The making of Home School Hub: ‘Probably one of the best things I’ve ever done’Makers and múinteoirí of RTÉ’s homeschool programme on teaching through the pandemicSat Jan 30 2021 - 06:00
Ireland’s Fittest Family: Hanging from a log suspended over a filthy trench. Perfect metaphor for 2021Patrick Freyne: Are we not all, in a very real way, clinging on for dear life during lockdown?Fri Jan 29 2021 - 05:00
Blindboy Boatclub: ‘I had the choice of being a psychotherapist or a mad bastard’Mask-wearing podcaster and author is first guest at the Irish Times Winter Nights FestivalMon Jan 25 2021 - 21:30
Ireland’s mental health pandemic: From crisis to emergencyA ‘tsunami of mental health need’ will follow Covid-19. The already inadequate system will struggle to copeSat Jan 23 2021 - 06:00
In Bling Empire people hang out of cars with their shirts off. Big deal. I did that in NewbridgePatrick Freyne: Netflix’s hit takes two random words and reverse-engineers a show from the resultFri Jan 22 2021 - 05:00
Pulling with My Parents: It’s sweet to see people discussing Tinder filth with their folksPatrick Freyne: The RTÉ dating show will have Sigmund Freud weeping in hellFri Jan 15 2021 - 05:00
Patrick Freyne’s TV of 2021: More Sally Rooney ridey stuff and a return to Middle EarthSmall-screen highlights in case telly remains as important as it was last yearFri Jan 08 2021 - 05:00
Patrick Freyne’s favourite art: Things that should be trash but are actually brilliantZ Nation, The Monkees, Buffy and 2000AD are fine examples of brilliance by stealthTue Jan 05 2021 - 05:00
Phil Lynott: ‘I didn’t know how shy he was, how awkward, and scared of rejection’In Songs for While I’m Away, Emer Reynolds shows the Thin Lizzy star in a new lightSat Dec 26 2020 - 05:00
Covid heroes: ‘We don’t need to change the world, just to change someone’s world for 10 minutes’Meet the people who have made a big difference to others in this strange, tough coronavirus yearSat Dec 19 2020 - 06:00
Patrick Freyne’s TV moments of 2020: I've replaced my college memories with Normal PeopleIn a year when TV had a lot of heavy lifting to do, let's celebrate some small screen highlightsFri Dec 18 2020 - 12:22
Weirdest term ever: How students have coped, from primary to third levelPupils and students around Ireland, and their teachers, on learning in Covid-19’s shadowSat Dec 12 2020 - 06:00
School during Covid-19: ‘Keeping all the windows open, you’re freezing’Gorey Community School students and staff on managing exams, masks and ‘Covid police’Sat Dec 12 2020 - 06:00
Moore Street 46 years on: Within two weeks I knew everyone’s name in those photographsMichael Foley uploaded beautiful old photos of Moore Street fruit and veg traders and their customers to Facebook in 2019Sat Dec 12 2020 - 00:00
Did you know Last Christmas used to be called Stephen’s Day Is a Bit Sh*t?Wham, Shaky v Noddy, Chris Rea v traffic: Patrick Freyne analyses some Christmas classicsFri Dec 11 2020 - 05:00
The Age of Static: Can we really understand a country by its TV?Book review: Phil Harrison’s zippy analysis needs to make a more robust argument about BritainThu Dec 10 2020 - 06:00
Dolly Parton created the Covid vaccine and Jolene, for God’s sake. What can’t she do?Patrick Freyne: Dolly Parton’s Christmas on the Square just has to be authentic. SurelyFri Dec 04 2020 - 05:00
Covid’s silver lining: How Ireland has fallen headlong in love with its petsDogs Trust and DSPCA report a huge jump in rehoming inquiries during the pandemicSun Nov 29 2020 - 06:00
Patrick Freyne: Apparently it’s normal for royals to go riding all over the placeVanessa Hudgens reswaps relationships in The Princess Switch: Switched AgainFri Nov 27 2020 - 05:00
Patrick Freyne on Christmas ads: ‘No one belongs on the naughty list.’ This should be big newsTesco abolishes the rule of law, and the grotesque yuletide freak Kevin the Carrot is backTue Nov 24 2020 - 06:00
Before you buy an e-scooter for Christmas, read thisSales have soared as we seek alternatives to public transport. Pity they’re illegalSat Nov 21 2020 - 06:00
Patrick Freyne: Ant and Dec will always be with us, like poverty and Fianna FáilOnce we wanted our celebs glamorous. Now we want them crying on I’m a CelebrityFri Nov 20 2020 - 05:00
John Lewis Christmas ad: I’m not crying but...Patrick Freyne: There’s nude pigeons, flying snow people, heart-shaped haircuts – and a broken time-space continuumFri Nov 13 2020 - 13:00
Patrick Freyne: Nigella Lawson is not a chef, she's a food playwrightHere's the thing, herbs and spices are costumes. Rice and pasta are ‘extras’. Bowls and plates are sets. Chicken is the lead characterFri Nov 13 2020 - 05:00
