In Ireland, we are obsessed with the land – owning it, not roaming it
Ireland has no equivalent of the Swedish concept of Allemansrätten (everyone’s right to roam) or the 225,000 km of public rights of way in England and Wales
Diarmaid Ferriter
Diarmaid Ferriter columns
The hurt that dripped from Michael O’Brien and others has to be part of Pope Francis’s legacy
The personal experience he vividly outlined on RTÉ television in 2009 was part of the reason Francis’s visit to Ireland nine years later was so different from the previous Irish papal visit
Too many Irish teachers are wrecked and hate their jobs
There are too many wrecked teachers out there; too many hate their jobs; too many depart prematurely
Life admin has become more irksome as many utility firms treat customers with contempt
In a country where many utility companies treat their customers with contempt and consumers pay 42 per cent more for goods and services, life admin can be eviscerating
Pope Francis’s synodal reforms: Vatican II 60 years on
Church leaders are at last embracing much-needed change
From ‘damned Englishman’ to ‘f**king a**hole’: A history of Ireland in 25 Dáil insults
The language has become coarser but it is striking how fuelled by testosterone the Dáil has always been
A century after the Monto, street prostitution has been replaced by sordid networks run by pimps
Ireland was never pure, but our 21st century ‘new order’ - with women human trafficked into the sex trade and much focus on toxic masculinity - is alarming
The vagina detector test at the entrance to the Vatican is not about to be decommissioned
Pope Francis’s pontificate has been about evasion as well as empathy, and he has made it clear holy orders are reserved for men
Nobody should be mocked or lampooned for decrying the consequences of the new arms race
The Irish approach to foreign policy should not be to exaggerate our purity or indulge dictators, but neither should we parrot criticisms of our neutrality from miliary aligned states
Burning question for Europe now is how to deal with an elected American tyrant
Donald Trump’s presidency has also generated a new focus on questions of identity and doubt in Europe
Éamon de Valera was the first to suggest ‘garden cabins’ as a solution to an Irish social dilemma
Continuity of ‘implacable social systems’ witnesses the refloating of an old focus on the back garden
Experiences of Troubles victims have run like submerged streams beneath the dry land of blame
Families have different views on the Omagh inquiry, but what they all hold sacred is the need for their loved ones’ stories to be heard
Ministerial overload isn’t going to solve our problems. Neither is Civil Service squeeze
Enduring power of ‘permanent government’ - the Civil Service - may explain why only ex-ministers speak frankly after leaving government
Underground cabling could answer challenge of keeping lights on after storms
Technical challenges and cost of extensive underground cabling would be enormous but ESB needs to produce a plan to cope with scale of climate change
Mulcahy’s push for alternative to Fianna Fáil in 1948 government talks ‘enhanced democracy’, UCD event told
Parties involved in present government formation talks owe debt of gratitude to former FG leader, says Prof Diarmaid Ferriter
Biden’s legacy will be tarnished by his vanity and stubbornness
The outgoing US president will also be remembered for disastrous foreign policy choices, including his refusal to curb the excesses of Israel
Forget pandering to Independent TDs, these are the issues the new government needs to deal with
The consequences of business as usual are ever more frightening, particularly in relation to climate change
It’s time Dublin had a statue to unconventional, complex Maud Gonne MacBride
Attitudes to her have been reductive, shaped by the mores of the time and her failed marriage
During this hard men era, Ireland would do well to remember Seán MacBride’s words
MacBride asked ‘if those vested with authority and power practice injustice, resort to torture and killing, is it not inevitable that those who are victims will react with similar methods?’
Do not, on any account, forget the importance of the perfect Christmas hairstyling
How to achieve the perfect Christmas tree, the perfect table setting, the perfect family time: don’t bother trying. Reject perfection is all its greedy, grabbing guises
Is it time for Opposition parties to come together under the banner ‘Put them out’?
Given today’s political landscape, the current Opposition might well profit from looking closely at what happened in 1948
Diarmaid Ferriter: Greens deemed irrelevant in shallow campaigns with magic money and social media stunts
Weeks of magic money, fantasy manifestos and hand-shaking marathons have come to this
Cillian Murphy’s view of Ireland in the 1980s as ‘the dark ages’ misses the point
Small Things Like These raises a wider question about the communication of our history as one giant, black cloud occasionally interrupted by a lone, bright star
Contrast between Trump’s cruelty and McCain’s dignity shows how far America has fallen
The absence of an appetite to calm tensions after the storm is the most worrying thing about the American election campaign
Few would have thought a play about the fraught Belfast Agreement talks could be so gripping
The message that “contradiction is better than violence” is more relevant and urgent than ever
Sinn Féin’s difficulties should not make Fine Gael complacent
Neither party can afford to build a campaign entirely around their leader. And both need to overcome a weakness for mixed messages
The curtain is coming down on Ireland’s soft power in the US
Whether Kamala Harris or Donald Trump wins the presidency in November, Ireland will not be much of a priority
The electoral cycle decides the budget, while the fiscal advisory council is ignored
The memory of economic crises is not strong enough to withstand the primacy of elections
Instead of gushing over Joe Biden, Simon Harris should denounce US funding of Israel
It would be ahistorical to suggest that this arrangement has been without tensions. But the money kept flowing
Our Wild Atlantic Way may be about to get much wilder
Rainy day funds should surely now take on a literal meaning given the climate’s tumultuous shifts and the reality that our greatest coastal tragedies may lie ahead of us
Forelock-tugging to Trump in Doonbeg showed how far Ireland will bend for US dollars
We were bamboozled with jargon in the hope that the resultant fog would distract from what was obvious. The comfort, it seemed, was that ‘there is no single and agreed definition of a tax haven’
The Revelation of Ireland: 1995-2020 by Diarmaid Ferriter - A hugely valuable exploration of a rollercoaster time
Book shows that even as Ireland has changed, its biggest problems remain ‘deep-rooted and historical’
Sinn Féin’s housing policy ignores that climate change is already here and now
No one would campaign under the slogan ‘To Hell With the Future’ but it is starting to look like the coming election will merit such a rallying cry
Ireland must ‘resist assaults on nuance’ in assessing its past, historian Diarmaid Ferriter says
Diarmaid Ferriter was speaking at the launch of his new book, The Revelation of Ireland: 1995-2020, in Dublin
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