Justine McCarthy: With Ireland on a knife edge, it’s a bad time for a brain drain from the DáilPotential new TDs would need their mental acuity assessed if they were not given pause by hearing about masked protesters outside the Taoiseach’s homeFri Jul 19 2024 - 06:00
Michael D Higgins is proof that age is not Joe Biden’s biggest problemWisdom, that great compensation for the vanished stamina of youth, seems to have bypassed the US presidentFri Jul 12 2024 - 06:00
She has been abused, has had intimate photos shared online, has turned to drugs. She is 17 Regular reports of disturbing cases show the State has again been failing our most vulnerable childrenFri Jul 05 2024 - 07:00
Cathal Crotty picked on the wrong woman and that is to be his enduring punishmentThere should be monuments in all our cities to the women who have helped to civilise this countryFri Jun 28 2024 - 06:00
Clare Daly’s dog-whistle to haters of the media wasn’t just hypocritical, it was recklessElected representatives are honour-bound to explain their words and actions to their constituents who rely on professional media outlets. The alternative source is the swamp of social media and fake news websitesFri Jun 21 2024 - 06:00
Neale Richmond should know better: calling grown women ‘girls’ is inherently belittlingImagine anyone calling Margaret Thatcher, Angela Merkel and Indira Gandhi ‘the girls’Fri Jun 14 2024 - 06:00
Should Simon Harris call an early election? Gerard Howlin and Justine McCarthy debateAll attention is on when a general election should be called. Waiting until next spring carries risks – but so does an autumn electionWed Jun 12 2024 - 06:00
A pollster broke down in tears on Indian TV - pollsters everywhere know how he feelsOpinion polling is not dark force. But as it becomes more complex, its impacts needs to be examinedFri Jun 07 2024 - 06:15
Hubris of Fine Gael’s Marian Agrios reflects Ireland’s admiration of controversial politicians We voters need to consider our ambivalence about political standardsFri May 31 2024 - 06:00
European candidates on centre-left test the temperature on Dublin’s doorstepsLabour’s Aodhán Ó Ríordán and the Social Democrats’ Sineád Gibney - both candidates for the European Parliament in Dublin - knock on constituent doors to take the temperature of votersThu May 30 2024 - 06:00
Did Israel expect a country which has endured occupation and violence to stand idly by?Amid all the woes of homelessness, exorbitant rents, asylum seekers consigned to tents and climate damage, this was a moment to relish being IrishFri May 24 2024 - 06:00
There is one other measure we could take to reduce deaths from road crashesIreland chooses to be an outlier in Europe by not operating a consultant-led helicopter emergency service that would bring life-saving expertise to the scene of an accidentFri May 17 2024 - 06:00
US, UK and Germany have sown the shame of their nations in Gaza’s blood-drenched soilEven when propaganda is shown to be untrue, Israel’s backers make no apology for having blindingly believed itFri May 10 2024 - 06:00
We need to talk about why we’re all so angryWhen trust dies, anger is its natural successor. Only by regaining the people’s trust can Ireland recoverFri May 03 2024 - 06:00
Justine McCarthy: Distorted view of media not helped by exodus of journalists into government payWhen those who are supposed to be the watchdogs for the public interest become the guard-dogs at the gates of government, a country’s conversation may be guided by the dog that barks the loudestFri Apr 26 2024 - 06:00
Fine Gael leadership asked to investigate ‘entirely irregular’ motion against ex-TDSenior party member indicated that motion of no-confidence in former Waterford deputy John Deasy five years ago should be investigatedMon Apr 15 2024 - 08:00
Four years ago, we were clapping health workers in the street. Now we’re reducing their benefitsGovernment has terminated a special sick pay scheme for the tiny proportion of staff who have developed long Covid and can no longer workFri Apr 12 2024 - 06:00
Politicians demonising NGOs is fodder for extremistsAccording to the handbook of regressive extremism, social justice organisations are the devil incarnate, their hooves and horns disguised by angels’ wingsFri Apr 05 2024 - 06:00
Sudden stampede to the right by our politicians can only benefit democracyIf Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald is serious about being taoiseach after the next election, she will need the support of what purports to be the leftFri Mar 29 2024 - 06:00
We know what’s going on in Gaza, and won’t be able to say we didn’tWe have been witnessing genocide by Israel for months in Gaza, while western powers have cheered it onFri Mar 22 2024 - 06:00
Government handed No campaigners a shovel to more deeply entrench women inside the homeGovernment handed No campaigners a shovel to more deeply entrench woman inside the homeFri Mar 15 2024 - 06:15
March 8th referendums: The WhatsApp debate, by Breda O’Brien and Justine McCarthy Two Irish Times columnists argue the merits and demerits of the proposed changes to the ConstitutionTue Mar 05 2024 - 06:10
Catherine Martin’s colleagues should praise her honesty, not criticise her for going on TVMinister for Media summed up the hypocrisy when she asked: ‘What was the alternative? To conceal the facts?’Fri Mar 01 2024 - 06:00
Yulia Navalnaya and Nikki Haley embody a single truth: sometimes the act of opposing is enoughThe world’s wars were started by men and are being continued by men. Maybe only women can stop themFri Feb 23 2024 - 06:15
What did Michelle O’Neill and Emma Little-Pengelly talk about on the way to John Bruton’s funeral?Travelling together to John Bruton’s funeral was easy compared with the tightrope they must walk soonFri Feb 16 2024 - 06:15
