Weekend

Access to consultants, private hospital rooms and reduced waiting times are some of the reasons why it can pay to have private health insurance

Éanna Ní Lamhna on the territorial robin, abundant-berry folklore and the unusual-looking but harmless triggerfish

Most families have someone missing even if the table is holly-decked and groaning

I fear our property problem will be solved in a brutal way, with a recession so severe, hundreds of thousands will emigrate again

The US president is a once-in-a-lifetime master manipulator of the unseen energies that sway the electorate

The family and care referendums were soundly rejected, Leo Varadkar most unexpectedly stepped down, and there was a decided turnaround in parties’ fortunes

We also decode 12 hot-button words or phrases you might have heard for the first time this year

If the 2024 election result marked stability, safety and conservatism, the biggest gig of the year underscored that same middle-brow innocuousness

Ireland heard plenty of ‘eco rhetoric’ in 2024 but there was a clear sense that political leaders have not grasped the reality of the climate emergency

Winds of change howled across Britain in a year when a Labour election victory ended 14 years of Tory rule

As China and Russia weigh up their options in anticipation of Donald Trump’s second presidency, horrified countries in the Global South see Gaza as an emblem of US and European double standards

I wrote in admiration and acknowledgement of her bravery, and in sympathy and empathy for what she had endured for years

A few simple adjustments this year can make Christmas a bit less harsh on the planet

I’ve seen the slow loss of dignity and the increase of pain that mark the last years of lives drawn out by healthcare in modern society

The journalist and broadcaster on his middle name Raphael, visiting Belfast in the 1970s and his experience as an only child

The Belfast native had to rebuild his life, which is now the subject of a stage play, after wrongly spending 15 years in jail for an IRA bomb attack

Being flooded is a particular kind of hell but pouring more concrete isn’t the solution

It’s horrible being duped. ‘Dishonest people need to eat too,’ a friend said. He had a point. A few days later, I still had an emotional hangover

Emotional former Tory minister for Northern Ireland Steve Baker 'embarrassed Ireland was treated the way it was by the United Kingdom’

The majority of those held in homes across the North came from a Protestant background, and their babies were adopted by Protestant families