To know the true mind of Middle Ireland, take a budget week’s break in Morocco. Like me, most people in my hotel were what George Orwell might call upper-lower-middle class, people who made their way by merit and hard work. Around the pool, I pressed the freckled flesh (not literally, but close enough to smell […]

At a recent Cabinet meeting, two Fine Gael ministers raised objections to the Government’s plan to hold a referendum on divorce later this year. Agriculture Minister Michael Creed asked why the vote was being held when there was no clamour for a constitutional change in the area. Rural Affairs Minister Michael Ring backed him up […]

On a bright, cold morning last November, I walked Boston’s Black Heritage Trail, a hidden gem among the city’s trove of historic sites. I had followed it decades ago as a graduate student and was returning now with my mother after a recent move to Massachusetts. I was especially looking forward to revisiting one stop […]

Have you heard about the Como challenge? Apparently, images of singer Perry Como are popping up in popular online videos and urging young people to commit regicide. There are no documented instances of the Como challenge, no screenshots or videos to share with you, and it’s almost certain that I just made it up. But […]

A high-stakes legal drama featuring cryptocurrencies has been unfolding in a Canadian court recently. The antics that led to the litigation almost defy credulity, and they highlight the need for new regulations to better suit a financial marketplace that includes virtual currencies. News broke in early February that Canadian cryptocurrency exchange QuadrigaCX was seeking creditor […]

For those of us veterans who served along the Border, particularly in the 1970s, it comes as a shock to see once familiar, but almost forgotten, place-names re-emerge in the news. Long confined to the freaky tourist trail, the Louth Border townlands of Omeath, Flagstaff and Hackballscross are, like Churchill’s dreary steeples of Fermanagh and […]

The letters page is mainly for serious national and international issues, but there is usually room for the light-hearted story – and this is a true one. Francis Brennan, co-owner of the beautiful Park Hotel Kenmare, with many Cork guests over the years, wrote in his lovely book, ‘It’s the Little Things’, of an unreal […]

(Want to get this briefing by email? Here’s the sign-up.) Good evening. Here’s the latest. 1. President Trump visited Alabama in the wake of destructive tornadoes there. “You saw things that you wouldn’t believe,” he told reporters in a neighborhood gravely damaged on Sunday by the storm outbreak, which left at least 23 people dead. […]

A Halifax brewery is marking International Women’s Day with a sudsy toast. Garrison announced today that it is releasing “Susannah” Imperial Pale Lager, promoting it as the company’s first “all-female developed, brewed, designed and launched beer.” It says women decided on the style and ingredients, developed the recipe and brewed it in January. It has […]

Concerns about digital privacy — What is Facebook doing with our data? How are advertisers tracking our interests? How can we stop the breaches that put our personal information at risk? — have received much-needed attention in recent months, but there’s another aspect of privacy that should be on our minds, too: Many of us […]