Breda O’Brien: British bombing of Syria does not meet test for a ‘just war’Can you really say that air strikes on fighters dispersed among a civilian population fulfil the criteria of proportionate force and protection of civilians?Sat Dec 05 2015 - 01:19
Breda O’Brien: Making divorce easier will bring little benefit for childrenThe law is a teacher. It embodies what society considers to be worth both validating and punishing.Sat Nov 28 2015 - 01:16
Breda O’Brien: What happened to Pat Carey was a long time in the makingReligious have long been subjected to similar treatment by media and the ChurchSat Nov 21 2015 - 04:58
Breda O’Brien: Ireland should not aspire to providing legalised killingSo long as the safety valve of abortion is there, we never have to take seriously the issue of providing real alternatives.Sat Nov 14 2015 - 03:29
Breda O’Brien: The good ship Enda sails merrily on‘The degree to which this Taoiseach has been given free passes is quite extraordinary’Sun Nov 08 2015 - 12:23
Breda O’Brien: No epic struggle at synod, just slow steady progressLayman voting at synod shows it is possible laywomen could be nextSat Oct 31 2015 - 01:00
Breda O’Brien: Education is key to ending Traveller inequalityReinstating the Visiting Teacher Scheme and resources teachers for Travellers would be a practical, realisable way to mark watershed momentSat Oct 24 2015 - 01:00
Breda O’Brien: Free pre-school places about workers, not what is best for childrenPre-school intervention works best when employed to make up for a lack of adequate parentingSat Oct 17 2015 - 01:00
Breda O’Brien: The norms may have changed but the pressure to conform remains“Vindictive protectiveness” is on the riseSat Oct 10 2015 - 14:02
Breda O’Brien: Americans singled out by pope have one thing in commonAll shared an intense consciousness of the centrality of God in their livesSat Oct 03 2015 - 01:06
Breda O’Brien: State subsidised child care is no NirvanaWhat is good for disadvantaged children is not good for all children, research suggestsSun Sept 27 2015 - 08:34
Breda O’Brien: Women tell me their stories about abortion all the time‘You can argue about personhood before birth, but you cannot argue about humanity’Sat Sept 19 2015 - 05:00
Breda O’Brien: Syrian boy deserves better than moment of voyeurism‘I feel that photographs taken after a tragic death demean a person’s dignity’Sat Sept 05 2015 - 02:00
Breda O’Brien: Could Ireland become the fairest little country for migrants?Images from ‘Children of Men’ are eerily similar to current television news broadcasts, down to the cages and the barbed wireSat Aug 29 2015 - 00:30
Breda O’Brien: Trump and Corbyn tap into electorate’s views‘How viable is our democracy when despite the proliferation of new parties and old, many Irish people still have no party for which they can vote?’Sat Aug 22 2015 - 02:00
Breda O’Brien: Let a hundred flowers blossom in home educationThere are formidable obstacles to pursuing the Leaving Certificate at homeSat Aug 15 2015 - 01:00
Breda O’Brien: Why Pope Francis should take a holidayThe Pope should strike a blow against the ‘overwork’ cultureSat Jul 25 2015 - 04:15
Organ harvest trade underlines inhuman violence of abortionTaking foetal organs for profit requires obliteration of individuals’ humanitySat Jul 18 2015 - 01:03
Breda O’Brien: Lone parent cuts won’t break poverty cycleIn Sweden it is considered almost regressive to want to look after your child yourselfSat Jul 11 2015 - 01:00
Breda O’Brien: Pope’s views on environment echo tradition of social teachingFrancis builds on ‘human ecology’ to ask how to develop an ‘integral ecology’Sat Jul 04 2015 - 01:06
Breda O’Brien: Tragic that Amnesty now prioritises undermining the right to life‘An equal right to life is a much more basic and foundational concept than Constitutional recognition of a loving relationship’Sat Jun 27 2015 - 04:30
Breda O’Brien: The Berkeley deaths draw us close together in our sorrow‘Sometimes we worry that community is weakening in Ireland. That may be true in some respects, but it is at times of bereavement that we see the importance of community ties’Sat Jun 20 2015 - 04:29
Breda O’Brien: Sex, alcohol and consent – what the research tells us‘Consent, personal autonomy, and choice are the new holy trinity of modern mores’Sat Jun 13 2015 - 13:01
Breda O’Brien: Fintan O’Toole’s appeal on child poverty is worthy of support‘Until Irish people can re-discover the sense that the poorer kids are also our kids, a crusade to end child poverty will never receive the support that it deserves’Sat May 30 2015 - 04:00
Breda O’Brien: An inconvenient truth about the same-sex marriage referendum‘734,300 No voters are just as generous and inclusive as those who voted Yes’Mon May 25 2015 - 09:59
Breda O’Brien: High-heels in Cannes and the gender agenda‘High heels were once the exclusive province of men’Sat May 23 2015 - 03:00
