Bringing kids to festivals is the worst kind of performance parentingJennifer O'Connell: If you thought I was fun before I had kids, the toddler-toting festival-goers brag, see me now!Sat Aug 17 2019 - 06:03
Jennifer O’Connell: Am I ever going to feel like a grown-up?Instead of being a life-stage, ‘adulthood’ has become a fraught, anxious goal for many of usSat Aug 10 2019 - 06:03
Jennifer O’Connell: Life lessons can be learned from earwigging on the trainThe Philosopher says he’s going outside. This is surprising because the train is movingSat Aug 03 2019 - 06:00
Mum’s fancy-dress outfit? At Fonsie Mealy’s auction it went for €320,000Tiger heads and brown furniture: a day at the Kilkenny auction yields lots of storiesSat Aug 03 2019 - 06:00
Dazzling ensembles light up Ladies Day at the Galway Races‘You’ve so many fashionable and talented people in one place ... It’s great for inspiration’Thu Aug 01 2019 - 19:10
Online porn and our kids: It’s time for an uncomfortable conversationChildren viewing endless, sexually explicit, violent material shouldn’t be inevitableSat Jul 27 2019 - 06:03
A creche is a business, but childcare is more than a commercial transactionIf our starting point is that parents who use childcare are neglectful, we’re setting a low bar for the standards we expectFri Jul 26 2019 - 12:25
Doll’s house sells for ‘mad’ price of €48,000 at Kilkenny auctionThe 1810 mahogany house, once owned by Vivien Greene, had guide price of €3,000-€4,000Wed Jul 24 2019 - 02:30
Jennifer O'Connell: Things I wish I’d known before having babiesIf I could go back, there’s lots of advice I’d give myself – not that I’d have listenedSat Jul 20 2019 - 06:04
Crested uniforms, iPads and ‘amenity fees’: The true cost of free schoolingSandra calculates that back to school costs for her daughter will come to €1,367 this summerSat Jul 20 2019 - 06:00
Brendan Grace funeral: Ceremony blends sadness and raucous laughterEchoes of their father’s sharp wit as eulogies delivered by each of Grace’s four childrenMon Jul 15 2019 - 17:31
‘Kilrush would be a lot better if it was below in Kerry’It’s not so much that the town had a tough recession – the boom never really arrivedSat Jun 29 2019 - 06:05
Life in a commuter town: ‘They call Sallins Dublin 28’Our series on challenges facing rural Ireland looks at what happens when a town doubles in sizeSat Jun 29 2019 - 06:00
Jennifer O’Connell: Sleeplessness is this year's gluten intoleranceSleep has become the preoccupation of my generationSat Jun 29 2019 - 06:00
Which towns in rural Ireland are worth investing in?A whole tier of Irish towns and villages need major investment. Can they be saved?Sat Jun 29 2019 - 05:50
The niggling question of every parent - how do you get the kids off screens?Give Up Yer Aul Screens: Minecraft was no match for Project Runway family editionTue Jun 25 2019 - 06:00
Is the Catholic Church taking a leaf out of the Trump playbook?Jennifer O’Connell: Church rejection of gender fluidity was perfectly timed for Pride monthSat Jun 22 2019 - 06:02
Parenthood? You spend all day wanting to see them, all evening wanting to get awayWhy is it heresy to say you love your children fiercely but they don’t always make you happy?Sat Jun 15 2019 - 06:04
No matter how feminist you are, it’s hard not to feel dismayed by the ageing processJennifer O’Connell: Ageing is not for the faint of heart, but it’s better than the alternativeSat Jun 08 2019 - 06:03
Does your neighbourhood make you sicker or healthier?You already know you are what you eat. But experts say you also are where you liveSat Jun 08 2019 - 06:00
Jennifer O’Connell: Get ‘beach body ready?’ Don’t make me retchWhat do women want for summer? Clothes that fit and sandals you can walk inSat Jun 01 2019 - 06:03
The microliving challenge: ‘Where do you keep your milk in a kitchen with 42 people?’Users say co-living schemes suit students and young workers – but for ‘just a few months’Sat Jun 01 2019 - 06:00
Irish Rail: Was communications breakdown bigger than the mechanical one?Major signal fault left a yawning information chasm for passengers, writes Jennifer O’ConnellTue May 28 2019 - 12:52
The fake Facebook video that turned Nancy Pelosi into an ‘alcoholic old hag’The footage was slowed down so that the US house speaker seemed to slur her wordsMon May 27 2019 - 15:47
Reality TV is all just a bit of fun, until someone gets hurtJennifer O'Connell on The Jeremy Kyle Show, emblem for these paradoxical timesSat May 25 2019 - 06:03
