New Minister, new approachDo you pay any attention to what is said at teacher conferences? Teacher conferences are hard to overlook, because they generally…Tue Mar 29 2005 - 01:00
Time for parents to condemn on-line teacher ratingTeaching Matters: The reaction among second-level teachers to www.ratemyteachers.ie has been mixedTue Mar 22 2005 - 00:00
You are nobody until somebody knows youThe fact that St Patrick's Day and Holy Week fall so close together this year set me to musing about Irishness, which is not …Sat Mar 19 2005 - 00:00
Do we really need to know why Grandma is smiling so broadly?A new film has been released, sub-titled The Waltons do Sex ResearchSat Mar 12 2005 - 00:00
97% of abuse in Ireland carried out by laityRaymond Noctor was awarded €370,000 in damages by the High Court, as a result of having been physically and sexually abused in…Sat Mar 05 2005 - 00:00
Too much, too young for school students who work?Teaching matters: Some time ago in a bookshop, I overheard a very young woman with an accent like Ross O'Carroll-Kelly's younger…Tue Mar 01 2005 - 00:00
Irish people need to give themselves a breakWhen I foolishly mentioned to a friend that I was thinking about writing about work-life balance, she raised a perfectly plucked…Sat Feb 26 2005 - 00:00
Marriage still the best place to rear childrenI have come to the conclusion that there are two types of opinion columnistsSat Feb 19 2005 - 00:00
Core issue of parenting still not addressedSome years ago, I felt that the debate on abortion in this country had become so bitter and polarised as to be almost entirely…Sat Feb 12 2005 - 00:00
Outrage is no response to unpalatable truthA Catholic man sent me an email recently recounting an experience he had in the Bogside in 1969Sat Feb 05 2005 - 00:00
Broken promises are costing teachers dearlyJust imagine your employer owes you thousands in back pay, or even tens of thousandsTue Jan 18 2005 - 00:00
Keeping the faith in the face of a disasterWhere is God when a tsunami strikes? The question has been addressed in recent times articulately and passionately by Patsy McGarry…Sat Jan 08 2005 - 00:00
After the storm: Helping ASTI to help itselfTeaching Matters: Anita Roddick once memorably said that her company's refusal to recognise trade unions was justified, because…Tue Nov 30 2004 - 00:00
Teaching Council could provide what we've been waiting forTeaching Matters : To my shame, I have to confess that I had paid little attention to the advent of the Teaching CouncilTue Nov 09 2004 - 00:00
A secondary wish-list for the Minister to studyTeaching Matters: There has been a warm welcome for Mary Hanafin as the new Minister for Education and Science from the secondary…Tue Oct 19 2004 - 01:00
Future of Catholic schools is hanging in the balanceHere's a pub quiz question for youSat Oct 16 2004 - 01:00
Idealism is most teachers' principal motivationTeaching Matters: You know that old cliché about someone in hospital, that they are "as well as can be expected?" The funny …Tue Sept 28 2004 - 01:00
Public should have louder voice in healthcare debateMicheál Martin is spending money at the moment on the health services at a remarkable rate.Sat Sept 18 2004 - 01:00
Immigrant policy should be more transparentSome five years ago a Sunday Independent writer very sensibly pointed out that there was no need to paint the debate about non…Sat Sept 11 2004 - 01:00
An old-fashioned vision of love's young dreamSome films are popcorn for the eyes, while others provide something to ruminate on for daysSat Jul 31 2004 - 01:00
It's time to stop bowing to shareholder greedAmong the many unpleasant aspects of the current wave of bank scandals is the weariness that they engenderSat Jun 05 2004 - 01:00
Cutting the burden of life in politics by halfThere is a variation on an old joke which Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) tell from time to timeSat May 22 2004 - 01:00
Major problems involved in embryo donationMark and Luke Borden are four-year-old twins. They have older siblings who are tripletsSat Apr 03 2004 - 01:00
Human needs, not profits should drive family policyImagine if Bank of Ireland was informed that its ATMs were spitting out receipts with soft porn on the backSat Mar 27 2004 - 00:00
