Selfie, word of 2013, sums up our age of narcissismIt’s hard to think of a more appropriate symbol of kind of society we've becomeWed Dec 11 2013 - 09:49
Disrupting the pink aisle? Not quite, GoldieBloxDisney’s ‘Frozen’ and the girls’ toy GoldieBlox are really just clever marketing ploys by companies promising that they take gender equality seriouslyWed Dec 04 2013 - 12:34
Having my kids arrested was the best €20 I ever spentWe are raising a generation of super-confident, cosseted monstersWed Nov 27 2013 - 07:38
At last a bit of honesty about the post-birth bodyHurrah for Lily Allen and the video for her new single, a witty riposte to our ridiculous standards for women’s bodiesWed Nov 20 2013 - 01:00
Season’s eatings: an Australian obsession we could all learn fromAustralia has won me over with its evangelical dedication to buying fresh, local produce when it is in seasonWed Nov 13 2013 - 01:00
Lost in translation: How to sound the business when you don’t know what you’re talking aboutA beginner’s guide to business jargonTue Nov 12 2013 - 00:30
Down Under diariesAlmost 80,000 Irish people have moved to Australia since 2008. Has it lived up to their expectations? And will they come back?Sat Nov 09 2013 - 01:00
‘Parent’: from noun, to verb, to competitionHaving children, successive studies have found, doesn’t make you any happier – and can actually make you less happyWed Nov 06 2013 - 15:16
Cultural hang-ups about food are making us fatterStories about babies being fed blended McDonald’s make the rest of us feel better – but the truth about obesity is much more complexWed Oct 30 2013 - 07:09
Australian bush fires: what turns a child into a ‘firebug’?This week’s arrests suggest that better education on fire hazards for schoolchildren should be part of any future bush-fire prevention planWed Oct 23 2013 - 01:00
The Nobel committee was right not to choose MalalaFor all her intelligence, the girl who was shot by the Taliban is still just 16 and recovering from a life-threatening injuryWed Oct 16 2013 - 01:00
The bra: 100 years old and holding up wellThe bra has always had a cultural significance that goes far beyond its purpose as, in the immortal words of Bette Midler, ‘an over-the-shoulder-boulder-holder’Wed Oct 09 2013 - 10:06
The White Widow is the new Black WidowSamantha Lewthwaite is the latest example of the media’s desire to iconicise women accused of involvement in violent crimeWed Oct 02 2013 - 01:00
Society is obsessed with presexualised girlsIreland has a history of moral panics about female sexuality, but we’re not the only ones in a tizz about child beauty pageantsWed Sept 25 2013 - 01:00
Australia’s new Irish aren’t ‘victims of emigration’Emigration is an emotive term, burdened down by memories of food parcels, one-way tickets in steerage and long-lost uncles. But it’s not always a tragedyWed Sept 18 2013 - 01:00
A ‘bullsh*t job’ is better than no job at allAnthropologist believes ruling class ‘has figured out that a happy and productive population with free time on its hands is a mortal danger’Wed Sept 11 2013 - 01:00
Ghost of Gillard haunts Australian politicsTo those outside Australia, that nation’s first female prime minister is an iconic figure. To Australians, she seemed cold, shrill and a bit dourWed Sept 04 2013 - 01:00
Goodbye anonymity: let’s unmask the internetThe Huffington Post’s aim to validate the identity of every new user is ambitious, and it may not succeed – but it is right to tryWed Aug 28 2013 - 01:00
Men are being done a disservice by society’s paedophilia paranoiaBelieving a sexual predator lurks behind every tree is neither healthy nor commendableWed Aug 21 2013 - 01:00
Vomit and flying fists? Doesn’t sound like an Irish pub to meAustralia’s Irish bars have been getting a bad rap. But on a recent crawl in Sydney, from the Cock’n’Bull, in Bondi Junction, to PJ O’Brien’s and Scruffy Murphy’s, in the central business district, the most frightening thing was a sticky floorSat Aug 17 2013 - 01:00
Don’t ban the internet. Educate your kidsChildren need to be taught, as early as possible, about the consequences that can spiral from an anonymous, 140-character tweetWed Aug 14 2013 - 01:00
Time for a rethink among advertising’s blue bloods. PeriodAn upfront ad for a tampon delivery service shows that audiences aren't as prudish as they're imagined to beSat Aug 10 2013 - 01:00
