Why do religious people tend to have more children? Because they value different things
It would be unwise to pin our hopes on a religious revival saving our declining fertility. We could, however, encourage more supportive attitudes towards those who have faith, and those who want to have more children
Big tech is bullying teachers into premature adoption of AI. We need to slow down
Most of the Irish debate concerns potential for cheating in the assessment components of new senior cycle. Why are widespread calls for a delay being ignored?
The school’s electricity bill was €3,000 – and some of that was during the holidays
Thirty principals recently published a list of circumstances faced by their students. It includes a parent in prison, suicide in families, neglect of every conceivable kind
Nicole Kidman’s Babygirl isn’t the ‘hottest film this year’. It might be among the most depressing
How did we get here, where a successful woman’s deepest desire is to lick milk from a saucer on the floor under orders from her intern?
As UK grapples with Elon Musk’s interventions, there’s no room for complacency here on child protection
A 2023 study found that young people in State care, particularly girls, were being targeted by older men who plied them with gifts, drink and drugs and then exploited them sexually
Jimmy Carter went to Mass in Waterford in 1995 - a sign of a deep faith that was often overlooked
It is impossible to understand the former US president without taking seriously his faith, which underpinned his whole life, both public and private
Don’t be so cynical. It’s bad for your health
Cynics suffer more depression, drink more heavily, earn less money and die younger; hope is what helps us endure
It’s a pity more of us don’t identify with Scrooge, the skinflint who was capable of change
If even Ebenezer Scrooge can change, perhaps there is hope for the rest of us and for our planet
Norma Foley’s approach to AI in the classroom is breathtakingly naive
There is no incentive for students to admit to using AI and every incentive to cheat, while teachers have been woefully underprepared for a revolution likened to Gutenberg’s printing press
Instead of talking about assisted dying, we should prioritise palliative care
Rather than foist assisted suicide on healthcare professionals who don’t want it, why don’t we do something progressive?
Forget Bluesky and pre-Musk Twitter. Friendship is the only true antidote to polarisation
It is less easy to hate someone with baffling ideas when you know and like them as a person
Opposition to abortion is seen as a position of the right, but it’s not that simple
By embracing abortion in the 1970s, feminism accepted that pregnancy is damaging to women’s lives, rather than something fundamental to human experience
The principal can’t sleep for worrying. If she paid all the bills on her desk, she couldn’t open the school
The top five costs for schools have nothing to do with education but just keeping the buildings heated, lighted, clean, safe and insured. And they’re increasingly unsustainable
Covid-19 left deep scars in Irish society. Those whose lives were lost or upended deserve better
People need, want and deserve a proper accounting of the successes and failures of the handling of the pandemic
Men are suffering a crisis of meaning. And some are finding answers in orthodox religion
While being young and female is still no picnic, young men are struggling in multiple ways