Jennifer O’Connell: Cumberbatch gaffe pounced upon in a world convulsed with ragegasmsBenedict Cumberbatch’s inadvertent use of the historically loaded word ‘coloured’ deserved an apology, and one duly came. But wasn’t the outrage a bit overdone?Mon Feb 02 2015 - 08:13
Four cities: South Bay, California - ‘Everyone expects to be tipped’Babysitters are hard to come by, probably because most teenagers don’t need the money. So when you find a good one, you tip wellSat Jan 31 2015 - 06:00
Miley Cyrus: ‘I think my generation is in crisis’The fast-talking singer has robust views on insecurity, feminism and ‘Instagram fame’. Sinéad O’Connor needn’t have worried about her: this is one self-assured 22-year-oldFri Jan 30 2015 - 13:11
Jennifer O’Connell: A woman should have the right to choose about breastfeedingIreland is not an easy country in which to breastfeed, as mothers huddle in the middle of prudish rubberneckers on one side and the cultish fervour of some of the pro-breastfeeding lobby on the otherMon Jan 26 2015 - 11:06
Jennifer O’Connell: Advice to my teenage self about boys, my thighs and Phil CollinsIf I could have a word with her now, that angsty girl with the bad haircut and the good intentions, what would I tell her?Mon Jan 19 2015 - 01:00
Jennifer O’Connell: Worried about gun violence? Have a lollipopThere are many things I love about living in the US, but my children having to do a drill ‘in case a crazy person ever breaks into our school’ isn’t one of themMon Jan 12 2015 - 01:00
Jennifer O’Connell: Lessons from my (almost) 40 yearsBy now, I was expecting to have it all figured out but there’s a yawning chasm where I was expecting all that wisdom to have magically accumulatedTue Jan 06 2015 - 10:01
Jennifer O’Connell: how the climate changed in 2014This year, feminism went mainstream, I saw climate change up close and was bemused from afar as Ireland went mad over waterMon Dec 29 2014 - 07:27
Jennifer O’Connell: celebrities line up to peddle the fantasy of the perfect ChristmasJamie Oliver, Gwyneth Paltrow, our own adorable Donal Skehan: if you believe celebrities’ Instagram accounts, they all have Christmas wrapped. And where’s the harm?Mon Dec 22 2014 - 01:00
Don’t mind us: Jennifer O’Connell on the marvels of Hiberno-EnglishHere are nine words and phrases that only people from Ireland will understand. We’re great gas altogetherMon Dec 15 2014 - 12:00
Jennifer O’Connell: Christmas in California is just not the sameI miss calling it ‘the Christmas’. My mother’s ham and cider sauce. The long, lazy joy of Stephen’s Day...Mon Dec 08 2014 - 01:00
Please don’t run for office, Angelina JolieJennifer O’Connell: It’s one thing celebrity activists lecturing us about the things we should be concerned about, and quite another them deciding they would like to legislate on it tooMon Dec 01 2014 - 01:00
Jennifer O’Connell: Bill Cosby story highlights troubling societal attitudes to consentA woman’s taste for Jim Beam or Pinot Noir does not make her fair gameMon Nov 24 2014 - 05:45
Jennifer O’Connell: The world has serious mammy issuesMotherhood has become a high-stakes endeavour, and it seems all of society has something to say about women’s child-rearing abilitiesMon Nov 17 2014 - 01:00
Jennifer O’Connell: Boys who like Elsa, girls who like DraculaTo hell with gender stereotyping - let it goMon Nov 10 2014 - 01:00
Jennifer O’Connell: Breasts on child mannequins – what next?Target in the US uses child-size mannequins with breasts to sell tops for kidsMon Nov 03 2014 - 01:00
Jennifer O'Connell: Give Monica Lewinsky a breakJennifer O’Connell: Lewinsky was betrayed by many people, but her greatest betrayal was by a society that loves nothing more than a sexual woman to demoniseMon Oct 27 2014 - 01:00
Frisco jolly the place for gizmo geekdom’s movers and shakersEverybody who’s anybody except Bono turned up for Marc Benioff’s Dreamforce ’14 technology conferenceThu Oct 23 2014 - 01:45
Jennifer O’Connell: Side effects of Ebola include hysteria and xenophobiaUnderneath the western media’s over-reaction is the troubling suggestion that the hardest-hit African nations have brought Ebola on themselvesMon Oct 20 2014 - 13:04
Apple and Facebook’s egg-freezing policy isn’t anti-family. Quite the oppositeNo intelligent woman will freeze her eggs because her boss thinks it’s a good ideaSat Oct 18 2014 - 01:00
will.i.am enters the wearables marketPop star turns tech entrepreneur with the Puls cuff unveiled at the Dreamforce tech eventThu Oct 16 2014 - 13:00
Spot the difference: rap lyrics or serious threat of violence?The task of distinguishing between an expression of artistic creativity and a real and frightening threat will soon occupy the minds of the judges of the US supreme courtMon Oct 13 2014 - 01:00