Has your phone secretly recorded your conversations? Mine hasBut the recordings aren’t used to serve you ads. The industry has better ways of doing thatSat May 25 2019 - 06:00
‘We’re dreading that something like Christchurch could happen’‘Anti-Islamic agenda’ linked to withdrawal of permission for new Kilkenny cultural centreSat May 18 2019 - 07:00
Housework is the big, hairy, sexist elephant in the roomJennifer O’Connell: 90% of Irish women do housework, compared with just 50% of menSat May 18 2019 - 06:03
‘Fast sex, slow love’: How Irish relationships have changedWe have more choice than ever, but we are still in thrall to the concept of marriage. Why?Sat May 11 2019 - 06:04
Jennifer O’Connell: Raising teenagers, it’s not your job to be their friendWhen your 16-year-old asks you to buy them a bottle of Jagermeister, laugh in their faceSat May 11 2019 - 06:02
We thought everything was better in Australia, but we’ve fallen for Ireland againJennifer O'Connell: It takes real determination to be idle on this spectacular little rockSat May 04 2019 - 06:03
Patrick Quirke verdict: ‘He’s got his comeuppance anyway’In Bansha and Cashel, where many suspected Quirke’s guilt, the talk is of little elseSat May 04 2019 - 03:13
When does summertime officially begin in Ireland? Try our quiz of the Irish summerWhen did holy statues move? How hot was 1995? What beach was voted Ireland’s best?Fri May 03 2019 - 05:00
We all want a digital detox (right after we check our email)Sign of the Times: Irish people are doing more and more online. We want to switch off but can’tSat Apr 27 2019 - 06:00
Two-thirds of people say Ireland is too politically correctSign of the Times: Survey suggests fear of change as 47% say we are ‘losing Irishness’Sat Apr 27 2019 - 06:00
‘I’m asleep, and she turns up, a bit drunk. We both knew where it was going’I’m listening to two young men doing what we think they are incapable of: having a meaningful conversation about consentSat Apr 27 2019 - 06:00
Lyra McKee’s death should be ‘doorway to a new beginning’The sight of the journalist’s simple wooden coffin was too much for many of her friendsWed Apr 24 2019 - 19:31
‘It’s beyond Brexit. It’s about who governs this country’Thatcher’s hometown of Grantham is awash with anger and dismay at failure to exit EUMon Apr 22 2019 - 01:00
The nine types of people who fly Ryanair. Yes, they include youJennifer O’Connell: Smug about being in the short non-priority queue? You’re type oneSat Apr 20 2019 - 06:00
Long-term relationships: Share your story with usThe Irish Times is looking to speak to couples about their experiencesFri Apr 19 2019 - 09:00
As Notre Dame burned, so too did a part of usJennifer O’Connell: You don’t have to have lived in Paris to have had a visceral reaction to seeing Notre Dame guttedTue Apr 16 2019 - 12:15
Will the day ever come when we stop obsessing about women’s bodies?Kourtney Kardashian’s Poosh is latest attempt to cash in on increasingly lucrative insecurity industrySat Apr 13 2019 - 06:00
Caroline Dwyer awaits justice 10 years after son’s death in BoliviaBereft mother still fighting to prove that Michael's killing unlawful and unjustifiedSat Apr 13 2019 - 01:00
‘No more Mr Nice Guy’ - Farage is back with his Brexit Party and this time he’s Mr AngryEx-Ukip leader promises ‘democratic revolution’ as he launches partyFri Apr 12 2019 - 14:05
Brexit: In ‘Labour Leave’ heartlands, globalisation is the great enemyLocals in the former pit town of Shirebrook are dealing with a changing social fabricThu Apr 11 2019 - 00:43
‘It will be quite overwhelming for him’ - Seán Cox to attend fundraising match‘Let’s just hope we fill the stadium for him,’ says wife MartinaSun Apr 07 2019 - 11:39
Sean Cox: ‘He has missed so many milestones. That kills me,’ says wife MartinaA savage attack outside a Liverpool match in April 2018 changed Sean Cox’s lifeSat Apr 06 2019 - 06:00
The world has been designed by men, for men, and women have had enoughSmartphones too big for women’s hands, seatbelts couldn't have been designed by anyone with breastsSat Apr 06 2019 - 06:00
Facebook’s dirty work in Ireland: ‘I had to watch footage of a person being beaten to death’Irish moderators watch horrific videos so you don’t have to. What does it do to them?Sat Mar 30 2019 - 06:00
Jennifer O'Connell: There’s no cohesive British identity anymore, if there ever was'What is Britain, then?' the American woman asked, stumbling on the toughest existential question of allSat Mar 30 2019 - 06:00
