Christmas is a sacred time marking the birth of Christ and the dawn of Christianity. In Ireland, preparations begin weeks, and for some, months in advance. After Halloween, children write to Santa, and families make travel plans from faraway places to reunite for the festivities. Traditional celebrations include a four-course meal of chicken soup, roast…
Patrick Pearse once declared, “Tír gan teanga, tír gan anam,” meaning “A country without a language is a country without a soul.” Ireland could therefore be described as a nation without a soul. While most European countries enjoy their native tongue, Ireland has adopted English as its dominant language. Irish remains a vital part of…
Leadership is one of the most written and discussed subjects of our time. About 45,000 books on Amazon include ‘leadership’ in the title, alongside countless definitions and models. While studying for an MBA in International Business from 2009 to 2011, I examined leadership theory extensively, later deepening that knowledge through an MSc in Strategic Procurement…
The Central Statistics Office in Dublin recently declared that Ireland’s population could reach seven million by the year 2057 under high migration projections. The population currently stands at just over five million. However, it reached approximately eight million for the whole island before the famine in 1841. Considering the size of the population before the…
Far Right and Far Left voices clashed on Dublin’s O’Connell Street in April 2025. Shouts of “Refugees are welcome” met with “Ireland is for the Irish.” Yet Ireland’s future will not be decided by street protests or slogans. It will be shaped by something deeper: culture. Unless we take culture seriously, Ireland risks tearing its…
Vocations have fallen drastically, and many parishes are now supported by clergy from countries such as India and Nigeria, writes Eamonn Coyle Ireland, a nation with over 10,000 years of human habitation, has been continually shaped by waves of migration, conquest, and cultural evolution. From its earliest settlers in the Mesolithic period to modern globalisation,…
I am a native Irish speaker from Gaoth Dobhair in County Donegal — Ireland’s largest Gaeltacht. Grew up there during the 1970s and 1980s, immersed in a way of life that is now all but gone: one rooted in self-sufficiency, communal spirit, and the daily use of the Irish language. At the time, most households…