Patrick Freyne: Wild Mountain Thyme and my all-time favourite Oirish filmsHere’s seven of the best Oirish films including a soulful hunky IRA man, and a corned beef and cabbage plotThu Nov 12 2020 - 13:40
Ray D’Arcy: ‘My dad was in the Army, had nine kids and drank a lot’The broadcaster says his working-class roots make him crave security and fear failureSat Nov 07 2020 - 06:00
Patrick Freyne: Pooing in a bucket? That’s the whole point of the showA more apt title for new reality show Don’t Rock the Boat would be Celebrity S**t in a BucketFri Nov 06 2020 - 09:43
Million Pound Cube: The answer to fast cash before Britain collapses into a barter systemPatrick Freyne: it’s amazing how mundane tasks can be enlivened by a time limit and dramatic musicFri Oct 30 2020 - 07:35
Dermot Bannon: ‘I used to win Lego competitions ... but I lied about my age’The TV presenter on his first steps in architecture and new series of Incredible HomesSun Oct 25 2020 - 05:00
Emily in Paris: If it was Dublin, she’d be shifting Colm Meaney in the Leprechaun MuseumPatrick Freyne: Frenchies are depicted as smelly, sex-obsessed, work-shy and nudeFri Oct 23 2020 - 05:30
Patrick Freyne: Twink connects with the birds, not just the incontinent cockatiel on her shoulderAdele King, with an actual cockatiel on her shoulder and a terrier called Teddy Bear, lodges with Lucy KennedyFri Oct 16 2020 - 07:30
Roddy Doyle: ‘My unpublished first novel was sh*te’He knew this because, when he started writing The Commitments, he knew it was goodSat Oct 10 2020 - 06:05
The BBC still rues the day Jeremy Clarkson hit an IrishmanPatrick Freyne: Freddie Flintoff and the Top Gear presenters still feel like they’re on an awkward team building weekendFri Oct 09 2020 - 09:30
‘We are really talking about assisted suicide’: Four views on a sensitive subjectThe public view on this controversial issue seems to be changing. But should the law?Sat Oct 03 2020 - 05:30
Great British Bake Off: wacky Matt Lucas joins wacky Noel Fielding. It’s terrifyingPatrick Freyne: Paul Hollywood has emerged from slumber and is hungry for power – and cakesFri Oct 02 2020 - 05:00
Michael Harding: ‘Do I know anything? Very f**king little’The author on the poetry of religion and the heart attack that gave him a liftSat Sept 26 2020 - 06:00
‘This image of a man tarred and feathered, driving a train out of rage, just haunted me’Deirdre Kinahan on her site-specific play about the 1920 munitions strikeSat Sept 26 2020 - 05:00
Fiona Bruce in a Spitfire is a Brexiteer’s fever dreamPatrick Freyne: Antiques Roadshow delves in second World War jingoism while cats plan our demiseFri Sept 18 2020 - 05:00
Mary Berry’s food filth shouldn’t be aired before the watershedPatrick Freyne: What constitutes a ‘simple comfort’ in Mary Berry’s world?Fri Sept 11 2020 - 07:30
People who work together are often deep in steamy lust, on TV at leastPatrick Freyne: Luckily, JK Rowling’s smouldering detective and sidekick are distracted by a new caseFri Sept 04 2020 - 05:00
Live music without mind-altering chemicals? Crazy notionThe rock music industry has long doubled as an efficient alcohol distribution mechanismWed Sept 02 2020 - 06:13
‘There’s this magical performance that’s nothing to do with drugs’As he retires, Mick Egan looks back at 30 years working with addicts in art and dramaWed Sept 02 2020 - 05:00
Mary Coughlan: ‘32 times I ended up in hospital with alcohol poisoning’Through addiction, infidelity and other life struggles, music was her constant escapeSat Aug 29 2020 - 06:00
Witness protection, Irish-style: ‘There’s a 70 per cent chance I’ll die with a bullet in my head’Joseph O’Callaghan fears being shot, but he doesn’t regret testifying in a murder caseSat Aug 29 2020 - 06:00
We Irish are the best at having a property boom – or are we?BBC’s Manctopia suggests socially destructive real estate speculation isn’t unique to IrelandWed Aug 19 2020 - 13:25
Lovecraft Country: American TV shows its true colours. And it’s exhilaratingRacist sheriffs, not tentacled beasts, provide the real scares in this take on Jim Crow’s USTue Aug 18 2020 - 10:55
GAA in Ballymun: The whole team were called ‘scumbags’ by grown adultsSorcha Glackin’s moving film about Ballymun Kickhams is a story of belonging and kindnessThu Aug 13 2020 - 23:15
Maura Higgins: ‘I really hated it. Apart from that massage, the rest of it can kiss my ass’Maura Higgins: You’re Joking Me! takes the former Love Islander out of her comfort zoneMon Aug 10 2020 - 22:00
Kathryn Thomas goes staycationing just as new travel restrictions come inTV review: The RTÉ host is like the Ghost of Holiday Plans Past in No Place Like HomeMon Aug 10 2020 - 14:42
How Seán the enchanted-cauldron keeper herded all the wild Connells of MeathTV review: Patrick Freyne sets the scene for RTÉ’s film about the GAA boss Seán BoylanThu Aug 06 2020 - 23:15
