?
This year I’ll be spending Christmas on the island of Panay in the Philippines, where families have had their homes and their livelihoods wiped out by typhoon Haiyan, writes Clare Ahern.
The bloated Ugandan political class and their evangelical puppet masters respond to one thing only: money. If they see aid being withdrawn from their country, they might repeal this horrendous law, writes Paul O’Keeffe.
Charity is often framed as an alternative to welfare, the underlying assumption being that it provides a taxation-free way of helping others. In reality, it is a hierarchical relationship which allows us to escape our collective social obligations, writes Chris Lowe.
Sometimes people call Samaritans at Christmas who might never normally do so. It could be the first Christmas they are bereaved, the could feel isolated, or they could have major money worries. We’re there to listen.
If you’re anxious about how Christmas is going to work out now that your family unit is changing, try to step back and prioritise, says Bernadette Ryan.
Are selfies a side effect of digital culture? A sad form of exhibitionism? Maybe – but perhaps can also be seen as a kind of visual diary, a way to mark our short existence.
There is real and personal housing need in Ireland, which affects individuals and families opportunities to develop their lives and contribution to society, writes Dr Padraic Kenna.
The UN Refugee Convention was born of the horrors of war – horrifying conflicts that tore Europe apart and left millions dead. How have we forgotten that so quickly?
People working in charities have mortgages and kids and wants and desires. The sector can’t hope to recruit and retain top class people, capable of running very complex operations, if they offer significantly less than the private sector.
A specific feature of the current global crisis is high youth unemployment. What’s more, this problem affects mainly and nearly exclusively developed countries. Sergiusz Prokurat asks: how can that be?
It has been a brutal, punishing year for many people across this country. As we enter a new year, let’s focus on one another again and take the responsibility to lead others through this darkness and out the other side, writes Gareth O’Callaghan.
A report released earlier this week about levels and experiences of racism in Ireland has provided an important, albeit brief, snapshot of racism in our country, writes James Carr.
I am one of the fortunate survivors to have secured a criminal conviction against one of two Spiritan priests who sexually abused me. Last week’s national audits of the Catholic clergy show others are not so lucky, writes campaigner Mark Vincent Healy.
More and more countries are attempting to introduce anti-smoking laws – and the multi-billion euro tobacco industry is responding by launching long, cripplingly expensive legal challenges. Ireland should not let itself by bullied, writes Senator John Crown.
Food poverty is a difficult – but very real – fact to accept in modern society. Ireland must now make a decision on how to implement a programme to tackle rising poverty and social exclusion, writes Emer Costello.
Lorna Sixsmith, a self-described ‘farmerette’, takes a humorous yet realistic view of the trials and tribulations of a marriage interrupted by the demands of sheep, pigs and cantankerous goats.
When we teach children to ignore bullies, we teach them how to hide their anger from the people who are hurting them. In turn, their self-esteem can be eroded to the extent that asserting themselves is unimaginable, writes Clare Hartwieg.
The key to this issue is whether the ESB will be able to pay pension contributions in 10 or 20 years time. It would be a bitter irony if the dispute itself has made the company weaker and less able to meet those commitments.
Short days can hinder what we can do with our free time – but there is plenty to see and do at night, even in these days of less money to spend, astronomy is a surprisingly inexpensive (and often free!) hobby to enjoy, writes Conor Farrell.
The “rules” and maschismo that so many boys learn early in life has created a stifling idea of what it means to be a man. But we don’t need to be bound by these narrow ideas, writes Carlos Andrés Gómez.