Silicon 50 event celebrates most influential Irish people in the valleyPraise for Irish wit, optimism and tax breaks but education remains a worryFri Oct 10 2014 - 01:28
Jennifer O’Connell: I’d legalise cannabis, but not gladlyI don’t much want to be part of a society where people sit around at dinner parties doing bad Elmo impressionsMon Oct 06 2014 - 01:00
Jennifer O’Connell: Escape the anxious parent trapParanoid parenting isn’t about actual risk: it is about our need for controlMon Sept 29 2014 - 00:00
Whose fault is all dis cod Irishness?Dingy pubs, busty wenches and funerals – welcome to the Ireland of American adsMon Sept 22 2014 - 01:00
Babies don’t care how much you spend on themDo you really need that sunflower-shaped bath or those baby knee-pads?Wed May 28 2014 - 01:00
Menstrual leave? I’ll pass, thanksWomen in Taiwan, Indonesia, South Korea and Japan are entitled to time off when they have their period – but it’s less about liberation than a horror of women’s bodily fluidsWed May 21 2014 - 01:00
Dublin has a lot of growing up to doIf the success of its shared public spaces are the measure of a mature city, our capital has a long way to goWed May 14 2014 - 01:00
The offline life is well worth livingIf Socrates had had Facebook, he might have decided that the overexamined life was as problematic as the underexaminedWed May 07 2014 - 01:00
Office politics: the horrors of the workplaceMost of us have far worse anecdotes from the front line of gainful employment than the recent leaks from the office of Ségolène RoyalWed Apr 30 2014 - 01:00
21 things every Irish person in Australia should knowDo you know your bogans from your rorting, and your Vegemite from your Golden Gaytimes?Wed Apr 23 2014 - 01:00
A whole Lottie love for female superdollsThe canon of girl action heroes is dismal. Thanks heavens, then, for Donegal-based toy company Arklu’s dolls of pirate queens and bespectacled robot designersWed Apr 16 2014 - 01:00
Gender politics: he, she or zie?Last week, the Australian high court ruled that the sex of Norrie May-Welby was ‘non-specific’Wed Apr 09 2014 - 01:00
Fertility is not just an issue for womenWhat’s the point of this constant badgering women about their egg count?Wed Apr 02 2014 - 01:00
A sneaking sympathy for Patrick NultyHe may have been suffering from the Bart Simpson delusion: if no one saw you do it, it never happenedWed Mar 26 2014 - 01:00
Putting the brakes on sexist moresWhile we’re banning ‘bossy’, here’s a few more words I’d like to usher into oblivionWed Mar 19 2014 - 00:00
Food used to be a simple pleasureThe question isn’t whether it is protein or carbohydrates that kill you first -- it is how we survived long enough to get hereWed Mar 12 2014 - 01:00
Jennifer O’Connell: Seven things women wantHappiness, equal pay, less guilt – and cut us a bit of slack every now and thenWed Mar 05 2014 - 01:00
Are you suffering from the Ikea effect?We feel a disproportionate affection towards something we helped to createWed Feb 26 2014 - 01:20
Loneliness: the last of the taboosWho wants to be the solitary voice in a feed of holiday snaps and baby photos admitting that, actually, life’s not that great and you’re pretty bloody lonely?Wed Feb 19 2014 - 01:00
Wherever I live, I have a bit of Waterford to take with meYou might pass a stretch of Viking wall, an 18th century townhouse and an old Quaker cemetery on your way to buy a pint of milkMon Feb 17 2014 - 01:00
Dark undercurrents: the Australian obsession with Schapelle CorbyThe ongoing preoccupation with Corby, who spent nine years in a Bali prison cell for drug smuggling, is rooted in snobbery, misogyny, and xenophobiaWed Feb 12 2014 - 01:00
This Woody Allen script is familiarVersions of this story have been played out before, in every Irish communityWed Feb 05 2014 - 01:00
Chaps, step away from the eyelinerWhen we said we wanted equality, the chance to compare pore sizes wasn’t quite what we had in mindWed Jan 29 2014 - 11:06
20 things you don’t need to do before you dieFeel free to ignore this list and not do your own 20 things insteadWed Jan 22 2014 - 10:46
How are babies made? Ask the Supreme Court, darlingParents entering into arrangements such as surrogacy are doing so in a legal vacuum, in which everyone risks being exploitedWed Jan 15 2014 - 01:00
Ten phrases we Irish could live without. Just saying‘Twerk’ has been voted the most annoying phrase of 2013. But if the list had been compiled in Ireland, we suspect it might have been a little differentWed Jan 08 2014 - 01:00
