menu_open Columnists
Mark O'Connell

Mark O'Connell

The Irish Times

We use cookies to provide some features and experiences in QOSHE

More information  .  Close

Kneecap, our new gonzo shadow cabinet, stepped into the breach on Cuba

Kneecap, our new gonzo shadow cabinet, stepped into the breach on Cuba

Nobody else representing Ireland in any official capacity seems prepared to speak out against the collective punishment of the Cuban people

29.03.2026 10

The Irish Times

Mark O’connell

Trump said something unexpectedly revealing in an old interview with Playboy

If there is one thing that seems to complicate the US leader’s bottomless nihilism, it is the market

22.03.2026 10

The Irish Times

Mark O’connell

Welcome to the first war of the brainrot era

Pumped-up White House videos about Iran conflict are extreme even by recent US standards

14.03.2026 20

The Irish Times

Mark O’connell

Will Americans want to visit a Richard Nixon interpretive centre just outside Naas?

A tourist trail that focuses on historical connections between Ireland and the US – and which treats Andrew Jackson as just as Irish-American as JFK...

07.03.2026 20

The Irish Times

Mark O’connell

Sam Altman’s AI comments reveal a distinctly anti-human world view

I’m not convinced AI evangelists like Sam Altman really understand how strange and creepy they come across when they talk about the future

02.03.2026 10

The Irish Times

Mark O’connell

‘We must delete the humans,’ the AI bot told his internet pals. But let’s not panic yet

08.02.2026 10

The Irish Times

Mark O'Connell

A new magazine is a reminder that the ‘end of the West’ isn’t the end of the world

31.01.2026 40

The Irish Times

Mark O'Connell

‘Hey @Grok put a bikini on her’: what more could an incel want?

11.01.2026 20

The Irish Times

Mark O'Connell

Tech bro Bryan Johnson’s latest assault on mortality? Getting out of his gourd on mushrooms

04.01.2026 40

The Irish Times

Mark O'Connell

It was like watching the housing crisis covered by a future Reeling in the Years

14.12.2025 20

The Irish Times

Mark O'Connell

I would not quite say I admire Enoch Burke, but I do find him weirdly impressive

06.12.2025 30

The Irish Times

Mark O'Connell

Mark O’Connell: You’re not on the right side of history – there is no right side

16.11.2025 20

The Irish Times

Mark O'Connell

‘Here’s me,’ Trump is saying, ‘a literal king, shitting on your democratic protest’

26.10.2025 20

The Irish Times

Mark O'Connell

The Enhanced Games are about something far weirder than money

19.10.2025 10

The Irish Times

Mark O'Connell

No, you don’t need a cortisol detox. Why are we so addicted to the new language of therapy?

11.10.2025 10

The Irish Times

Mark O'Connell

Golf thuggery is a thing now. Why are we so surprised?

04.10.2025 10

The Irish Times

Mark O'Connell

There is too much content, too much culture - and that’s just the stuff made by us humans

27.09.2025 20

The Irish Times

Mark O'Connell

‘That was my first elimination’: IDF snipers are blind to the humanity of their victims

20.09.2025 20

The Irish Times

Mark O'Connell

I should enjoy watching the ritual humiliation of Silicon Valley’s top CEOs. But not like this

14.09.2025 10

The Irish Times

Mark O'Connell

Idea of electing anyone other than Michael D Higgins as president seems like a category error

07.09.2025 10

The Irish Times

Mark O'Connell

It wasn’t the internet that killed the old cultural order, it was U2

01.09.2025 40

The Irish Times

Mark O'Connell

If you didn’t have qualms about Spotify before, wait until you hear what its founder has done

27.07.2025 30

The Irish Times

Mark O'Connell

DJ Carey belongs to a strange and depressing category: a sporting legend turned conman

19.07.2025 20

The Irish Times

Mark O'Connell

The role of Tony Blair’s staff in the barbarous Gaza Riviera plan was beyond satire

14.07.2025 30

The Irish Times

Mark O'Connell

Using ChatGPT to write an essay is a bit like using a forklift to lift weights

06.07.2025 20

The Irish Times

Mark O'Connell

I love Wikipedia so much, I hardly even minded when it killed me off

29.06.2025 20

The Irish Times

Mark O'Connell

Please understand, a liveable future for humanity on this planet is really a very minor concern

22.06.2025 20

The Irish Times

Mark O'Connell

What a surprise to learn this powerful wizard of the Dark Enlightenment is just another needy dork

08.06.2025 20

The Irish Times

Mark O'Connell

Why is Trump attacking South Africa over an imaginary genocide?

24.05.2025 20

The Irish Times

Mark O'Connell

I have an almost gluttonous appetite for irony, but this is too rich even for my tastes

18.05.2025 20

The Irish Times

Mark O'Connell

Zuckerberg saying AI will cure loneliness is like big tobacco suggesting cigarettes can treat cancer

10.05.2025 20

The Irish Times

Mark O'Connell

Elon Musk sees humanity’s purpose as a facilitator of superintelligent AI. That should worry us

26.04.2025 20

The Irish Times

Mark O'Connell

Meet Romulus and Remus, first of their kind for 10,000 years. Sort of

19.04.2025 20

The Irish Times

Mark O'Connell

I’ve never thought of myself as a natural-born opinion columnist, I just say what I see

13.04.2025 20

The Irish Times

Mark O'Connell

I recommend the funny, sad video of Ashton Hall’s morning ritual. Start time: 3.52am

05.04.2025 20

The Irish Times

Mark O'Connell

The little boy in Gaza lost his entire family. He does not cry; he just sits there, staring at the wall

30.03.2025 20

The Irish Times

Mark O'Connell

Government has sent a clear message to the far right: arson and violence work

23.03.2025 20

The Irish Times

Mark O'Connell

St Patrick’s Day is a celebration of the bits of our culture that are not worth celebrating

09.03.2025 20

The Irish Times

Mark O'Connell

How ‘non-player character’ became a potent insult for the digital age

02.03.2025 10

The Irish Times

Mark O'Connell

If mirrors in the sky are our best hope of saving the planet, we’re in trouble

23.02.2025 10

The Irish Times

Mark O'Connell

Washington DC feels like a city benignly anticipating its own ruin

16.02.2025 20

The Irish Times

Mark O'Connell

It’s degrading to have to take anything Elon Musk says seriously, but he’s right about one thing

25.01.2025 20

The Irish Times

Mark O'Connell

Peter Thiel, big tech’s chief conspiracy theorist, says the state is keeping big secrets from us. And he should know

18.01.2025 30

The Irish Times

Mark O'Connell

If you find music on Spotify increasingly bland, it might be the ghosts

12.01.2025 20

The Irish Times

Mark O'Connell

There’s nothing magical or airy about artificial intelligence, it’s a machine of exploitation

“Any sufficiently advanced technology,” wrote the science fiction writer and futurist Arthur C Clarke, “is indistinguishable from magic”. This...

04.01.2025 10

The Irish Times

Mark O'Connell