The party has not been forgiven for the austerity measures of its coalition with Fine Gael and will struggle to hold its seven seats.

For the first time, more than 30%of candidates will be women.

When he first got into politics Leo Varadkar was seen as a maverick, he was candid, but he quickly became regarded as prioritising spin over substance, writes Michael Clifford.

A situation of unprecedented gravity is being revealed before our eyes.

I can’t get over the hypocrisy of Minister Ciaran Cannon’s criticism of the University of Notre Dame, Indiana, for hosting John Waters’ lecture, When Evil Becomes Virtual, writes Victora White. 

Every child born here on November 10, 2012, was born full of potential but about 30 of them will an entire lifetime where discrimination will be the thing they’re guaranteed, writes Fergus Finlay

Fiann Ó Nualláin meets a food grower whose seed of an idea has blossomed into a wonderful movement.

Those otherwise engaged during Saturday’s Tyrone-Monaghan game and unfamiliar with the emerging crop of Tyrone footballers will have been perplexed by seeing the name of Tiernan McCann listed among the trending topics on Twitter late on Saturday evening.

Roscommon native Jennifer Hough looks at why her home county was the only one with a no majority in the marriage referendum — and the implications of this

Selecting the right candidates for the general election is a big problem, writes Gary Murphy

When watching John Waters on TV, debating the same-sex marriage referendum, I was struck by his resemblance to Jesus Christ, bearded and with long, flowing hair.

Je ne suis pas Charlie. 

Suzanne Harrington is sick of it all. Sick of their facial hair, their bikes, their faux veganism and most of all, hipsters’ pretentious and herd mentality

Catherine Conlon

John Waters

THE film director John Waters – Baltimore’s beloved Pope of Trash, with his pencil thin moustache and fine eye for comedic sleaze – is a massive bibliophile.

RTÉ has received a dressing down for remarks fashion designer Paul Costelloe made on air that the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland found offensive to women.

Convicted criminals have been gifted more than €750,000 in ‘bus money’ on release from jail over the past five years.

IT has always struck me as a bit unseemly when people in the same profession go for each other in print or online. So I never have.

IN THE course of the children’s rights referendum campaign — on October 31st, 2012, to be exact — I took part in a debate with John Waters and Kathy Sinnott.

A long and extensive apology proposed by journalist John Waters following comments made about him on The Saturday Night Show was “not acceptable” to RTÉ, the broadcaster said.

WHEN did Barack Obama cease to be homophobic? Is Enda Kenny redeemed from his homophobia? If some of the hoopla of recent days is to be taken seriously, then anybody who doesn’t favour same sex marriage can be described as homophobic.

RELAXING into the ritual of a soft-boiled egg on Sunday morning I was astonished, actually envious, to read in several newspapers that RTÉ paid out €85,000 to named people ostensibly libelled when called homophobic by Rory O’Neill aka the drag-artist Panti Bliss on the Saturday Night Show.

They might be the bane of motorists like John Waters but parking charges are generating more than €360m each year in Ireland.

THE first move of a totalitarian regime is to lock up the writers and intellectuals. They came for John Waters in the dead of night. Well, they didn’t, but they might as well have.

The challenges facing journalism in a changing media landscape and an increasingly partisan society were addressed at a weekend conference.

Huddleston Road

Huddleston Road