Brainstorm | Opinion, Analysis, Reports, Features

'We are enrolled, encouraged and urged to become financialised citizens today, investing in the pensions market to supplement the state pension.' Photo: Getty Images

A short history of the old age pension in Ireland

The state pension is now a mere part of a wider financialised portfolio, made up of other investments and private pension plans

Pensions • 19 Mar

Republican propaganda continued to attack 'the rotten capitalist' press and the 'Doped Press' Photo: University College Cork Archives (Fleischmann Collection)

Trials and tribulations of printing Civil War propaganda

The guerrilla phase of the Irish Civil War was mirrored by furtive propagandist publications challenging the official narrative

Brainstorm • 16 Sep 22

The recent Mail on Sunday column criticising a number of Fianna Fáil politicians (mostly women) for their fashion sense was criticised by the public and the Taoiseach Micheál Martin.

Why the way we look at women matters

The pressure women experience trying to live up to unattainable beauty standards can lead to mental health problems

Women • 27 Sep 21

Given that only 18% of Irish homes secured a BER rating of B3 or higher in 2019, some form of deep retrofit may be required, which could end up costing households' tens of thousands of Euro.

How the Govt's retrofit scheme risks leaving middle Ireland out

While the Government's €8.7 billion plan to retrofit 500,000 Irish homes is progressive, the State needs to help people finance retrofitting projects otherwise the plan will fail to live up to its ambition.

Environment • 21 Sep 21

"While we are making progress on renewable electricity, with 40% coming from renewables last year, we still generate most of our power from fossil fuels so international gas prices matter."

Why have electricity prices increased so much this year?

The root cause is not one single issue but rather a series of events that have tended to reinforce and amplify a problem of demand outrunning supply..

Electricity • 29 Sep 21

Even in our personal lives we apply a social discount rate; some Irish men display a high social discount rate where during pre-COVID weekends, they drank three times more than women.

How understanding human nature can help climate policy decisions

Combining a more reflective social discount rate with the Climate Action Bill may give Ireland a chance to make immediate, rapid and large-scale emission reductions

Climate Action Bill • 14 Sep 21

The NPHET briefings on Covid-19 has been a prominent example of science and policy coming together during the pandemic

Can scientists and policy makers be friends?

Managing the interaction between science's hard facts and policy's opinions and judgements is far from straightforward

Policy • 10 May 21

"The very different experiences of Ireland as a partitioned island has greatly shaped how Irish history is written."

The case for rethinking Ireland and Empire

The different experiences of Ireland as a partitioned island has greatly shaped how Irish history is written, ensuring a tradition of history framed with a South/North division, or few explicit investigations of how British colonial policies shaped it.

Ireland • 19 Apr 21

Today, Ireland has many of the correct policies in place such as for electric cars, and renewable electricity, but these will have to be massively scaled and accompanied by new measures to reach the emissions reductions defined in the Bill

The challenges Ireland faces in achieving a 'net zero' economy

The Climate Action Bill is correctly praised for its ambition, but of all the options available to Ireland, waiting is not one of them and decisions must be made early to deliver on the ambition set by the Bill.

Climate Action • 12 Apr 21

Author Lee Dunne (centre) with the cast of 'Harbour Hotel', a a long-running radio soap which was broadcast at lunchtimes on RTÉ Radio.

How Lee Dunne challenged the depiction of working-class mothers

Out of Lee Dunne's work, Goodbye to the Hill tends to receive the most attention, but his lesser-known 1970 novel Does your Mother? deserves recognition for challenging the depiction of working-class Irish motherhood.

Lee Dunne • 12 Apr 21

Viking conquest of England and Ireland - Viking ships sailing up the English Channel, 877. From painting by Herbert A. Bone (Image by Culture Club/Getty Images)

The far-reaching effects the Vikings had when they settled down

We think of Vikings are travellers and explorers but when they settled down, they brought a number of changes in landscape and society which had far-reaching effects.

vikings • 07 Apr 21