Breda O’Brien: Think about intolerance of thought police before you vote‘This Government’s only commitment to marriage is to re-defining it to make it gender-neutral’Sat May 16 2015 - 02:30
Breda O’Brien: Asking questions about funding for referendum campaign‘Groupthink has been exalted to an Irish sacrament’Sat May 09 2015 - 08:03
Breda O’Brien: Garda body’s call for a Yes vote undermines democracy‘It is just one of the deeply disturbing aspects of the debate, or should that be non-debate, in advance of the referendum’Sat May 02 2015 - 01:00
Breda O’Brien: Little sympathy for migrants who make it to Ireland’s shores‘In a landmark decision on Wednesday, the High Court ruled that gardaí failed to identify a victim of human trafficking, resulting in a trafficked woman being imprisoned in Mountjoy for two and a half years’Sat Apr 25 2015 - 01:00
Breda O’Brien: Does Mary McAleese understand why people are voting No?‘If the referendum is passed, there will be children born in this country who will never experience a mother’s love’Sat Apr 18 2015 - 12:34
Breda O’Brien: Question of pizza for a gay wedding sparks death threatsSame-sex marriage referendum is not just about saying ‘I do’Sat Apr 11 2015 - 01:00
Breda O’Brien: Domestic violence – men are victims tooWe need a second report on sexual abuse and violence in Ireland – and we must act on itSat Apr 04 2015 - 02:30
Breda O’Brien: Fianna Fáil is alienating core voters without attracting new ones‘There is no party that now represents those who are socially conservative but not economically right wing’Sat Mar 28 2015 - 02:00
Breda O’Brien: Dolce & Gabbana face boycott over ‘synthetic babies’ commentsElton John and Martina Navratilova criticise ‘parenting’ views of designersSat Mar 21 2015 - 04:30
Breda O’Brien: Many of those granted asylum can’t afford to leave hostels‘Kathy feels as if the State has cut her adrift after almost forcibly institutionalising her. She doesn’t want to be dependent . . . She is longing to work in order to provide for her family’Sat Mar 14 2015 - 01:30
Breda O’Brien: Junior Cert debate conceals a bigger problem about educationShould education be about creating a compliant workforce or good citizens?Sat Mar 07 2015 - 03:00
Breda O’Brien: Democratic disaster as Government pushes through family Bill‘The Government has declared that it makes no difference whether your biological parents raise you, or whether two men or two women who may or may not be related to you do so’Sat Feb 28 2015 - 08:51
Failure to ban egg and sperm donation in children and family Bill is a mistakeApparently it is fine for children to be denied their genetic heritage and kinship networks through “modern means of family formation”Sun Feb 22 2015 - 12:02
Breda O’Brien: It’s time we provide couples with perinatal hospicesParents need expert support when they hear their baby faces a life-limiting conditionSun Feb 15 2015 - 12:02
A human dynamo with the power to persuade people to use their God-given talents‘Like all the Dominican sisters who taught, Sr Barnabas Kett believed education was the key to a good life, one where you could be useful’Sun Feb 08 2015 - 12:01
Internet is an echo chamber for illiberal political correctnessTwitterverse is a bubble, removed from most people’s experienceSun Feb 01 2015 - 07:50
Breda O’Brien: Love is not enough when it comes to children’s rights‘The inconvenient truth is that we are altering Article 41 of the Constitution which has a simple heading – the Family’Sat Jan 24 2015 - 09:00
Their lives may be short but they have huge meaning and worthWe don’t deal well with the death of babies with life-limiting illnessesSat Jan 17 2015 - 12:00
‘Charlie Hebdo’: A united front against murder and violence needed‘What is best in religion must now be mustered to defeat peacefully those who represent the worst of religious extremism’Sat Jan 10 2015 - 00:01
Breda O’Brien: ‘Shellackybooky’ – English as my mother spoke itI still have no idea what ‘a bun baked standing’ meantSun Dec 28 2014 - 00:01
Inside Bungalow 3: the revelations raise uncomfortable questions about ourselvesWhat makes some people treat others badly – or well?Sun Dec 21 2014 - 12:02
How the most vulnerable borrowers face the highest rates of interest‘Somehow, we think that it is acceptable and inevitable that those who are most likely need to borrow relatively small sums just to meet everyday contingencies like illness or bereavement, should also pay the highest rates of interest’Sat Dec 13 2014 - 13:01
Why it won’t help to just throw money at the problem of homelessness‘A shy, gentle, wild creature in mortal terror of the people who were clumsily trying to help. He left, and we never saw him again’Sun Dec 07 2014 - 12:02
The real reason teachers are striking over Junior Cert changesGovernment should keep external assessment and develop an education system driven by educational needs, not cost-cuttingSat Nov 29 2014 - 00:02
