The continuing decline in priest numbers in the Catholic Church – with the future heavily weighted by a phalanx of elderly priests – has created a mathematical certainty that within a few years a cliff-face is approaching when numbers will plummet.

At 9:39pm on Tuesday, May 20th, while most of Ireland was settling down to the evening news, a Gulfstream jet touched down at Shannon carrying eight men who had become inconvenient to America.

It’s hard to know where to start. Captain Boyle in O’Casey’s Juno and the Paycock got it correct over 100 years ago when he announced that the whole world “is in a state of chassis”.

When we met Billy and Frances McNicholas in the Silverbirch Hotel in Omagh, the well-known Mayo GAA coach told the five of us that we had brought to 62 the number of Mayo fans he had spotted since arriving in the town ahead of the Tyrone game.

Beech, common (Fagus sylvatica). Monumental, majestic, home to rare wildlife.   Beech is an enchanting species and known as the queen of trees.

As the rapids of Covid-19 fade into memory, is Ireland truly ready for the next deluge? Where do we stand on pandemic preparedness as an administration is still drying off from the last flood?There's something inherently Irish about our approach to ...

The more books I buy and don’t get to read, the more I return again and again to the books I treasure. The practice has shaped a bit of advice I give to people who ask me to recommend ‘a good book’.

Be sure you are taking your ease when you read this: a new report from KPMG last week estimated that Dublin requires a €70bn investment in infrastructure by 2040.

Recently, my wife took an Uber home from what she claimed was a vitally important meeting (the truth of her nail appointment emerged later, under mild interrogation).

Anthony Hennigan’s analysis of plans for a Mayo GAA Centre of Excellence in Bohola in this paper last week was simply superb.