Sam: The Dangers of Publishing Ads That Look Like News Articles
If you went to your doctor feeling ill, you wouldn’t want her to decide what medicine to prescribe you based on which drug company had paid her to recommend its pills that week. You’d want her to use...
View ArticleRoe: On the UCD Online Abuse Scandal, and a Reader’s Fear of Clowns
Dear Readers, It’s been a long week. I’ve been working on my thesis, an exploration of Irish women’s experiences of abortion. Reviewing my interviews has been complex, and emotionally draining. It has...
View ArticleEnid: Councillors and TDs Are Paid More Than You Think
Councillor attendance at Dublin City Council meetings last year ranged from around 54 percent to 98 percent, we found out last week. One of the challenges that makes it hard for some councillors to...
View ArticleAndy: The Call to Keep the Recovery Going May Ring Hollow
“Let’s keep the recovery going” – the official Fine Gael slogan, but, in effect, a call for the return of the current coalition – should, on the face of it, be a powerful mobilising tool for the...
View ArticleMick: How Finance is Shaping Dublin’s Ongoing Housing Crisis
A lot has been written about how finance and financialization shaped the politics of housing during Ireland’s boom and bust. During the boom, social movements and civil society ignored the relationship...
View ArticleRoe: On the #NotAllMen Trope, and a Wary Dater
Dear Roe, I was following the online conversations about the UCD 200 story, and many feminists and female writers were complaining about the responses they were getting. Reading some of the comments,...
View ArticleAndy: Sadly, We Didn’t Vote for a Fairer Ireland
Well, the votes are counted and the government got the kicking it deserved for its complacent touting of a “recovery” that had not impacted on most people’s lives. This was clearly a vote against the...
View ArticleRoe: My Boyfriend Won’t Tie Me Up, and Navigating Sex After Herpes
Dear Roe, I’ve been with my boyfriend for over a year now, and the sex has been fine, if fairly straight-forward and vanilla. But a few things have been bugging me. Over the past year there have been...
View ArticleWhen Is It Okay for Journalists to Accept Gifts from Their Sources?
A PR company recently offered to send Dublin Inquirer a bottle of whiskey. It was a “limited edition bottle of Jameson . . . designed by [a] renowned Dublin street artist . . . to officially launch...
View ArticleDara: On the Sound of Fighting for Your Own Culture
Costello, a Dublin MC, and one of the founders of Workin’ Class Records, took the stage at Sin É. Pretty soon, he brought the crowd of loyal supporters and fans to the boil, blowing us away with his...
View ArticleAndy: Vulture Funds Gorge on Ireland Because the Government Lets Them
Bono and the Edge of U2, together with developer Paddy McKillen, have bought back the city-centre Clarence Hotel from NAMA – for a price reported to be below the €40 million of debts that saw it...
View ArticleDara: Every Addict Has the Right to a Better Life
A few weeks after the equality referendum, I was sitting with a HSE counsellor in one of the drug outreach centres in the city. “Well you have to admit,” she said in a nice, calm tone, “all that –...
View ArticleRoe: Can a Feminist Enjoy Being Choked During Sex?
Dear Roe, I consider myself a feminist who wants the patriarchy to burn like the fiery flames of Hades. I recently started my first sexual relationship with a guy I’m seeing, and I realize I like being...
View ArticleFrankie: It’s Not Just a Dublin Accent, It’s a Dublin Dialect
People comment on what they call my “strong Dublin accent” a lot. Some remarks are complimentary, some are contemptuous. But I’m very proud of working-class Dublin’s renowned linguistic ebullience, so...
View ArticleAndy: In 1916, They Weren’t Fighting to Build a Tax Haven
Much of the discussion around the 100th anniversary of the Easter Rising focuses, reasonably enough, on political and military issues. But there was a long-standing and powerful economic argument...
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Dara: We’re Broke But We’re Funny and Smart
The violence of silence is a phrase we could use to open a discussion on any number of grotesque realities that as a nation we have yet to face up to. Forcing women and children to live in abusive...
View ArticleRoe: On Sex, Wheelchairs, and Rape
Dear Roe, I’m a 26-year-old straight man. I’ve recently met a girl I really like. She’s funny, smart and gorgeous. I met her through mutual friends, so we’ve hung out in groups a few times and have...
View ArticleAndy: the Arms Trade and Tax Avoidance Meet in Ireland
Why would a company based in Drumcondra, which has no employees and almost no money of its own, be acting as a sales agent for one of the world’s largest arms companies? The question arises as a result...
View ArticleRoe: How To Tell If He’s in an Open Marriage or Just Cheating
Dear Roe, Hi, single straight woman in her mid-twenties here. I’ve had a flirty friendship with a married guy in his 30s for about a year (he’s been married for a couple of years). Since we met, he’s...
View ArticleMick: We Are Selling Off Social Housing and It’s Madness
As negotiations around the formation of a government rumble on, the housing and homelessness crisis is deepening. Everyone is talking about rent increases, social housing waiting lists and emergency...
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