Since becoming Irish President in 2011, Limerick-born Michael D Higgins has proven a popular head of state. 

Dr Fiachra Long discusses some of the fresh challenges facing educators in the 21st century.

The acclaimed writer of The Social Network and The West Wing can teach you how to write in just five hours of lessons

Placed in Grade One company as a novice but without a success since October 2014, Princely Conn bounced back to winning form when landing the Clonmel Racecourse Supporters Club Guest Evening Hurdle in Clonmel last night.

Breandán Ó hEithir, thou should be living at this hour. The man who wrote The Begrudger’s Guide To Irish Politics, the greatest work ever composed on that topic, would have revelled in the election campaign which has just finished, writes Michael Moynihan

The violent events of Verdun, the Battle of the Somme and the Easter Rising, will be remembered in 2016, writes Richard Collins

SALMAN Rushdie’s tenth novel opens in Arab Spain in 1195, when disgraced court physician and philosopher Ibn Rushd takes in the mysterious 16-year-old orphan Dunia.

Genghis Khan had an extraordinary mind and was a master psychologist and knew how to use cruelty to succeed. A new biography, finds Richard Fitzpatrick, explains how he became such a dominant figure.

A story of three bears, without Goldilocks, is in the news in Canada. It began last month when a female black bear began breaking into a mobile home in Port Hardy, Vancouver Island, to steal meat and fish from a freezer.

We still don’t understand the real thing, so we’re right to worry about the rise of AI, writes Bella Bathurst

SCIENCE is everywhere. But the science most of us encounter in our everyday lives — in newspaper reports and political rhetoric, for instance — bears very little resemblance to the real thing, and says very little of the theory, meaning, and importance (or lack thereof) behind it.

Before Christ, the Greek philosopher, Aristotle, lived in a society in which male homosexuality was widespread. He thought profoundly about life.

A (not so) learned sage once altered the expression “it’s better late than never” by including the addendum “but never late is better”. 

Greece is in all the news bulletins as I write this and I suspect most Irish people have sympathy for the difficulties this ancient democracy finds itself in these days. 

Education Minister Jan O’Sullivan’s proposal to incorporate philosophy into the curriculum of schools can only be of benefit.

It’s that time of year for good cheer; goodwill to all men and, oh, begrudgery on behalf of the non-believing community. Just in case we were too optimistic, Gordon Cunningham (Letters, December 12) sought to put a damper on proceedings.

The best 40 minutes rugby we have seen in years upon years

The politicisation of the Máiria Cahill case is doing a disservice to the Irish political process and all victims of the northern conflict, argues Dolan O’Hagan.

He’s had what Munster veterans like to call the odd ‘brain fart’, but Conor Murray has gone from a wet-behind-the-ears wannabe to Lions scrum-half in no time.

Green:The History of a Color

Happy, sad, and angry do not even begin to cover the range of emotions we express in our faces, a study has found.

ARISTOTLE, who was born in 384BC, considered elephants superior to all other animals in ‘wit and mind’. Many wildlife rangers, zookeepers, and mahouts living with working elephants, would agree.

Demi Lovato is helping her fans to overcome their problems.

Daylight robbery topped the bill in the Dáil yesterday as TDs discussed the prospect of the country coming out of darkness and shedding a little more light on daily life.

Are cereal boxes more nutritious than cornflakes?

As a left-hander I am always amazed that other left-handers like president Barack Obama twist their hands to such an uncomfortable angle when they write, when it is far easier to slightly turn the page you are writing on instead.

Did you cry with your buddy while watching Fergie say farewell at Old Trafford?

Young people, according to Aristotle, “are in a state of permanent intoxication because youth is sweet and they are growing”.

A sex manual from the 18th century is expected to fetch up to £400 (€491) at auction.

Harry Shearer voices Principal Skinner and other beloved characters on The Simpsons. Now he’s playing Richard Nixon, says Pádraic Killeen

Forget the midweek sideshows that only tease the blue half of Manchester with cruel hope; we now know that Roberto Mancini is doomed to failure at City.

VISIT the African Plains exhibit at Dublin Zoo and you will see scimitar horned oryx, a creature classified as ‘extinct’ by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

The Golden Mean

Greece has always looked at its classical age as a usable past but there is no solace in the classics to inspire the country out of its financial and economic woes. What Greece needs is a cultural revolution, writes Fouad Ajami

Perfect People

NEWBRIDGE House, a fine 18th Century mansion in north County Dublin, was the ancestral home of the Cobbe family, whose ranks included an archbishop and a Lord Lieutenant.

Rigorous study of birds didn’t begin in earnest until the 17th century and for some time after that superstition impeded progress, finds Richard Collins.

DUBLIN Zoo is famous for its lions.

STOCKHOLM is the ideal destination for a weekend break; prices are about the same as at home and the there are budget flights from Dublin.