If the two main parties acknowledged that there is no policy difference between them, they could form a coalition and agree to rotate the office of the taoiseach, writes Ryle Dwyer

The Big Fellow broke six men out of Strangeways prison 100 years ago. The priority was Sinn Féin’s Austin Stack, but the two men would fall out bitterly, says Ryle Dwyer.

In her new book, Valerie Cox meets Ireland’s elder statespeople to see just how far we’ve come as a country

As a documentary on Eamon de Valera’s time in America airs, historian and author Ryle Dwyer looks at how history is taught here — and explains why he did not take the subject for his Leaving Cert.

A Cork-made documentary recalls Éamon de Valera’s eventful trip to the US to drum up support for Irish independence, writes Richard Fitzpatrick.

It’s 100 years since the specialised unit of IRA assassins undertook their first operation. Ryle Dwyer looks at the early days of a group who’d have a crucial role in the struggle

For the generations born in Ireland since the end of the Second World War it is understandably difficult for some of them to envisage the state of public opinion on the issue of Irish neutrality during WWII.

The issue of partition poisoned Irish politics for decades as Ireland sought to withdraw from the UK. Now it’s posing a constitutional problem for Britain, writes Ryle Dwyer

A new TV series looks at Ireland’s struggle for freedom by focusing on the part played by ordinary people throughout the country, writes Áilin Quinlan.

On International Men’s Day, Donal O’Keeffe asked some well-known Irish men for their thoughts on what it means to be a man, and what they’d tell their younger selves about masculinity

In volume two of his biography of Éamon de Valera, covering 1932-1975, the RTÉ journalist David McCullough paints a complex picture, writes Ryle Dwyer.

Michael D mastered the speech of protest the better to deliver it from the palace balcony, writes Gerard Howlin

With a referendum on Article 41.2, Alexandra Tierney says the Government and public can continue to address gender inequality and the issues associated with it head on.

Presidential elections are that rare example of turkeys voting for Christmas, in the sense that except for a single bird destined to nest in the Áras, the others will be roughly stuffed before being roasted.

Next Tuesday marks the origins of an American conspiracy to depict Éamon de Valera and his government as morally indifferent to the outcome of the Second World War. Historian and author Ryle Dwyer argues that false claims about neutrality have produced possibly the greatest distortion of Irish history since independence.

With incredulity, I listened to Galway councillor, Oliver Crowe, of Fianna Fáil, on RTÉ’s Drivetime radio show.

The presidential election race will only be fairly run if the media asks the tough questions of all candidates, including Michael D Higgins, writes businessman and presidential election candidate

Okay folks, it’s showtime! The late PJ Mara’s open invitation to electioneer and party would have nothing on President Michael D Higgins, writes Gerard Howlin.

Early governments acted as if Irish independence amounted to Rome Rule. It took the revelation of the clerical sex abuse scandal to end such deference, writes Ryle Dwyer

With ink in his veins and who once famously described himself as “a chemist by training, a shovel engineer by vocation, and a manager by desperation” is the first person in the history of the Cork Person of the Year Awards to be inducted into a Hall of Fame.

A lock of hair from the legendary French general Napoleon Bonaparte can be bought for €200, writes Sarah Slater

Like all the best Irish antiquarian sites, there’s very little brouhaha about it on the road, writes Colm O’Regan.

In Burying Peter Sutherland tomorrow, we lay to rest one of very few who rose out

The first volume of a new biography of Éamon de Valera delves into such areas as his childhood and also his difficult relationship with Michael Collins, writes Ryle Dwyer.

Here's your morning news bulletin...

This Saturday at 8.30pm the Sinn Féin ard fheis will go live on RTÉ from the RDS. Gerry Adams will share his intentions and timeline for stepping down as party leader, writes Gerard Howlin. 

The darkest part of Éamon de Valera’s political life is chronicled in a new book that whets the appetite for the second volume, writes Ryle Dwyer.

Ryle Dwyer looks back at the origins of the Rose of Tralee festival and how it captured the public imagination right from the beginning

Martin has done a decent job of reversing the fortunes of Fianna Fail since its devastating defeat in the general election of 2011 but he is not the complete leader even still, writes Daniel McConnell

Ryle Dwyer recalls the assassination of Kevin O’Higgins and how, many years later, his family decided to have Mass said for his three killers

Leo Varadkar became Ireland’s 14th different head of government earlier this month. Here, Ryle Dwyer assesses the legacies left behind by the Taoiseach’s predecessors.

It was far from de Valera’s comely lasses dancing at the crossroads proportions, but perhaps given the notorious difficulties at the centre of the issue a tango on the border will more than suffice.

Previously unseen poems, slogans, and autographs of Michael Collins, Arthur Griffith, and Countess Markievicz capture the swarm of republican activity in Clare to kickstart Éamon de Valera’s political career 100 years ago.

Irish Examiner readers share their memories and photographs of Ford as part of the company's #Ford100 centenary celebrations.

Enda Kenny is coming under increasing pressure to declare his intentions about his departure as he today becomes the longest-serving Fine Gael taoiseach.

Des O’Sullivan on an important and historic sale of primary sources for the Irish revolutionary period. 

FOR generations this society, the more polite tiers of it anyway, avoided conflict by dodging red-button issues. 

Des Breen looks at a landmark book which not only shines a light on the creativity of Irish artists and writers, but also on the philistinism of the nation.

A Dublin man accused of vandalising the headstone of former president and taoiseach Éamon de Valera told gardaí he was guilty, a court has heard.

Tim Pat Coogan’s new book on Michael Collins’ hit-squad during the War of Independence is entitled The Twelve Apostles. In fact, members of the squad never referred to themselves in that way, says Ryle Dwyer

Forgotten Patriot is the story of Douglas Hyde, the first President of Ireland under the 1937 Constitution. He founded the Gaelic League in 1893 and was therefore responsible for the “cultural proselytising from which Irish sovereignty flowed,” according to Brian Murphy.

As of 1940, primary school was the sole source of education for 90% of the population. Fifty years ago, Donogh O’Malley outlined an initiative that would finally change all that, writes Ryle Dwyer