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Justine Mccarthy

Justine Mccarthy

The Irish Times

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Spinal surgeries scandal a painful reminder of how Ireland continues to fail its young

Ireland is a land rich with children’s fairy tales. There once was even a president of the country whose wife, Sinéad Bean de Valera, wrote books...

previous day 9

The Irish Times

Justine Mccarthy

Reverse snobbery about rugby is every bit as nauseating as plain old snobbery

A pleasurable journey to south Kerry was rudely interrupted by a begrudger last Sunday. The radio had been serving up a banquet of sports coverage...

15.09.2023 30

The Irish Times

Justine Mccarthy

Vera Pauw’s unforgivable sin was to stand up for herself

Well, that lasted all of a nanosecond. One moment, Vera Pauw is a hero, making sports history for Ireland and leading the St Patrick’s Day parade as...

08.09.2023 10

The Irish Times

Justine Mccarthy

Communities are paralysed by grief after a summer of tragedy

The tragedies have come in remorseless succession and, every time, words fail. As the summer-that-never-was fizzles out, autumn arrives this weekend...

01.09.2023 10

The Irish Times

Justine Mccarthy

Justine McCarthy: Enough of the meaningless hand-wringing over abuse by Christian Brothers

When Pontius Pilate washed his hands of the decision to crucify Jesus Christ, as St Matthew’s gospel recounts, he listened to the people first....

25.08.2023 10

The Irish Times

Justine Mccarthy

Justine McCarthy: Don’t add Kathryn Thomas to the Rose of Tralee bill. Just pull the plug

When you know you’re on the losing side of a disagreement, dream up a distraction. That seems to be RTÉ’s ploy as it prepares to foist one of the...

17.08.2023 7

The Irish Times

Justine Mccarthy

Justine McCarthy: Staggering hypocrisy of the Christian Brothers, or Cheapskate Bullies

The autumn sunshine was sweltering in St Peter’s Square when Pope John Paul II beatified Edmund Rice in October 1996, but it was still not as hot as...

11.08.2023 30

The Irish Times

Justine Mccarthy

Justine McCarthy: We should thank Charles Haughey for Ireland’s Booker Prize success

The news that four Irish novelists feature in this year’s Booker Prize long list has been raising high brows even higher, far and wide. Is it...

04.08.2023 10

The Irish Times

Justine Mccarthy

Justine McCarthy: Reforming our garbled VAT system would be a good start in the fight against climate change

We know we’re in trouble when it has rained cats and dogs for a whole month of summer and yet the Irish are consoling one another that “we’re...

28.07.2023 9

The Irish Times

Justine Mccarthy

Justine McCarthy: Ryan Tubridy should keep his job, but not his role

Despite his “enormous” salary, Ryan Tubridy has been underselling himself. The broadcaster’s marathon appearance in Leinster House on Tuesday...

14.07.2023 10

The Irish Times

Justine Mccarthy

Justine McCarthy: Revelations of a them-and-us culture at the top in RTÉ are not new

British comedian Eddie Izzard memorably remarked that “celebrity opens doors and lowers drawers”. The RTÉ story shows how fame has a magical way...

07.07.2023 7

The Irish Times

Justine Mccarthy

Justine McCarthy: Tubridy is the symptom, not the cause, of something amiss in our financial culture

Ryan Tubridy has a lovely home. It is a mirror of its owner – congenial with no excess bulk. This I know because I interviewed the broadcaster there...

30.06.2023 20

The Irish Times

Justine Mccarthy

Justine McCarthy: Judge Deirdre Murphy’s warning on our broken legal system must not be ignored

When Nuala O’Faolain was dying, she told Marian Finucane in one of the most riveting interviews ever broadcast by RTÉ that she dreaded all the...

23.06.2023 10

The Irish Times

Justine Mccarthy

Justine McCarthy: If we are to design a new Ireland, respect must be at its core

John Finucane was eight years old when two masked loyalist gunmen burst into his home, blasted bullets into the kitchen where the family had gathered...

16.06.2023 10

The Irish Times

Justine Mccarthy

Justine McCarthy: Young people are the new frontier in the hatred wars

When did children become fair game in the hatred wars? Was it in March this year when some players on the Republic of Ireland under-15 boys football...

02.06.2023 8

The Irish Times

Justine Mccarthy

Justine McCarthy: What part of branding refugees as potential rapists is not racist?

Anyone expecting sympathy for being accused of racism while protesting against foreigners moving to their neighbourhood has a warped opinion of...

26.05.2023 30

The Irish Times

Justine Mccarthy

Justine McCarthy: The idea of news organisations with a political agenda is nothing new

A Fianna Fáil leader might be expected to recognise a politically-partisan news outlet when he sees one, considering his own party’s history. After...

19.05.2023 10

The Irish Times

Justine Mccarthy

Justine McCarthy: At last, women are getting their revenge on Donald Trump

Donald Trump is correct – E Jean Carroll is not his type. The woman is way out of his league. For one thing, she takes inspiration from literary...

12.05.2023 30

The Irish Times

Justine Mccarthy

Justine McCarthy: The €15.90 chicken wrap that proves Michael D Higgins has a point

Expect to see a new dish of the day on a menu near you very soon – the goose that laid the golden egg, basted and battered. Ever since the...

05.05.2023 10

The Irish Times

Justine Mccarthy

Justine McCarthy: An issue can be very much in the public interest even when the public aren’t interested

In one of the most brilliant deconstructions of British newspaper readerships ever broadcast, Jim Hacker, the woebegone Cabinet member in Yes...

28.04.2023 10

The Irish Times

Justine Mccarthy

Justine McCarthy: British media was right - Joe Biden’s Ireland belongs to Dark Ages

Sometimes, the old enemy can be a country’s best friend, if inadvertently. Loath though any united Irelander bred in the broth of anglophobia may be...

21.04.2023 9

The Irish Times

Justine Mccarthy

What is the difference between a sexual assault on a Protestant school boy and a Catholic school boy?

The Minister for Education is to be congratulated for her alacrity in establishing an investigation into sexual abuse in some schools after RTÉ’s...

14.04.2023 10

The Irish Times

Justine Mccarthy

Justine McCarthy: We still have a long way to go before Ireland is safe for women

It was a culture that “barely tolerated” women, concluded the independent review of the Defence Forces. Substitute the name of Ireland for that of...

31.03.2023 40

The Irish Times

Justine Mccarthy

Justine McCarthy: If ever there was a national role model, it’s Johnny Sexton

Not all heroes wear a big S on their backs. One wears the number 10 on his. They call him Johnny Sexton. Ireland’s rugby grand-slam victory last...

24.03.2023 30

The Irish Times

Justine Mccarthy

Justine McCarthy: Can’t live with Twitter? Then live without it

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17.03.2023 10

The Irish Times

Justine Mccarthy

Don’t reach for Zovirax, Aquafresh and Sensodyne until GSK compensates mother-and-baby-home children

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03.03.2023 40

The Irish Times

Justine Mccarthy

Justine McCarthy: Many hotels and restaurants are thriving at our expense

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24.02.2023 50

The Irish Times

Justine Mccarthy

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