Loyalist bonfires and blind spots in Belfast

MY apologies to Jim Wilson. Jim is a truculent and argumentative champion of loyalist bonfires in...

01.08.2025 10

Malachi Odoherty

Navigating Ireland’s new culinary map

I’M PROUD to say that if you come to Ireland for a holiday now you will dine well if you dine out...

18.07.2025 10

Malachi Odoherty

New Belfast, new voices and fiction that outruns the past

BELFAST is a divided city. That is the most conspicuous fact about it. Walls separate Protestant...

11.07.2025 8

Malachi Odoherty

The unanswered questions of Irish presidential elections

LATER this year Ireland will elect a new president. By Ireland, of course, I mean the twenty six...

05.07.2025 8

Malachi Odoherty

When the blame game turns deadly

RACISTS who burned migrants out of their homes this month in Ballymena, County Antrim, have found...

27.06.2025 6

Malachi Odoherty

Face to face with the Ulster warlord

I FIRST met Andy Tyrie, the leader of an armed loyalist group, who died last week, in 1986. A BBC...

06.06.2025 10

Malachi Odoherty

Fault-lines, fanatics and a fragile peace

THE great historian ATQ Stewart, in The Narrow Ground, compared the violence in Belfast in 1970 t...

24.05.2025 6

Malachi Odoherty

The danger of forgetting - and the risk of remembering

IF YOU travel around some areas of Belfast you’ll see wall murals celebrating the IRA and other p...

10.05.2025 10

Malachi Odoherty

Language wars erupt on platform one in Belfast

PEOPLE from outside Northern Ireland tend to marvel at the pettiness of the disputes that divide ...

23.04.2025 7

Malachi Odoherty

De Valera’s vanishing Ireland

ONE of the discarded ideals of the Irish revolutionaries of 1916 was that the country should be s...

19.04.2025 10

Malachi Odoherty

Ideals win out over reality in Cambridge debate on united Ireland

THERE’S a little piece of advice that every exam taker has to take seriously. Yet, at a recent d...

05.04.2025 9

Malachi Odoherty

A tale of two militants

In IRA mythology, the name Hughes looms large THE name Brendan Hughes is a big one in the history...

20.03.2025 10

Malachi Odoherty

The policing paradox in Northern Ireland

TOWARDS the close of negotiation towards the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, all political parties...

12.03.2025 10

Malachi Odoherty

The policing paradox in Northern Ireland

Despite reforms, Catholic representation in the PSNI is falling—raising questions about identity,...

03.03.2025 7

Malachi Odoherty

Haunting echoes of Irish culture in a modern world

From ancient legends to modern drama, the Irish psyche still flirts with the supernatural IS THER...

27.02.2025 10

Malachi Odoherty

Trump’s trade wars a new test for Ireland

IT’S hard to know if Trump has any specific plans for Ireland but his current strategy of treatin...

21.02.2025 8

Malachi Odoherty

Why Bob Dylan’s relationship with Irish folk music was a complex one

I WAS in a bar in Donegal town enjoying a music session, one whose detail is now lost in the hodg...

14.02.2025 10

Malachi Odoherty

Ireland's cultural and political compass in a changing world

IS IRELAND closer to Boston or to Berlin? That’s a question that used to fascinate political com...

31.01.2025 10

Malachi Odoherty

The literary spark from family, culture and contention

Does Ireland’s literary heritage emerge from big families, sibling conflict, cultural discord — o...

22.01.2025 10

Malachi Odoherty

An Irish outsider fails to be bowled over by quintessentially British sports

FRIENDS raise sceptical eyebrows when I tell them that I used to be the sports editor of the More...

10.01.2025 9

Malachi Odoherty

Why principled opposition to violence transcends political camps and specific causes

WHEN you express strong opinions, you find yourself with allies and detractors. Then when you exp...

03.01.2025 6

Malachi Odoherty

A Christmas tale of broken toys and second chances

OUR first Christmas in a new house. The estate around us was still a building site. Our floors we...

25.12.2024 4

Malachi Odoherty

Ireland's beauty faces environmental challenges

NOSTALGIA for Ireland among exiles perhaps conjures occasionally unrealistic images of a distant ...

13.12.2024 7

Malachi Odoherty

New television series offers dramatised reassessment of a troubled history

I HAVE problems with drama which is ‘based on’ a true story. Others reassure me that audiences ca...

06.12.2024 4

Malachi Odoherty

Echoes of Trump’s victory in Ireland’s general election?

THERE is a theory about the Trump victory which, if applied to Ireland would augur major change i...

