Brainstorm | Opinion, Analysis, Reports, Features | RTÉ

National Weather Warning

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

Culture / 19 Feb

"Evidence brought before the Supreme Court in 1975 showed that only nine of the 700,000 persons who had been eligible for jury service in the 10 years prior to the case had been women"

Why were women absent from Irish juries for 50 years?

Jon Bon Jovi on the prowl for more Renaissance love poems to borrow. Photo: Ross Marino/ Getty Images

You give love a bad name: pop music and Renaissance love poetry

The Renaissance / 13 Feb

A crowd confronts British soldiers in Dublin in April 1920. Photo: Getty Images

How forced hair cutting was used as a weapon of war in Ireland

War of Independence / 13 Feb

The aftermath of an IRA car bomb in Bangor, Co Down in October 1992. Photo: EPA/AFP via Getty Images

Did British intelligence force the IRA into peace?

History / 12 Feb

A 1924 children's party at Rutland Street National School, Dublin. Photo: National Library of Ireland

Why were 100,000 Irish children missing from school in the 1920s?

History / 31 Jan

Lord Mayor Of Cork Terence MacSwiney who died on hunger strike in 1920

The links between the 1920 Cork hunger strikes and China

History / 23 Jan

A visitor views a painting of Niccolo Machiavelli by Cristofano dell'Altissimo at Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze in Florence. Photo: Laura Lezza/Getty Images

Why Machiavelli still matters today

Machiavelli / 14 Jan

Some happy customers disembark from the Viking Splash Tour

How blood-thirsty Vikings became the stars of Irish tourism

Culture / 09 Jan

Teresa Deevy. Photo: Maynooth University Archive

Teresa Deevey: the overlooked Irish playwright

Theatre / 09 Jan

Members of the Royal Irish Constabulary being inspected before duty at the Derry by-election in 1913 Londonderry. Photo: Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Why commemorating the enemy is so contentious

Brainstorm / 07 Jan

"The custom was that women made social calls to the homes of their friends and neighbours and enjoyed tea and the last of the Christmas cake". Photo: George Marks/Getty Images

The roots and traditions of Nollaig na mBan

Brainstorm / 06 Jan

Beyonce rocking a kale sweatshirt in the video for "7/11"

How Beyonce and other celebrities made kale and seaweed hip

"Nano Nagle, Mary Fouhy, Elizabeth Burke and Mary Ann Collins were driven by a progressive and ambitious missionary devotion to educate Cork city's Catholic poor." Photo: Universal History Archive/ Universal Images Group via Getty Images

How four women sparked a social revolution on Christmas Eve 1775

History / 08 Jan

"There was huge emphasis in the past on natural materials to decorate the home". Photo: Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images

How our ancestors enjoyed a sustainable Christmas

Folklore / 19 Dec 19

All fall down: "while performing this rhyme, all the kids innocently enact the deaths of those who perished during the plague". Photo: Getty Images

How innocent nursery rhymes tell tales of death and destruction

Nursery rhymes / 18 Dec 19

"If lucky, those in the Cairn may witness the sunlight snaking its way through the lightbox up the ancient path to penetrate the centre of this stunning architectural monument to a magnificent feat of nature."

Marking the Winter Solstice's shortest day and longest night

Winter Solstice / 16 Dec 19

Are you ready for us, Nano?

Would Nano Nagle have expelled the Young Offenders from school?

The Young Offenders / 16 Dec 19

A piece of the Berlin Wall outside the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California. Photo: Orjan F. Ellingvag/Dagens Naringsliv/Corbis via Getty Images

Ronald Reagan and the fall of the Berlin Wall

Berlin Wall / 04 Dec 19

How Ireland's foreign policy told the story of the country

Ireland / 28 Nov 19

Ballycairn Presbyterian Church in Lisburn. Photo: Bobby McKay Drumbo https://www.flickr.com/photos/b0b0b/

How Northern Ireland's Presbyterians remember the Troubles

History / 27 Nov 19

William Molyneux: his contribution to Irish intellectual history deserves to be fully explored and better known

Who was William Molyneux?

History / 25 Nov 19

A refugee family leaving Memel in Lithuania in June 1939 after the German ultimatum. Photo: Getty Images

How Ireland responded to refugees fleeing Hitler and the Nazis

History / 18 Nov 19

Historical re-enactment of a surgeon operating on an archer who was wounded during an attack by the Mamluks on the monastery of the Order of the Hospitallers (1250-1291) in Acre in Israel. Photo: DeAgostini/ Getty Images

What was it like to go to the doctor in medieval Ireland?

Medicine / 14 Nov 19

A medieval Irish chief and attendants pose for a selfie. From The Image of Irelande, with a Discoverie of Woodkarne by John Derricke (1581).

Gaels, Normans and Anglo-Saxons: the world of medieval names

History / 07 Nov 19

Showing 1 - 25 of 145 stories