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RTÉ Brainstorm - Brainstorm | Opinion, Analysis, Reports, Features | RTÉ

4 steps to make Dublin a better walking city

From more trees to fewer cars, turning cities into better walking environments is of benefit to all

New Irish citizens taking place in a citizenship ceremony in October 2013

How Ireland could help 50,000 EU citizens in Northern Ireland

"There are positives and negatives to both natural and synthetic fabrics" Photo: Getty Images

All you ever wanted to know about fabrics

"A statement of fact about what is the case for some situation is categorically different from a statement about how we ought to respond to it."

The struggle between facts and values around Covid-19

"81% of respondents said that they would be interested in finding out more about a career in the public sector and 37% found a career in the public sector attractive"

How civil service careers can attract millennials and Gen Z

Work and Careers

French police search for a suspect following a shooting at a Christmas market in Strasbourg, France in December 2018. Photo: Patrick Seeger/EPA-EFE

How do people behave during terrorist attacks?

Can Ireland provide leadership on the UN Security Council to reboot Iran's JCPOA nuclear accord?

Can Ireland help to get the Iran nuclear deal back on track?

Made in Ireland (until 1990): Faber-Castell's Columbus pencils. Photo: product shot

The high cost of outsourcing manufacturing

Lisa Harvey provides Irish Sign Language interpretation for Chief Medical Officer Tony Holohan at a Department of Health media briefing

How sign language interpreters tell the story of what's going on

Irish Sign Language

An Taoiseach Micheál Martin giving a State Apology in the Dáil after the findings laid out in the report of the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes

Ireland's complex relationship with shame

"Check if the programme works for your child's specific strengths and challenges." Photo: Getty Images

Why healthcare by video is a great idea for children

"Frank Broome played for Shels from February to April 1955 and earned £5 per week, though a newspaper reported that it cost an additional £10 a week to fly him from Birmingham to Dublin and back home again". Photo: Aston Villa FC

The story of the Shelbourne player and Hitler's Nazis

"Research shows that women and mothers have borne a significant brunt of care responsibilities bought on by the pandemic restrictions." Photo: Getty Images

How to make homeschooling work for parents

Donald Trump: "Trump and the mob he instigated have tangled with a more complex reaction to American political space"

How much damage has Donald Trump done to the United States?

Edward Jenner: even though the term didn't exist then, he was still describing the zoonotic origins of smallpox, and associating those origins with his contemporary, consumer economy.

What can Edward Jenner's smallpox vaccine tell us about Covid?

More Brainstorm

Spotlight

Why does the State have so many secrets on its citizens?

Maeve O'Rourke on how institutional abuse details are still being kept secret in Ireland

Why does the State have so many secrets on its citizens?

Maeve O'Rourke on how institutional abuse details are still being kept secret in Ireland

How to cope with more homeschooling

Katriona O'Sullivan on why prioritising family care over the curriculum is the way to go

Could Ireland introduce compulsory vaccination laws?

Conor O'Mahony on the aguments around the constitutionality of mandatory vaccination laws

How to celebrate a child's birthday during the lockdown

Rebecca Boyd on how to mark the occasion in the middle of a pandemic

Ireland

"The world of climate action is moving fast and Ireland risks being side-lined in a global race for sustainability."

Why 2021 will be a pivotal year for climate action in Ireland

Sinn Féin's TDs line up after the 2020 general election

A guide to the many groups who've used the Sinn Féin name

How Irish crime gangs are a hidden threat to child well

How Irish crime gangs are a hidden threat to children

"It is the separation within education that most obviously defines the demarcation lines of community division in Northern Ireland"

'Are you a Fenian, Miss?: inside the sectarian classroom

"Caistél ("castle"), cath ("battle"), ceol ("music"), bó ("cow") and the almost-inevitable fliuch ("wet") also appear"

A history of Ireland in 100 words

King George V and Queen Mary arrive for the opening of the Northern Ireland parliament in June 1921. Photo: Daily Mirror/ Mirrorpix/Mirrorpix via Getty Images

The partition of Ireland: chaos, secrecy and confusion

Who wore it best: Taylor Swift, Marilyn Monroe or Tommy Clancy?

The rise, fall and rise again of the Aran jumper's fashion appeal

Podcasts

"Undoubtedly, Mrs Doyle from Father Ted spoke for vast swathes of Irish people when, disgusted by the TeaMaster salesman who assured her that his contraption took the misery out of making tea, she retorted, 'Maybe I like the misery.'"

What's behind the Irish obsession with death and misery?

What's going on inside a child's brain?

Out of sight, but not out of mind

What happens to the waste that goes down the drain in your home?

"Beards were a source of pride and led to nicknames such as Jutting-Beard, Silk-Beard and Old-Beardless"

The hairy history of beards

Teenagers who have committed motoring offences taking a road safety course in April 1975 Photo: Watford/Mirrorpix via Getty Images

Why your kids (or grandkids) will not drive cars in the future

Ideas

A mural of George Orwell in Southwold, Suffolk. Photo: Geography Photos/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

How George Orwell predicted the future

"Research shows that adolescents may find it more challenging to regulate their psychological and biological responses to stress in a manner that supports good health outcomes"

6 tips for teens to manage stress

"Milk and dairy products are the major dietary sources of iodine"

Is milk good for us?

"Burial instructions are often taken to be the posthumous manifestation of oneself"

Do the dead have property rights?

STOP THE COUNT!

One for sorrow, two for joy: why we count magpies

"Language learning for some may have gendered connotations, yet there is no logical association between gender and language learning"

Is it easier for boys or girls to learn a new language?

"One obvious line of critique of this "magnificent myth" of genius is how the concept both excludes women and appropriates feminine characteristics to male artists"

Just what is genius?

Weather

Mace Head: "effectively measuring how dirty the cleanest air in Europe is"

How a Galway weather station keeps track of climate change

Going up: the winters of 2013/14 and 2015/16 were the two wettest winters in the 305 year series

Wet, wet, wet: last decade saw most rainfall in 300 years

"When studying the chaotic systems we find in nature there is nothing random about chaos"

Why is it so difficult to make a long-term weather forecast?

Your weather forecast courtesy of Claudius Ptolemy of Alexandria, the 2nd century cosmologist and astronomer

The medieval roots of modern weather forecasts

Incoming: we can tell a lot about weather patterns from what happened before

What's the science behind the weather forecast?

Editor's Choice

Genevieve Lyons: "audiences prefered to go to Dun Laoghaire to see Lyons as Sally Bowles than go to see Harris in the same role on the big screen". Photo: NUI Galway Archives

How one of the world's biggest musicals found its star in Dublin

Many large animals, such as Bowhead whales, have multiple copies of protective genes to beat the DNA errors which can cause cancer and tumours. Photo: Getty Images

Why do some animals live longer than others?

"Generation Z are realists, rather than optimists and yearn for expert stewardship and life curators who can sift, distil and quiet the noise of the reams of knowledge at the fingertips"

The public private lives of Generation Z

"'Boring' in its simplicity is one of the harshest and most definitive words we can use"

What "boring" books, TV, music and film say about us

Deirdre O'Connell, pictured at the funeral of her husband Luke Kelly in 1984. Photo: Independent News And Media/ Getty Images

How Deirdre O'Connell changed Irish culture

"C'mere to me! Well we've all heard of those pure daycent kings of the Spear-Danes from donkeys' years, and how the mad yokes of princes did alright for themselves."

How to translate an Old English poem into Cork slang