23.11.2024 3

Malachi Odoherty

Historic culture of violence in Irish schools turned us children into unwitting enablers

ONE day in primary school, about 1960, I was with other boys in my class playing a game of footba...

21.11.2024 7

Malachi Odoherty

Facing up to the shadow of antisemitism

I DON’T know why, when we were children, we told jokes about Jews but we did. We didn’t know any ...

13.11.2024 4

Malachi Odoherty

Wars are remembered, but pandemics forgotten

The 1918 Spanish flu in Ireland left more devastation than armed conflict—yet it remains history’...

27.10.2024 3

Malachi Odoherty

Two conflicts, similar dynamics

The potential for peace, negotiation, and compromise in deeply fractured regions — the conflict ...

21.10.2024 3

Malachi Odoherty

A united Ireland, but not just yet

Within political parties in the Republic, with the exception of Sinn Féin, reuniting the island i...

10.10.2024 4

Malachi Odoherty

Divisions that defy the polls in Northern Ireland

Sinn Féin is the larger party of nationalism and holds the office of First Minister in the Northe...

04.10.2024 2

Malachi Odoherty

Neutrality makes Ireland vulnerable

FOR all the talk of the ’fighting Irish’, Ireland has little experience of war. At the time of th...

21.09.2024 3

Malachi Odoherty

The lost art of hitchhiking

Thumbing a lift and learning the nuances of life were once an intertwined part of young people’s ...

01.09.2024 2

Malachi Odoherty

Surprising rhythms in rural Ireland

As an Atlantic storm rages outside and the wind rattles the windows, inside it’s waltzing and whi...

16.08.2024 2

Malachi Odoherty

Holding the lens of history up to anti-immigration demos

I AM uncomfortably reminded of the early days of the civil rights agitation in Northern Ireland w...

13.08.2024 2

Malachi Odoherty

The story of change in Catholic schools

I STARTED school in 1955 in the Babies Class of a school in Ballycastle run by the sisters of the...

08.08.2024 3

Malachi Odoherty

Prospects of a partitioned city

Belfast’s divisions, concrete as well as metaphysical, could outlast the dismantling of the borde...

01.08.2024 2

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Loyalist bonfires and blind spots in Belfast

Malachi Odoherty

Navigating Ireland’s new culinary map

Malachi Odoherty

New Belfast, new voices and fiction that outruns the past

Malachi Odoherty

The unanswered questions of Irish presidential elections

Malachi Odoherty

When the blame game turns deadly

Malachi Odoherty

Face to face with the Ulster warlord

Malachi Odoherty

Fault-lines, fanatics and a fragile peace

Malachi Odoherty

The danger of forgetting - and the risk of remembering

Malachi Odoherty

Language wars erupt on platform one in Belfast

Malachi Odoherty

De Valera’s vanishing Ireland

Malachi Odoherty

Ideals win out over reality in Cambridge debate on united Ireland

Malachi Odoherty

A tale of two militants

Malachi Odoherty

The policing paradox in Northern Ireland

Malachi Odoherty

The policing paradox in Northern Ireland

Malachi Odoherty

Haunting echoes of Irish culture in a modern world

Malachi Odoherty

Trump’s trade wars a new test for Ireland

Malachi Odoherty

Why Bob Dylan’s relationship with Irish folk music was a complex one

Malachi Odoherty

Ireland's cultural and political compass in a changing world

Malachi Odoherty

The literary spark from family, culture and contention

Malachi Odoherty

An Irish outsider fails to be bowled over by quintessentially British sports

Malachi Odoherty

Why principled opposition to violence transcends political camps and specific causes

Malachi Odoherty

A Christmas tale of broken toys and second chances

Malachi Odoherty

Ireland's beauty faces environmental challenges

Malachi Odoherty

New television series offers dramatised reassessment of a troubled history

Malachi Odoherty

Echoes of Trump’s victory in Ireland’s general election?

Malachi Odoherty

Historic culture of violence in Irish schools turned us children into unwitting enablers

Malachi Odoherty

Facing up to the shadow of antisemitism

Malachi Odoherty

Wars are remembered, but pandemics forgotten

Malachi Odoherty

Two conflicts, similar dynamics

Malachi Odoherty

A united Ireland, but not just yet

Malachi Odoherty

Divisions that defy the polls in Northern Ireland

Malachi Odoherty

Neutrality makes Ireland vulnerable

Malachi Odoherty

The lost art of hitchhiking

Malachi Odoherty

Surprising rhythms in rural Ireland

Malachi Odoherty

Holding the lens of history up to anti-immigration demos

Malachi Odoherty

The story of change in Catholic schools

Malachi Odoherty

Prospects of a partitioned city

Malachi Odoherty