Trust the romantic French to come up with a pragmatic solution on ‘durable relationships’France has devised a type of conscious coupling that has proven to be highly popularFri Feb 09 2024 - 06:15
If Leo Varadkar goes to the White House, it can’t be for a quiet word about GazaTaoiseach must convey Ireland’s message about Gaza publicly, unambiguously and for international consumptionFri Feb 02 2024 - 06:15
Ian Bailey could never resist having his name in a newspaper, ideally the headline Now the only suspect is gone with whatever secrets he had. And he had some, as he hinted in one of the poems he left meFri Jan 26 2024 - 06:15
Mansplainers are in full ‘listen ladies!’ voice, telling us we’re reading it all wrong as referendum nearsThe mansplainers are in full ‘listen-ladies!’ voice, telling us we’re reading the thing all wrongFri Jan 19 2024 - 06:15
By caving in to protests about asylum seekers, the Government has torched its own principlesRecent migrants found locked in a ship at Rosslare were Kurds and Vietnamese, people on the sharp end of global warming. This trend will only increaseFri Jan 12 2024 - 06:20
Keeping Enoch Burke locked in a cell, wallowing in his martyrdom, serves no oneBurke could potentially find himself spending longer in Mountjoy than some of the killers in his midst. That could not pass for justiceThu Jan 04 2024 - 14:23
Just reaching out about those odious Americanisms and infuriating academic affectations . . .Enough already! Now that’s a new year’s resolution that would really make the world a better placeFri Dec 29 2023 - 06:05
Irish writers, thespians and thinkers are having a renaissanceIt’s okay to gloat about our artistic accomplishments, fruits of a period of social turmoilFri Dec 22 2023 - 06:00
Nothing can justify this massacre of the innocents in Gaza. No politics. No history. No revengeNearly 7,000 children and minors have died in Gaza, which the UN secretary general has styled ‘a graveyard for children’. And for all his bumper-sticker sloganeering about good values, Joe Biden has presided over itFri Dec 15 2023 - 06:30
Irish politicians throwing around terms such as ‘scumbags’ and ‘thugs’ is a slippery slopeDublin riots have led to a dangerous political gameFri Dec 08 2023 - 06:00
It was wrong of Leo Varadkar to send a servant of the State to Ben Dunne’s funeralTaoiseach could always have attended himself in a private capacity but sending his official representative gave his Government’s seal of approval to DunneFri Dec 01 2023 - 06:00
In the Israel-Hamas war, history and propaganda repeat themselvesTo recite the Goldstone Report is not to suggest that Israel is all wrong and Hamas is all right; the point is the sense of deja vu it conveysFri Nov 24 2023 - 06:00
Molly Martens didn’t just kill her husband, she assassinated his reputationIf mitigation is proper in setting sentences – and it is – aggravation should be considered tooFri Nov 17 2023 - 06:00
The world needs a Mahatma Gandhi to lead us away from the abyssOur planet is going up in smoke while political powers in Moscow and Washington, Tehran and London are flexing their partisan muscles. We need to choose our own leaders wiselyFri Nov 10 2023 - 06:00
Erstwhile imperialists’ defence of Israel’s merciless slaughter makes a mockery of democracyNo matter how often Israeli politicians state that the military bombardment of Gaza is lawful, the watching world knows the truthFri Nov 03 2023 - 06:15
Justine McCarthy: When are the international police coming to investigate Israel’s wanton bloodletting?Neither were the babies and children who were massacred on Israel’s side of the border. The difference on the Gaza side is the scale, duration and the comparative lack of anguish elicited from world leadersFri Oct 27 2023 - 06:00
Women’s stories dragged Ireland kicking and screaming into a better futureAn extract from the preface of Justine McCarthy’s new book An Eye on Ireland: A Journey Through Social ChangeSun Oct 15 2023 - 06:00
Two wrongs do not make a right, they make a vortex of horrorOf the many sides in this war, the worst are the so-called friends who have the power to do something but choose to kindle revengeFri Oct 13 2023 - 06:21
Justine McCarthy: Ireland's richest are seldom mentioned when it comes time to balance the booksThe domicile levy was meant to be a net to catch the super-wealthy, but hasn’t quite workedFri Oct 06 2023 - 06:00
Ireland has museums for dinosaurs, country life and rugby. It’s time we had one for womenDisrespect underpins much of the apathy about and antipathy towards women in our society.Fri Sept 29 2023 - 06:30
Spinal surgeries scandal has the ring of such grotesquerie as to stop a country in its tracksThe series of appalling events in Temple Street must be fully revealed to the publicFri Sept 22 2023 - 06:30
Reverse snobbery about rugby is every bit as nauseating as plain old snobberyRugby World Cup: Everybody knows rugby is an elitist sport in Ireland. But you don’t achieve an egalitarian society by throwing stones at athletes who are representing your countryFri Sept 15 2023 - 06:00
Vera Pauw’s unforgivable sin was to stand up for herselfIf obstreperousness in a man can be an aphrodisiac, in a woman it is a crime punishable by firing squadFri Sept 08 2023 - 06:30
Amid Ireland’s summer of tragedy, we look to those who don’t have the luxury of allowing words to fail themJustine McCarthy: First-responders are the true matrix of Irish communitiesFri Sept 01 2023 - 06:30
Justine McCarthy: Enough of the meaningless hand-wringing over abuse by Christian BrothersAre councillors compassionate enough to rescind Edmund Garvey’s freedom of Drogheda as a powerful symbol of support for victims of abuse?Fri Aug 25 2023 - 06:30