How I furnished my house for nothingBar stools, unused Ikea furniture, Casio keyboards: Australia is a scavenger’s paradiseWed Aug 07 2013 - 01:00
Clutter no more: packing in the habit of outrageous consumptionAs I up sticks for Sydney, I am on a quest to unburden myself of the tyranny of stuffWed Jul 31 2013 - 01:00
Temple Bar: still more Magaluf than Left BankI broke a golden rule recently: do not set foot in Dublin’s ‘cultural quarter’ after 6pmWed Jul 24 2013 - 01:00
Give me a stay-at-home dad over a Master of the Universe any dayWe want women to shirk prescribed gender stereotypes, but we’re much less keen on men doing itWed Jul 17 2013 - 01:00
Women aren’t funny? Don’t make me laughOnly five of the 57 acts at next month’s Vodafone Comedy Festival, in Dublin, are women. Perhaps that’s because women are being funny in ways that don’t always rely on stand-upSat Jun 29 2013 - 01:00
Whoops! Forgot to have a baby in your twenties? Don’t panic yetIt seems those dire warnings about the ‘fertility cliff’ we topple over at age 35 are based on 300-year-old dataWed Jun 26 2013 - 01:00
When it comes to domestic abuse, we’re each just a raised fist away from being the typical victimThe pictures of Charles Saatchi and Nigella Lawson were disturbing. But so too was the public rush to judgmentWed Jun 19 2013 - 06:00
Forget Prism and the National Security Agency. The real threat to your privacy is youIt took the rest of us the entire history of the human race to decide our social norms – and Mark Zuckerberg just a few hours to toss them asideWed Jun 12 2013 - 01:00
I didn’t have a ‘drink problem’, but I had a problem with the way I was drinkingA combination of moments have made me tackle my alcohol intakeWed Jun 05 2013 - 01:00
No place like home‘Kandahar’ star Nelofer Pazira will be in Dublin soon to share her experiences in AfghanistanTue Jun 04 2013 - 01:00
If it doesn’t have anything to do with swimwear, don’t use a bikini to promote itIf the fact that we are still using women’s bodies to sell stuff in 2013 is some brilliant postmodern gag, I don’t get itWed May 29 2013 - 01:00
We must beware of overreacting on the childcare issueOpinion: Outsourcing the care of children can be a fraught and guilt-ridden affairMon May 27 2013 - 01:00
Enough of the fuzzy euphemisms. It’s time for a grown-up conversation about breast cancerDespite being awash in pink ribbons, we’re no better informed about risk reductionWed May 22 2013 - 01:00
Turning marriage-sceptic Merida into Celtic Barbie was not a brave move, DisneyFemale characters are still sidelined, stereotyped, and sexualised in movies and popular culture. Merida was the exceptionWed May 15 2013 - 02:00
Point, click, swoosh, ping: why multitasking is making us all mindlessResearchers gave students 15 minutes to read some coursework. On average, they lasted two minutes before checking Facebook. I know how they feelWed May 08 2013 - 07:00
Facebook and us? It’s complicatedUsers seem to be falling out of love with the social networking service, perhaps because it leaves many people feeling as if the party’s always happening somewhere elseSat May 04 2013 - 06:00
Yes, Amanda Knox was guilty. Guilty of being naive and guilty of liking sexOur obsession with ‘Foxy Knoxy’ says more about us than it does about herWed May 01 2013 - 07:00
You know those tear-jerking Dove ads? They don’t wash with meAn online advertising campaign wants to show that women are too self-critical – but why is beauty seen as so important?Sat Apr 27 2013 - 06:00
Forcing suicidal pregnant women to prove they are serious is cruel and dangerousThe last thing you do when faced with someone who is suicidal is make them prove they’re seriousWed Apr 24 2013 - 07:00
Watching the Boston bombings on Facebook and Twitter plays tricks on usNon-stop news and social-media coverage plays into the hands of those behind such attacksWed Apr 17 2013 - 07:00
I became one of those parents I used to read about and sniggerGetting a school place was a cinch. We just unrolled our sleeping bags and queued outside at dawnWed Apr 10 2013 - 06:00
Women’s jobs are not luxuries to be ditched along with the second holidayForty years on, Government ideology still sees men as breadwinnersWed Apr 03 2013 - 06:00