Voting by paper ballot is not a badge of backwardnessThere are two distinct responses to the question of electronic votingSat Mar 06 2004 - 00:00
A living hell for those falsely accused of abuseImagine this situation. You are accused of a heinous crime, of sexually abusing young and vulnerable childrenSat Feb 07 2004 - 00:00
Headscarves should be welcomed, not bannedOn a recent Channel Four programme investigating Islam's attitude to women, presenter Samira Ahmed, herself a Muslim, professed…Sat Jan 24 2004 - 00:00
Manners maketh the man, or they used toSometimes it is the little things that get to youSat Dec 27 2003 - 00:00
The innocence of parents is being stolenOn a bus journey into the city centre of Dublin the other day, I noticed that Benetton's windows currently feature huge posters…Sat Dec 20 2003 - 00:00
'Non-violence lacks appeal of quick-fix curesDuring the past week the US Senate voted to ban partial-birth abortion, meaning that it only remains for President Bush to sign…Sat Oct 25 2003 - 01:00
Abdication of responsibility dressed as ethicsRemember being a teenager? Remember the excruciating self-consciousness, the fear of not fitting in, the desire to run back to…Sat Sept 27 2003 - 01:00
Why the whole sorry story needs to be toldSpeaking to people deeply involved in the issue of institutional child abuse, including one man who has spent several decades…Sat Sept 06 2003 - 01:00
Justice: snappier and cheaper, but less just?Funny, isn't it, in an era of openness, transparency and accountability that we are all so gobsmacked when someone tells the …Sat Jul 05 2003 - 01:00
Cohabitation is not the same as marriageMinister Mary Coughlan has instigated a series of meetings around the country on the subject of familySat May 17 2003 - 01:00
Out of the mouths of babes and siblingsOne of our little girls has very big eyes, with eyelashes that curl halfway up to her eyebrowsSat Mar 29 2003 - 00:00
Do we underestimate the spiritual impulse?Marching in the freezing cold with my children at the peace demonstration last Saturday, it was clear that many people see this…Sat Feb 22 2003 - 00:00
Survivors demonstrated a depth of spiritEna Reilly got a telephone call last Monday, for which you could say she had been waiting for 24 yearsSat Jan 04 2003 - 00:00
Dominant brands spawn new form of bullyingOne of my friends told me in disbelieving tones recently that her teenage son wanted her to pay €50 for a two centimetre strip…Sat Nov 23 2002 - 00:00
Bush gets it right on marriage and the familyTo celebrate the ringing endorsement given to him this week by the American electorate in the mid-term elections, President Bush…Sat Nov 09 2002 - 00:00
From facts to a humane system of educationThis week I read two books, both of which have implications for every child in this countrySat Nov 02 2002 - 00:00
EU's democratic deficit is causing resentmentIn the recent Dáil debate, politicians, in both veiled and explicit ways, asked the electorate not to use the Nice referendum…Sat Sept 14 2002 - 01:00
Lap-dancing on the slippery slope to despairThe shrugs which greeted the arrival of lap-dancing in Ireland a few years ago marked some kind of watershed in Irish culture…Sat Aug 31 2002 - 01:00
Cheers turn to a sigh over gender differenceReading Accord's recent research on marriage was one of those "2½ cheers" momentsSat Jul 06 2002 - 01:00
The folly of abortion at the taxpayers' expenseThe Irish Medical Times has a report that the E112 form has been used to procure an abortion abroadSat Jun 22 2002 - 01:00
Staring reality in the eye and denying it existsIn crisis-management terms, two months is the equivalent of several lifetimesSat Jun 08 2002 - 01:00
FG could become the party of social cohesionFianna Fáil seems convinced that market research ensured its election victorySat May 25 2002 - 01:00
Kind gestures now open to misinterpretationThe Church made a promise last Monday to do everything necessary to serve the truthSat Apr 13 2002 - 01:00
Silence on child abuse is bleeding the churchSean Fortune used to come in to where I worked as a video producerSat Mar 30 2002 - 00:00
Racism: long on opinion and short on factsPerhaps we should be more careful about how we bandy about words like "racism"Sat Mar 23 2002 - 00:00
