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Finn Mcredmond

Finn Mcredmond

The Irish Times

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Treatment of Liz Truss shows there is still a bias against middle-aged women

Leaving office as a political leader must be tricky. Most resign in similar fashion: weary, with a reputation diminished either by scandal,...

18.04.2024 8

The Irish Times

Finn Mcredmond

Nothing is new under the sun: the solar eclipse is the latest shiny object in the culture wars

Herodotus – writing in the 5th century BC – contended more than once that a solar eclipse changed the entire course of history. First, the Medes...

11.04.2024 9

The Irish Times

Finn Mcredmond

Why do the Irish love chicken fillet rolls so much? Nothing to do with taste

The Irish have no claim to inventing the chicken sandwich. Though you would be forgiven for falling for such exceptionalist stories given the viral...

04.04.2024 30

The Irish Times

Finn Mcredmond

Britain’s narrow stereotype of the Irish could not make sense of Leo Varadkar

When Leo Varadkar resigned last week, the cynics emerged: his domestic record is a profound housing crisis; a weary Fine Gael dragging its heels...

28.03.2024 10

The Irish Times

Finn Mcredmond

String of political departures in the UK and Republic leaves politics in a malaise

This year ought to be a genuinely galvanising period in the politics of the west. Leo Varadkar’s surprise announcement yesterday that he is stepping...

21.03.2024 10

The Irish Times

Finn Mcredmond

Kate Middleton’s Photoshop fail: Trouble began when the royals confused themselves with celebrities

The political theorist Walter Bagehot’s famous adage about the British monarchy – that its “mystery” is the source of its vitality – has...

14.03.2024 8

The Irish Times

Finn Mcredmond

Kate’s Photoshop fail: Troubles began when the royals confused themselves with celebrities

The political theorist Walter Bagehot’s famous adage about the British monarchy – that its “mystery” is the source of its vitality – has...

14.03.2024 10

The Irish Times

Finn Mcredmond

I like Harry Styles, One Day and dogs. I hate the algorithm that spoon-feeds them to me

In 2020 the editorial board of the New York Times was faced with a simple task: endorse one Democrat candidate for president. In a rather catastrophic...

07.03.2024 8

The Irish Times

Finn Mcredmond

It’s great that Guinness is having a moment in Britain. But as Ireland’s soft power grows, so does our boozy national stereotype

It is hard for any pub in central London to stand out as particularly remarkable. They are all pretty similar – with around 430 in the borough of...

29.02.2024 10

The Irish Times

Finn Mcredmond

Trendy London’s new-found thirst for Guinness is an example of modern Ireland’s soft power

It is hard for any pub in central London to stand out as particularly remarkable. They are all pretty similar – with around 430 in the borough of...

29.02.2024 10

The Irish Times

Finn Mcredmond

The Mean Girls remake shows girls are as mean as ever. They just do it differently now

There is plenty to dislike about the culture’s current obsession with remakes. Hollywood, it seems, has run out of ideas. In very recent memory we...

23.02.2024 10

The Irish Times

Finn Mcredmond

Gen Z and millennials are drinking wine like grown-ups, while their parents are drinking like teens

“Carignan,” a friend said, staring into the middle distance, “is an unfairly maligned grape.” I zoned out and my mind raced back to...

22.02.2024 10

The Irish Times

Finn Mcredmond

Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s relationship is about as American as it gets

For all the emphasis on common purpose – intertwined heritage with the Irish and the Anglo-Saxons; Joe Biden’s ancestral love for Mayo – on...

15.02.2024 10

The Irish Times

Finn Mcredmond

King Charles approaching his illness with the same pragmatism he displayed towards Ireland

The British are more sentimental than they appear. But the stereotype is persistent; it is a nation for the stoic, unemotional, stiff-upper-lipped...

08.02.2024 10

The Irish Times

Finn Mcredmond

Calista Flockhart says scrutiny of her weight nearly ended her career. Is now so different?

The late 1990s and early 2000s may stand out as a particularly noxious period for women – replete with a celeb mag culture that drove Britney Spears...

02.02.2024 70

The Irish Times

Finn Mcredmond

Ryan Tubridy’s London dilemma: what to do with the Irishness?

The Irish in London tend to lean heavily on their national identity. This trait comes in many forms: loud declarations about the city’s inadequate...

01.02.2024 8

The Irish Times

Finn Mcredmond

Rise of the ‘trad wife’: Some women are sick of Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In manifesto

Last week, Sheryl Sandberg announced she was standing down from the board at Meta, the parent company of Facebook. When it comes to those boasting a...

25.01.2024 10

The Irish Times

Finn Mcredmond

Derry Girls allowed the Troubles to hum in the background of adolescent angst

January 2018 was a different place. The row over how to achieve Brexit raged on under a divided and seemingly doomed Conservative UK government, with...

18.01.2024 8

The Irish Times

Finn Mcredmond

Worst impulses of populism won’t be quelled by numbers and data

In 2016, Michael Gove – then secretary of state in the British Justice department – declared Britain “sick of experts”. It set the tone for...

11.01.2024 6

The Irish Times

Finn Mcredmond

Emojis were already a generational minefield. Now they’re a legal one

Last year a Canadian farmer sent a very expensive emoji. This is a simple story of 21st century contract law: a grain buyer – looking to purchase 87...

