I wasn’t immune to the recent World Cup. Even though the Republic failed to qualify and so I had nobody to root for, it was still the biggest spectacle on the planet for a few heady weeks this summer. But …

  This is the third of five articles I have written on the prospects for Ireland and the Irish provinces this coming season. My reviews of Connacht and Ulster are published here and here. Having written two relatively upbeat posts …

I would give everything I own Just to have you back again That lyric by David Gates’ Bread was from a song I first heard on Radio Èireann as I watched my mother staring, catatonic, into the fire, after burying …

The idea for Open Sunday is to let you discuss what you like. Just two rules. Keep it civil and no man/woman playing. Comments will close at 12 pm on Monday.

In addition to our normal open Sunday, we have a politics-free post to give you all a break. So discuss what you like here, but no politics. Comments will close at 12 pm on Monday.

One of the things I did get wrong about the Fleadh was that I thought there would be an issue with venues being too dispersed across the city centre. The other day I was thinking that it would probably make …

My experience of attending discussions at Féile an Phobail has been remarkably encouraging. Some of the talks have been controversial, some have covered difficult subjects and despite being part of a unionist minority in the room, I have always felt …

Newton Emersons’s verdict in the Irish Times can hardy be bettered as a rare and heartening cross community success … Pleasant streets can only partly explain the numbers in the city centre. What unionist visitors are discovering is that the …

For the past eight years I have been involved with a group of people called the Truth Recovery Process (TRP) which has been campaigning for ‘conditional amnesties’ for those former combatants in the Northern Ireland ‘Troubles’ – from state and …

This is the second of a series of articles on the strength in depth of our provincial squads ahead to the start of the season next month. The first article – on Connacht – is published here. The Ulster squad …