Article Category: Pillars of Society

PROFILE: NIAMH UÍ BHRIAIN

June 4, 2026

As the crisis at Gript Media deepened in the last week of May over the suspension and then resignation of founding editor John... Read more »

PROFILE: MARTIN HEYDON

May 7, 2026

FOR ALL the vast quantity of ink spilt analysing the revolt of Ireland’s kulaks over the cost of fuel, the quiet man at... Read more »

PROFILE: DAN O’BRIEN

April 23, 2026

THE DISTANCE between government politicians and voters, recently underlined by state-wide protests, is mirrored by those media commentators who were so anxious to... Read more »

PROFILE: RONAN MCGREEVY

April 9, 2026

ANGLO-IRISH commentator Ronan McGreevy has edited a book, Seán Lemass: The Lost Memoir, that lionises former taoiseach Lemass and which drew current Taoiseach... Read more »

PROFILE: EOIN LENIHAN

March 26, 2026

MOST IRISH people who have come across Eoin Lenihan would reference the publication of his Vandalising Ireland: How the Government, NGOs, Academia and... Read more »

PROFILE: GARY GANNON

March 12, 2026

THE SOCIAL Democrats’ conference last month may have been a youthful affair by comparison with the average Oireachtas party conference but it still... Read more »

PROFILE: PATRICK O’DONOVAN

February 26, 2026

THE ARTS, culture, sport, Gaeltacht and media minister, Patrick O’Donovan, is a busy man, as his title indicates. But while his driven political... Read more »

PROFILE: FIONNÁN SHEAHAN

February 12, 2026

DURING HIS disastrous handling of Fianna Fáil’s presidential campaign and candidate, party leader Micheál Martin appeared to be on the run, not just... Read more »

PROFILE: NIAMH SMYTH

January 29, 2026

FROM OBSCURITY to centre stage is often a matter of timing but the Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence (AI), Niamh Smyth, has... Read more »

PROFILE: BEN TONRA

January 15, 2026

BEN TONRA, a ‘full professor of international relations’ in UCD, fully backs ending Irish military neutrality. The academic persuader is also linked to... Read more »

PROFILE: KEVIN BAKHURST

December 11, 2025

RTÉ DIRECTOR GENERAL Kevin Bakhurst attended in person the Geneva meeting of the European Broadcasting Union that saw RTÉ confirm its boycott of... Read more »

PROFILE: CIARÁN MAC GIOLLA BHÉIN

November 27, 2025

There’s a radical wind beginning to rage through the Irish-language movement, with younger and more assertive activists coming to the fore demanding rights... Read more »

PROFILE: BEN COLLINS

October 30, 2025

IRELAND’S FUTURE, the main proponents of the growing call for a border poll on Irish unity, is sometimes accused of not engaging with... Read more »

PROFILE: BILLY KELLEHER

October 16, 2025

MICHEÁL MARTIN would not have anticipated that MEP Billy Kelleher would trigger the greatest political crisis of his leadership since Fianna Fáil’s disastrous... Read more »

PROFILE: HEATHER HUMPHREYS

September 18, 2025

FINE GAEL’S presidential candidate, Heather Humphreys, has been packaged by the party and its media supporters as a no-nonsense, can-do matriarch, whose Protestant... Read more »

PROFILE: MICHAEL HACKMAN

September 4, 2025

AT THE start of the 2020s, LA-based real estate moneybags Michael Hackman started making big waves in the film and TV business, not... Read more »

PROFILE: JOHN LAHART

August 21, 2025

HARDLY THE most publicly contentious or outspoken of backbench TDs, Fianna Fáil’s John Lahart was chosen to chair the Oireachtas Committee on Foreign... Read more »

PROFILE: LEO VARADKAR

August 7, 2025

FORMER TAOISEACH Leo Varadkar’s metamorphosis from Tory boy to wet centrist, from Blueshirt to Irish republican, and from anti-abortionist to virtually a woman’s... Read more »

PROFILE: PAUL MURPHY

June 26, 2025

PAUL MURPHY recently returned from his attempted relief mission to Gaza, prompting a boorish comment from former foreign minister Charlie Flanagan, who said... Read more »

PROFILE: DANIEL LAMBERT

June 12, 2025

As manager of the Irish-speaking, hip-hop/rap trio Kneecap, Daniel Lambert has found himself increasingly in the spotlight as he is called upon to... Read more »

PROFILE: RUADHÁN MAC CORMAIC

May 15, 2025

THE PRESS COUNCIL’S recent confirmation of a Press Ombudsman’s decision underlines the Irish Times’s one-sided coverage of clerical child abuse. An IT article... Read more »

PROFILE: LIZ KEARNEY

May 1, 2025

THERE WAS a time when the incoming editor of the biggest-selling newspaper in the country would already be known to many in the... Read more »

PROFILE: JAMES BROWNE

April 17, 2025

The appointment of James Browne as housing minister surprised many people, including the new minister himself. His performance since then in this most... Read more »

PROFILE: CONOR MCGREGOR

April 3, 2025

THE GENERAL, European and local elections in 2024 show that the audience for McGregor’s brand of right-wing populism is limited. And even within... Read more »

PROFILE: TOM CLONAN

March 20, 2025

FORMER ARMY officer, journalist, military analyst and Independent senator Tom Clonan is an unusual army vet. A strong advocate of neutrality, he has... Read more »

PROFILE: MAUREEN KENNELLY

March 6, 2025

IT IS possible that Maureen Kennelly could be the last director of the €140m-a-year Arts Council in its current form as the vultures... Read more »

PROFILE: VOGUE WILLIAMS

February 20, 2025

WITH HER autobiography, Big Mouth, due out in May and a live show in Vicar Street scheduled for the same month, Vogue Williams’s... Read more »

PROFILE: JIM O’CALLAGHAN

February 6, 2025

AMONG THE winners and losers of the general election it’s clear that Fianna Fáil’s Micheál Martin bested Fine Gael’s Simon Harris. But within... Read more »

PROFILE: MICHAEL LOWRY

January 23, 2025

DESCRIPTIONS OF Michael Lowry as ‘kingmaker’ in government formation talks have been rejected by Micheál Martin and Simon Harris, who argue that the... Read more »

PROFILE: OLIVER SEARS

January 9, 2025

DESPITE IRISH people’s revulsion at Israel’s continued slaughter of Palestinian children and other civilians in Gaza, the ‘paper of reference’, the Irish Times,... Read more »