04.01.2024 8

The Irish Times

Finn Mcredmond

I don’t want my flat white served with a hot take on the Middle East crisis

“As the fighting in Gaza continues, we call for all parties to protect civilians, especially women and children, and to forcefully condemn...

28.12.2023 10

The Irish Times

Finn Mcredmond

Even on the shortest day, we refuse to succumb to darkness. That’s a cause for hope

Last week, on a particularly rainy and dark night, I was up-sold a bottle of wine by a rather effective sommelier. “I will never financially recover...

21.12.2023 10

The Irish Times

Finn Mcredmond

Finn McRedmond: Why do we insist on feeling aggrieved that Britain would want to honour Irish citizens?

Last month David Cameron was made Rishi Sunak’s foreign secretary. But foisting a former prime minister who is no longer in the House of Commons...

14.12.2023 10

The Irish Times

Finn Mcredmond

Hot takes on the Dublin riots by Russell Brand, Steve Bannon and Brexit Britain are hard to take

In the wake of the Dublin riots the country was beset with anxious hand-wringing: how could this happen? This isn’t who we are! Ireland is gentle...

07.12.2023 8

The Irish Times

Finn Mcredmond

Forget Taylor Swift or Giorgia Meloni. There’s one outstanding candidate for Person of the Year

What do military strategist Henry Kissinger, tech entrepreneur Mark Zuckerberg, eco-influencer Greta Thunberg and rapacious dictator Joseph Stalin...

30.11.2023 9

The Irish Times

Finn Mcredmond

Let’s not be precious about Napoleon’s distortion of facts - all historians are telling a story

The last decade has seen the emergence of a new global anxiety: the rise of so-called misinformation. Social media; highly editorialised right-wing...

23.11.2023 10

The Irish Times

Finn Mcredmond

Finn McRedmond: Cameron’s return is a symptom of the shallowness gripping British politics

Rishi Sunak is desperate to fashion himself as a break from the status quo. Since 2016 Britain has endured a chaotic exit from the European Union,...

16.11.2023 10

The Irish Times

Finn Mcredmond

Maybe the kindest thing to do for The Simpsons would be to shelve it

Poor Bart Simpson. The 10-year-old son of America’s most famous family has spent 31 years being throttled by his father in one of the TV shows...

09.11.2023 5

The Irish Times

Finn Mcredmond

Friends was not a show about the 90s, it was a show about the timeless march to adulthood

Matthew Perry, who died last weekend aged 54, published his memoir almost exactly a year ago to the day. Its opening line reads: “Hi, my name is...

02.11.2023 8

The Irish Times

Finn Mcredmond

Britney’s gossipy celebrity memoir contains a serious hidden message

They say celebrities are frozen at the age they become famous. For Britney Spears that would be October 23rd, 1998, at 16 years of age. Spears had...

27.10.2023 6

The Irish Times

Finn Mcredmond

Has Ireland ever been as European as we liked to believe?

The chaos of Brexit brought with it several by-products. Among them, Ireland’s increased fervour for the European Union was perhaps the least...

26.10.2023 8

The Irish Times

Finn Mcredmond

Fear of being cancelled for having the wrong views is killing student politics

On October 7th, in the hours after Hamas’s murderous attack of Israeli citizens, Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee wrote a letter...

19.10.2023 30

The Irish Times

Finn Mcredmond

The popularity of Taylor Swift and Barbie has nothing to do with feminism and everything to do with girl power

This summer pop behemoth Taylor Swift embarked on her Eras Tour. As it wends its way into a second and third leg next year, it is set to be the...

12.10.2023 5

The Irish Times

Finn Mcredmond

David Beckham has sold his privacy to Netflix. I’m not buying it

The family unit has become important currency. YouTube and TikTok — video sharing platforms — are groaning under the weight of so-called family...

06.10.2023 9

The Irish Times

Finn Mcredmond

Notion of a National Women’s Museum relegates women to a B-plot in history

It is hardly insightful to point out that Irish women have repeatedly been relegated and underestimated in this country’s history. We are enthralled...

05.10.2023 5

The Irish Times

Finn Mcredmond

It’s true all dog breeds bite, but I’d take my chances with a corgi over an American XL bully

If you are in the market for a new pet you might find yourself googling the explosively trendy American XL bully – a relatively new breed that is a...

28.09.2023 9

The Irish Times

Finn Mcredmond

Electric bikes might be fun and flashy but, let’s face it, they’re not really bikes

It has been a terribly hot and long summer in London. And when I reminisce about the light evenings and the thick air – in the midst of the ensuing...

21.09.2023 10

The Irish Times

Finn Mcredmond

Labour governing in London and Sinn Féin in Dublin would reframe Anglo-Irish relations

The British Conservatives have not endeared themselves to Ireland. Since 2016 the party and its rotating cast of beleaguered leaders – David...

14.09.2023 20

The Irish Times

Finn Mcredmond

Finn McRedmond: Ryan Tubridy may be ready to embrace Britain. But is Britain ready for him?

Ryan Tubridy – who will not be returning to RTÉ in the wake of this summer’s payment scandal – has been on a jaunt around London’s West End...

07.09.2023 10

The Irish Times

Finn Mcredmond

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