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Why violent storms like Melissa are catching the world off guard

Hurricane Melissa

Rapid intensification means storms are intensifying faster, hitting harder and giving people less time to prepare or escape

Michael Dwyer Wicklow Chief 1798

The extraordinary life of the 'Wicklow Chief', Michael Dwyer

A man wearing a blue jacket and a black hat using his phone on public transport

Why do some people play their phones out loud on buses & trains?

There is a sense that Halloween was a time when Oweynagat could open the gates of hell or become an entrance to a magical world." Photo: Gary Dempsey

'Ireland's gate to hell': a Co Roscommon cave and the Otherworld

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What do you get in return for paying the local property tax?

Local Property Tax

TLAPA DE COMONFORT, MEXICO - NOVEMBER 02: An altar of the dead (Altar de Muertos), a religious site honoring the deceased, is placed inside a house during the Day of the Dead celebrations on November 2, 2021 in Tlapa de Comonfort, Mexico. Day of the Dead

All you need to know about Mexico's Day of the Dead tradition

Day of the Dead

Jack o lantern candle standing on a rock

Is Halloween the new St Patrick's Day festival?

Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu - Portrait by Brinsley Le Fanu (1916)

Inside Sheridan Le Fanu's spooky world of Gothic ghosts & ghouls

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Why you shouldn't eat blackberries after Halloween

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Could changes in eye sight and hearing mean a risk of dementia?

GAZA CITY, GAZA - OCTOBER 28: Search and rescue operation continues for Palestinians, stuck under debris of destroyed building, following the Israeli attack on a house in Sabra neighborhood in Gaza City, Gaza on October 28, 2025. (Photo by Khames Alrefi/A

What does it take to make a ceasefire last?

Extract from Cork Tenants Rent Ledger

The secret tales of past Irish lives found in land agent records

Be careful what you do with the dregs of your Pumpkin Spice Latte. Photo: Getty Images

Why you shouldn't pour coffee down the drain

US President Donald Trump speaks to Malaysia's prime ministe at Kuala Lumpur International Airport.

Who writes the rules in today's changing world?

Donegal-born Dave Gallaher was the first-ever captain of the New Zealand All Blacks.

Meet the Donegal-born original All Blacks rugby captain

More Brainstorm

Halloween

Boo: a selection of plastic Halloween masks from the 1980s. Photo: Reddit Irish History

Masks and black plastic bags: how we used to celebrate Halloween

A ringfort in Co Tipperary: "looking down from a plane, you'll see these circles dotted across Ireland".

The superstitions and mysteries around Ireland's 'fairy forts'

Jack o lantern candle standing on a rock

Is Halloween the new St Patrick's Day festival?

A Halloween barm brack with charms including a ring, coin, stick and pea. Photo: St. Connell's Museum & Heritage Centre, Glenties, Co Donegal https://www.facebook.com/www.Museum.ie

The strange meanings attached to charms in Halloween barm bracks

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Does the road to hell begin in Cork?

I always feel like somebody's watching me: Bela Lugosi as Count Dracula and Frances Dade as Lucy in the 1931 film of Dracula based on the novel by Bram Stoker. Photo: Culture Club/Getty Images

Was Dracula Irish?

Boo!

How the Irish really invented Halloween

Audio

A worker walks past stored wind turbine blades at the Harland & Wolff shipyard in Belfast in 2008. Photo: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images

What can be done with 11,000 tons of used wind turbine blades?

Sketch excerpt from "An account of the measurement of the Lough Foyle base in Ireland". By Captain W. Yolland (1847). Original by Sir J.F.W. Herschel.

The story of the first all-Ireland mapping survey 200 years ago

Storm Éowyn takes aim at Bantry Bay in January 2025. Photo: Getty Images

Rain, floods & storms: why weather conditions are getting wetter

DUBLIN, IRELAND - MAY 14: People gather to stage a protest against Israeli attacks on Gaza and to commemorate 76th anniversary of Nakba Day in Dublin, Ireland on May 14, 2024. In Dublin, a commemorative protest was held at UCD to mark Nakba Day, organized

How slogans as Gaeilge have become part of Irish Gaza protests

People walking on the treelined path in Phoenix park, Dublin on an autumn day with selective focus, and sun shining

All you need to know about bank holidays in Ireland

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Work & Careers

'Paying attention to reminders of unfinished tasks can draw attentional resources that could be used elsewhere.'

Why your long list of unfinished work tasks takes up so much time

Three male employees in a glass office building

Are 'quiet redundancies' happening in your workplace?

Work and careers

'The amount, size and quality of your office furniture is often a sure sign of power and status.'

The importance of having a desk in the office to call your own

Work and careers

'Access to AI tools increased worker productivity by an average of 14%, but the benefits weren't distributed equally'. Photo: Getty Images

Good news: AI won't take your job. Bad news: you can't ignore it

Work and careers

'The more we earn, the less likely we are to take time off - and the reward for work turns out to be more work'

Why do we work?

Work and careers

A man in a waiting room

Putting a CV together? Why honesty may not be the best policy

Work and careers

Cheerful young woman relaxing on sofa uses laptop in hotel room. City of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, travel Asia concept

Are 'quiet holidays' influencing your workplace?

Work and careers

Nature

Many people find their mood gets a boost in the summer. Photo: Volodymyr Tverdokhlib/Shutterstock

Love summer, hate winter? Why your mood changes with the seasons

"We know pigeons use visual cues and can navigate based on landmarks along known travel routes"

How do pigeons find their way home?

Three European Gray Wolves, Canis lupus lupus

Why 40 wolves have shaken Danish politics

Striking old yew tree in the central courtyard of the ruins of the Muckross Abbey, founded in 1448 as a Franciscan friary. Killarney National Park, County Kerry, Ireland. Photo: Getty Images

What do trees have to do with Irish culture and identity?

Looking for love.... Photo: Royal Society for the Protection of Birds

5 ways humans have scuppered the love lives of animals

Editor's Choice

Chainsaw Man official poster

Why have anime films become such big box office hits?

How Basic Income for the Arts scheme is a win for all

'Our research found that female students reported much higher levels of maths anxiety than their male peers'. Photo: Getty Images

Do you have maths anxiety?

Paul Mescal, the Co Kildare minor lad who brought Gaelic football to audiences worldwide via Normal People

How the GAA has influenced Ireland's pop culture

Three people having a meeting in an office

Should you tell your employer about your chronic illness?

Work and careers

people talking and laughing in a restaurant

How words can have many meanings when we speak in Irish English