‘Have you noticed that Eurovision is very popular with gay people?’For once, music and fun takes pride of place ahead of politics in UkraineFri May 12 2017 - 18:07
Irish Eurovision hopes go up, up and away as Murray fails to make finalVocalist, managed by Louis Walsh, says Kiev experience the ‘best 3 minutes of my life’Thu May 11 2017 - 19:37
Eurovision 2017: Bookies say our national disgrace will continue in tonight's semi-finalPatrick Freyne: The odds are not looking good that 'sweet-voiced infant balloonist' Brendan Murray will make it to the finalThu May 11 2017 - 12:35
Brendan Murray: Boy in a balloon chasing the Eurovision bubbleThe 20-year-old hopes to rise above the competition in the second semi-final in KievWed May 10 2017 - 18:55
Patrick Freyne on Eurovision 2017: Kiev locals on ‘cleaning the past’‘Eurovision is just entertainment, but it is important. It shows life is almost as usual’Tue May 09 2017 - 21:13
Eurovision 2017: more than Pride at stake for KievAs a gay activist, Zoryan Kis knows how dangerous life can be in UkraineMon May 08 2017 - 13:34
Daniel O’Donnell: ‘I’m cleverer than people think’Patrick Freyne meets the singer and the fans who would ‘smother their mother’ for himSat Apr 22 2017 - 06:00
I’m sick of stupid TV shows - the ad breaks are so much more meaningfulYou can learn a lot reading between the lines during the telly ad breaksThu Apr 20 2017 - 16:39
Dr Who is back in our dimension, and he’s hiring. Quick, somebody call HRThe Doctor encounters a cosmic puddle in need of help – and then the Daleks roll upSun Apr 16 2017 - 20:47
Serving Ronnie Drew fake G&Ts on Good FridayFormer owner of O’Donoghue’s pub Dessie Hynes recalls other Good FridaysFri Apr 14 2017 - 01:00
Eurovision’s political scandals – From Franco to Syrian flagsRussia and Ukraine are not the only countries with form when it comes to Eurovision controveryWed Apr 05 2017 - 14:35
Dragon’s Den is not the fire-breathing, wad-waving wealthfest it used to beNowadays, it has all the pizzazz of a business studies course and could be plausibly renamed Rich People Doing SumsWed Apr 05 2017 - 13:37
‘When I was cold I’d go into churches and betting shops for hours to stay warm’Homeless musician Danny Bracken to join stars for Rock Against HomelessnessFri Mar 31 2017 - 06:00
Why Rock Against Homelessness mattersOf Ireland’s more than 7,000 homeless people about one-third are childrenFri Mar 31 2017 - 06:00
'I laughed out loud at Mrs Brown's chat show. In The Irish Times. Near where Fintan sits'All Round to Mrs Brown's is the kind of programme it's possible to love and hate at the same timeWed Mar 29 2017 - 22:37
Piers Morgan meets Nigel Farage? ‘Oh God, it’s too much’Patrick Freyne: Zippy flaps his muppety head in rage when George brings up UKIP’s racist and homophobic viewsTue Mar 21 2017 - 22:22
‘Julia does things differently’: Sesame Street’s muppet with autismThrough new character, children will learn not to be frightened by certain behaviourMon Mar 20 2017 - 13:20
Who wants to live forever? Transhumanism’s promise of eternal lifeMark O’Connell has spent several years talking to people who want to live through robots and technology, and he admits it stems from his own obsession with deathSat Mar 18 2017 - 05:00
Wounds do not always heal easily, Casey mourners toldFormer bishop’s good works remembered before burial in Galway cathedral cryptThu Mar 16 2017 - 20:12
I tick ‘eejit’ on my Don’t Tell the Bride bingo cardPatrick Freyne: Who thinks getting married in Ikea is a good idea? This groom-to-be does...Tue Mar 14 2017 - 13:00
Fake Ryan Gosling picks up German film award in prankA less-than-convincing Gosling ‘lookalike’ accepted an award for La La Land. Germany was not amusedThu Mar 09 2017 - 13:30
Daniel and Majella ‘test the bed’: this is erotica Irish-styleMajella and Daniel O’Donnell’s B&B Road Trip has returned, this time on RTÉTue Mar 07 2017 - 20:55
Strikes, readings and feminised pedestrian lights – all for Women’s DayThere are music and comedy events, a march and a strike in Ireland on International Women’s DayTue Mar 07 2017 - 14:45
‘We can’t make Ireland great again, because it was always sh*t’Populism – the set of ideologies that has given the world Donald Trump, Brexit and Marine Le Pen – has transformed the politics of many countries. Could Ireland be next?Sat Mar 04 2017 - 06:00
'The creators of 1066 are clearly worried history is boring. They are taking no risks'From Dan Snow in 1066 to the Nazis in SSGB and beyond – say ’Allo ’Allo to the history of Great Britain in five TV showsWed Mar 01 2017 - 16:28
Can I be drunk at work? And if not, how can they tell?Workplaces are less tolerant of drinking, but it is hard to prove an employee is intoxicatedFri Feb 24 2017 - 16:00
‘Girls’ returns: less important, more enjoyable, just as funnyLena Dunham’s Girls, complete with uneroticised nudity, awkward sex and millennial angst, is backWed Feb 22 2017 - 11:32
‘I thought I wasn’t a lovable child’: the life of a care-system kidSix people who grew up in State care in Ireland talk about the challenges of their childhoods and early-adult livesSat Feb 18 2017 - 06:00
Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook manifesto – we read between the linesPatrick Freyne’s alternative reading of Mark Zuckerberg’s 5,700-word Facebook post – aka his MarknifestoFri Feb 17 2017 - 13:00
24: Legacy review: 'I knew it!' shouts Donald Trump. 'Get me Eric Carter on the phone'Missed the return of the ludicrous real-time, terrorist-chasing torture romp? Here is Patrick Freyne’s breathless minute-by-minute recapWed Feb 15 2017 - 22:43
In Trump's lair, everything is gold, except of course Steve Bannon’s sarcophagusPatrick Freyne enters the parallel universe of the US president via TV3’s bizarre TV special ‘Trump in His Own Words’Thu Feb 09 2017 - 11:05
Behind the scenes at Gogglebox: ‘It’s a terrible idea that really shouldn’t work’Patrick Freyne spends a day on the set of the hit fly-on-the-wall series, to see what makes it tickWed Feb 08 2017 - 05:00
John Boyne: ‘Irish writers are too insular’The prolific novelist tells Patrick Freyne about being gay in pre-marriage referendum Ireland – and how the success of ‘The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas’ changed his lifeSat Feb 04 2017 - 05:55
'He went to jail at 17 for driving without tax and picked up heroin'Drug deaths: Almost all the families at a commemoration in Dublin have lost loved ones to drugsSat Feb 04 2017 - 01:00
Room to Improve review: In Ireland we circle Ikea like it’s Lough Derg; this is our massWhen I hear 'a decade of Room to Improve' I picture devout families kneeling around the TVSun Jan 29 2017 - 22:35
Patrick Freyne: Tom Hardy’s mumbling Trustafarian hipster is the ultimate TabooTaboo’s a complicated man and nobody understands him but his woman, who’s also his sister. Herself is up to her old tricks. And Code Black is jumping the shark bitesWed Jan 25 2017 - 12:10
‘Trump is sexiest not sexist’ and other alternative alt-factsKellyanne Conway and Sean Spicer from Trump’s inner circle are full of “alternative facts”. Patrick Freyne lists a few moreMon Jan 23 2017 - 13:55
Presidential inaugurations: from top hats to fears of assassinationPatrick Freyne looks at how US presidents have been sworn in across the centuriesThu Jan 19 2017 - 23:00
Homeland review: necessary escapism as we succumb to the coming darknessHomeland has returned but thanks to a certain president-elect, reality is making its political fictions seem a bit quaintWed Jan 18 2017 - 09:02
Brendan Courtney: 'There was a big box of Kleenex, we all watched together bawling'Designer talks about documentary 'We Need to Talk About Dad' which highlighted 'anger' over Fair Deal schemeTue Jan 17 2017 - 13:00
When did businesspeople become such hippies?At Frankie Sheahan’s summit in Dublin, thousands of people in suits pay hundreds of euro to empower themselvesFri Jan 13 2017 - 13:00
Big Brother’s Jedward represent a new stage in celebrity evolutionAs they make a mockery of the other contestants in the Big Brother house, I find my heart swelling with national prideWed Jan 11 2017 - 14:10
Patrick Freyne: Will 2017 be the year television finally fulfils its destiny?From the end of childhood (and possibly RTÉ) to the terrible hatching of a glowing orange homunculus, television is going to be great in 2017Wed Dec 28 2016 - 06:20
The Brexit diaries: Patrick Freyne’s travels in 2016 BritainThe week the United Kingdom voted for Brexit in June 2016, our reporter travelled from Wales to London, talking to voters. Here are his ‘Brexit diaries’ articles in fullMon Dec 26 2016 - 06:00
'Irish people largely see history as a detective story, not a tribal religion'Culture review 2016: Misogyny, classism and racism were all still evident on our television screensSat Dec 24 2016 - 05:00
Patrick Freyne: The queen’s 90th birthday party was every bit as bizarre as you would expect2016 Revisited: Behold the queen’s televised birthday bash, held in an enclosed section of her favourite garden, Britain, and featuring all of her favourite subjectsTue Dec 20 2016 - 15:53
A day in a hospice: ‘Will I last until Christmas?’There are many kinds of patients at Our Lady’s Hospice. Some have their funerals all planned. Others are in ‘absolute denial’. And all want to make the most of their last daysSat Dec 17 2016 - 06:00
Patrick Freyne: The 19 biggest TV moments of 2016It was a year of extraordinary events, shock departures, even more shocking arrivals, and loads of stuff that just wasn’t funny - who says TV isn’t just like reality?Wed Dec 14 2016 - 14:59
Do you see danger everywhere? Well you should, says Docter Noel ZonePatrick Freyne nabs a rare interview with the famous dangerologist. His advice for a safe season? ‘Make sure your Christmas stocking isn’t an actual giant’s sock. They may come back to get it’Mon Dec 12 2016 - 06:00
Punched and kicked while pregnant: when violence is ‘part of the job’As workers at a child-detention centre prepare to strike, social care workers describe the attacks and trauma that are seen as ‘part of their job’Sat Dec 10 2016 - 06:00
