Housing remains a big problem, but I worry the real disaster lies ahead
I fear our property problem will be solved in a brutal way, with a recession so severe, hundreds of thousands will emigrate again
Weekend
Stories that appear in the Weekend section of The Irish Times print edition
Shocking crimes, royal illness and Labour’s landslide: The eight big moments that defined 2024 for Britain
Winds of change howled across Britain in a year when a Labour election victory ended 14 years of Tory rule
Taylor Swift tops the economic charts, electoral victory for Centrist Dads and Apple’s awkward €13bn
If the 2024 election result marked stability, safety and conservatism, the biggest gig of the year underscored that same middle-brow innocuousness
A year of devastating climate firsts, a dispiriting outcome to Cop29 and elections where climate was off the radar
Ireland heard plenty of ‘eco rhetoric’ in 2024 but there was a clear sense that political leaders have not grasped the reality of the climate emergency
What did Irish Times readers search for most in 2024?
We also decode 12 hot-button words or phrases you might have heard for the first time this year
Referendums, resignation and repeat elections - a year of drama and political shocks
The family and care referendums were soundly rejected, Leo Varadkar most unexpectedly stepped down, and there was a decided turnaround in parties’ fortunes
Donald Trump is changing America in ways that will reverberate long after he is dead
The US president is a once-in-a-lifetime master manipulator of the unseen energies that sway the electorate
Western indifference to Israel’s thirst for war defines a grotesque year of hypocrisy
As China and Russia weigh up their options in anticipation of Donald Trump’s second presidency, horrified countries in the Global South see Gaza as an emblem of US and European double standards
I wrote a letter to Madame Pelicot as one woman to another in solidarity and support
I wrote in admiration and acknowledgement of her bravery, and in sympathy and empathy for what she had endured for years
Assisted dying: Do we understand it properly?
I’ve seen the slow loss of dignity and the increase of pain that mark the last years of lives drawn out by healthcare in modern society
Four ways to use less electricity with your Christmas lights
A few simple adjustments this year can make Christmas a bit less harsh on the planet
Matt Cooper: I’m an only child. I’ve always been conscious of not having brothers or sisters
The journalist and broadcaster on his middle name Raphael, visiting Belfast in the 1970s and his experience as an only child
The Guildford Four’s Paddy Armstrong: ‘People thought I was going to be bitter and twisted when I came out of prison’
The Belfast native had to rebuild his life, which is now the subject of a stage play, after wrongly spending 15 years in jail for an IRA bomb attack
Europe has lost its mojo. Thankfully Ireland is in bed with the US
Europeans are afraid of the future, saving for the rainy day, while America has overtaken all the major advanced economies of the EU
Is there anything good about the 2034 World Cup going to Saudi Arabia?
The magic of a winter World Cup can brighten the darkest days of the season in this part of the world
Patrick Freyne: I am becoming a demotivational speaker – let’s all have an averagely productive December
I keep meeting people who are extremely burned out. I meet them so often that I’m beginning to think burnout is something that exists by design
A Dublin scam: After more than 10 years in New York, nothing like this had ever happened to me
It’s horrible being duped. ‘Dishonest people need to eat too,’ a friend said. He had a point. A few days later, I still had an emotional hangover
Former Tory minister Steve Baker: ‘Ireland has been treated badly by the UK. It’s f**king shaming’
Emotional former Tory minister for Northern Ireland Steve Baker 'embarrassed Ireland was treated the way it was by the United Kingdom’
Protestant churches face a day of reckoning with North’s inquiry into mother and baby homes
The majority of those held in homes across the North came from a Protestant background, and their babies were adopted by Protestant families
Our last flood was so severe that within minutes water was pouring into the electrical sockets a few feet up the wall
Being flooded is a particular kind of hell but pouring more concrete isn’t the solution
Kevin Power: I took a deep dive into Irish literary magazines and would do it again without hesitation
Between Holy Show, Dublin Review of Books, Tolka and the Dublin Review, I had a high stack on my desk
What is this strange growth outside Cork University Hospital?
Éanna Ní Lamhna on fungi, a marine worm and whooper swans
Small Rain review: An earnest exploration of illness and art
Garth Greenwell’s third novel looks at how slow recovery can become a rehabilitation to life and literature
‘It was a surprise’: Late Late Toy Show star Abiha prepares to see Mariah Carey in Las Vegas
Clonsilla girl had no idea she would be invited to US before she closed show with All I Want for Christmas is You
We should stop moving so fast. Resist where you can. Hold space to grow and digest
We should stop moving so fast. Resist where you can. Hold space to grow and digest
Bressie on his Army dad: ‘I remember him being picked up to go overseas and you wouldn’t see him for a year. I remember the fear of it’
Niall ‘Bressie’ Breslin is co-founder of Lust for Life, a PhD student, musician and host of Classical Wind Down on BBC Radio 3
My Belfast friends can buy a house and start a family more easily than those in Dublin
In their daily lives, Northerners seem more grown-up than Southerners
Stardust reimagined: ‘It’s time for other people to fulfil their dreams here, what our loved ones never got to do’
Artists’ studios where ‘new, beautiful things’ will be created are opening at the site of a blaze that claimed 48 lives
Inside the Chinese city that makes 80% of the world’s Christmas decorations
In Yiwu, more than 600 businesses produce an estimated 80 per cent of the world’s Christmas decorations
Chocs away: three Irish artisans offering an immersive chocolate experience
These Cork, Limerick and Wexford chocolatiers not only create their own chocolate recipes, but visitors also get a chance to see how it all happens
Micheál Martin: Fianna Fáil’s cunning, ruthless resurrection man
How the veteran Fianna Fáil leader dragged his party into the 21st century and won his place as taoiseach
Joan Baez: Do I ever hear from Bob Dylan? ‘Not a word’
Looking young and powerful at 83, Baez is still engaged in politics, but has recently revealed a dark secret
Revisiting Notre-Dame’s literary legacy as the majestic Paris cathedral reopens
The tragic 19th-century Paris novel weaves a rich and morally diffuse cast of characters beyond Quasimodo. But the real hero is the symbolic cathedral itself
Conveyor-belt food chains will replace 600-plus local Irish businesses unless we act now
Do we want to eat weeks-old, additive-filled panini cooked in the plastic in which they came, like what has already happened in England and to some extent in Dublin?
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