My dog died two months ago and the gap he has left in all our lives is unfathomable
John Deane-O’Keefe: Forensic criminologist and author on his middle name and his Basil Fawlty-like anger issues
Weekend
Stories that appear in the Weekend section of The Irish Times print edition
The trouble with the Deposit Return Scheme: ‘They’re sitting on a pile of unclaimed deposits’
As Irish households get used to retaining empty receptacles, smaller producers raise concerns about the workload
Sometimes we should be unreasonable – it allows in sorrow, hope and joy
The word ‘reason’, like ‘natural’ and ‘common sense’, often alerts us to a hidden agenda
Irish people tend to underestimate impact of meat-free diet on our carbon footprint
How much time we spend talking about climate change measures may be key to better understanding
56 Days author Catherine Ryan Howard: ‘The premiere of the Amazon show ‘was just pure joy’
Prior to streaming, the trailer for Amazon Prime’s adaptation of Ryan Howard’s novel 56 Days had more than 78m views. It’s a ‘fever dream’ for her
Irish in America: ‘I carry my US passport, use a burner phone and have an escape plan’
Legal Irish-born immigrants still live with an underlying sense of fear as Ice increases the scope of its raids
Performative grief: Chappell Roan and Apple Martin learned the hard way about overblown sorrow
As people feel the need to pay social media tribute when a celebrity dies it’s impossible not to feel that the idea of sombre remembrance has been corrupted
Castle Leslie: A divided estate, a nightclub, a ‘hippie colony’ and now a thriving hotel
The estate, which runs alongside the Border in Co Monaghan, has borne the Leslie name for 400 years and is ‘part and parcel of the community’
Is this swan’s discolouration a Suir thing?
Éanna Ní Lamhna replies to readers’ questions and observations
Ireland’s low urban population has left us with a problem of extreme commuting
As Clare and Tipperary people know, Ireland has become a country of sprawl, of suburbs creeping into countryside and towns and villages choked with traffic
Ireland’s aspen may not be as lonely as feared, but it is overlooked and under pressure
With this native tree threatened by overgrazing, experts have set up a clone bank in Co Wexford
Irish grandmother detained by Ice: ‘If I am the worst of the worst then America has a bigger problem than it thinks’
Donna Hughes Brown was detained by Ice officials at Chicago airport when returning home from Ireland last July. Now she has a list of people she is fighting for
What are the latest developments with proposed new social media laws?
Government has already announced trial of ‘digital wallet’ age verification mechanism for accessing platforms
Nervously tracking my son’s flight I realise the freedom in embracing not knowing
In most situations, data promotes safety only when someone knows what to do about it
Lent offers a chance to develop a habit good for your pocket and for the planet
With food prices escalating as they are, freezing eggs for a year could even be an act of financial hedging
It was an era of body-moralising in Ireland, when obesity was a personal failure
In a culture that treats bodies as projects to be improved, the idea of simply caring for them feels almost radical
Soprano Celine Byrne: ‘I’m very good at masking my feelings for the sake of somebody else’
The Irish singer on her happiest times, being haunted by memories of working on the bog, and how the death of her father changed her
Mary Black: ‘It’s beginning to sink in, this goodbye is a bigger deal than I thought’
It’s the last Irish tour and the end of an era for the national treasure as she prepares to take her final bow
Online dating at midlife: ‘He wanted me to drive from north Dublin to Wicklow for sex at 2am’
As people in Ireland settle down later than ever, more people in their 40s and 50s are turning to apps to find love online
Multilingual families: ‘Many still feel pressure to leave parts of themselves at the door’
More than 70 languages are spoken in Ireland and the Mother Tongues festival is helping pass them on to the next generation
Haughey, Streep and the Queen of Tory: Donegal photographer hangs up his camera after four decades
Four-hundred photographs from veteran photojournalist Declan Doherty are on exhibition in Donegal
Is climate change responsible for this sighting of a butterfly in winter?
Eye on Nature: Éanna Ní Lamhna on a migrant insect, a native dipper, and a toothy-looking animal horn
The lichen test: what these colonies tell us about the health of a habitat
Lichens can survive nearly everything - even long periods in outer space - but pollution will kill them
What’s happening with the basic income for artists scheme?
An artist’s alliance says changes to the pilot scheme are causing ‘enormous distress’ among current recipients
The Irish banking system is not working – and that rarely ends well
Economies grow when banks lend money, but ours have become glorified safe deposit boxes
Standing in the shampoo aisle I wondered, which one just makes your hair clean?
Choosing from a menu of deficits for your hair, skin and body is not freedom
Good vibes payoff: Chase that helper’s high with a beach clean up
The #2MinuteBeachClean is a simple idea – take just two minutes to pick up litter when at the beach
‘He said: Next time you come we’ll be telling you you have breast cancer. Bring someone with you’
For Fianna Fáil senator Teresa Costello, early diagnosis of her breast cancer may have been ‘the difference between life and death’
I remember reading my documents for the first time. The tortuous twists and turns of my early life
Paul Cullen: I have always known I was adopted, but my early years – unrecorded, unremembered – were one big void
Deirdre Masterson: I was gutted to miss out on a chance to sing alongside Pavarotti
Award-winning Irish soprano on her two middle names, her happiest times and her biggest career regret
‘I was sleeping in a tent’: German man who ran away to Clare aged 14
Michael Denninger used money from his confirmation to travel from Coburg to Clare in 1980
Saved by a stranger: The 100-year-old Irish man in London
Michael Hopkins was let down by the Irish system as a child and the British system as an elderly bachelor. Then he met a photographer at a bus stop
Imbolc & Brigid at Uisneach: a celebration of the first signs of spring at Ireland’s sacred centre
At a ring fort, St Brigid crosses sway in an ancient tree and guides share stories of Imbolc, healing and renewal
Environmental breakdown isn’t a distant possibility – it’s a threat to world stability
The message is clear: climate change should be prioritised as a security crisis, not just an environmental one
Crosswords & Puzzles
Crosswords & puzzles to keep you challenged and entertained
Common Ground
How does a post-Brexit world shape the identity and relationship of these islands
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