It was George Orwell who warned what he believed to be our decaying civilisation about the consequences of debased language, noting that “if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought”.

The Manic Street Preachers are looking forward to headlining Indiependence in Co Cork next weekend, writes Ed Power

IT is now nearly 70 years since George Orwell’s fabulously dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four was published and in that time it has become one of the most influential books ever written. 

Hello and here is the fake news. Well, some of it is fake, and some of it is not. You’ll just have to figure it out – using your emotions. Because that’s what we do now. Who needs facts and experts when we have feelings and social media? asks Suzanne Harrington

It is only 22 years since 800,000 people were slaughtered in Rwanda, most of them hacked to death in an orgy of violence that focused the attention of the world’s media on the tiny, landlocked African nation.

One of the standouts in Dave Lordan’s Young Irelanders collection of new Irish writers in 2015, Oisin Fagan won the Penny Dreadful litmag’s €10,000 novella award this summer for The Hierophants and followed it up by releasing Hostages.

Your letters, your views...

Trump’s election has continued a trend in the US of dumbing down political life that has pushed the country down a perilous path, writes Nina Khrushcheva.

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WHEN Christopher Hitchens died from oesophageal cancer in December 2011, the world of letters lost one of its most compelling and provocative minds. 

You might expect hefty Russian tome War And Peace to be the book that people are most likely to have lied about reading. 

Despite the western world being under attack from ISIS and other Islamist/jihadist groups, the greatest threat to our survival comes from within. 

The Beginners Guide to Bondage, Domination and Sado Masochism is currently on sale in Irish book stores across the country and probably across the world.

Marriage is a legal institution with a purpose: Children. For that reason it is the union of a man and a woman and anything else is something else, argues Paddy Manning.

The foundation which operates Wikipedia has issued new criticism of the ‘right to be forgotten’ ruling, calling it "unforgivable censorship".

THE two faces of Simon Coveney clearly had poor little Richard Bruton running scared.

Ukraine are due to play the United States tomorrow in one of those matches which cries out for George Orwell to do the post-match analysis in the studio.

Such, Such, Were the Joys An Essay

Over the last decade we have witnessed the results of effectively giving unfettered power to particular groups in the economy and how society as a whole is the worse for the experience.

Pressure is increasing on the justice minister to explain how he obtained confidential garda information which he used to try and damage an Independent TD’s reputation.

I applaud the brave and honourable gardaí who have sought to highlight possible malpractice in relation to penalty points.

Your report (Mar 6) that the Taoiseach and Tánaiste plan to “outline today progress on the programme for Government” under an event entitled “The Plan Is Working”, sat very uneasily alongside another waffle-free report that clearly showed the opposite; the report of the 36% surge in the numbers of households unable to afford to maintain their gas supply.

Margaret Thatcher never paid much attention to football, but last week football was remembering her.

As the US election gets to the business end of the campaign, with the Republican convention, we will no doubt witness the now usual smear tactics of both sides.

If George Orwell, creator of the Big Brother concept of the state snooping on citizens, were alive today, he would be entitled to say “I told you so”.

Joey Barton today evoked the spirit of the first president of the United States as he continued his Twitter campaign against the Newcastle hierarchy.

EVER since the glory days of Wham! western bands have been trying to strike it big in China.

THE political expenses scandal got me thinking about Fianna Fáil, the Greens and Animal Farm by George Orwell. The last sentence of Orwell’s masterpiece reads: “As the animals look from Napoleon to Pilkington, from man to pig and from pig back to man, they find that they are unable to tell the difference.”

NEWS Corporation chief James Murdoch last night called for a radical overhaul of broadcasting in Britain to preserve journalistic independence and fuel innovation.

BY chance, I found George Orwell’s 1984 in a second-hand shop a while ago.

TWENTY years ago today the Chinese authorities crushed a pro-democracy demonstration in Tiananmen Square. Hundreds, some say thousands, of demonstrators were either shot or crushed under tanks.

THIS TIME last year Galway were building up a head of steam after a sprightly start to their Division 1 campaign under new manager Liam Sammon. They met Donegal in Ballybofey and a narrow one-point margin in the home side’s favour meant a first defeat for Sammon.

ONE of the surreal characters created by Myles na gCopaleen offered a service for those who wished to appear well-read but would rather play golf, go the pub or watch the footie.

EVERY year it rolls around, and every year, despite the intellectual abasement, the blatant psychological abuse of ill-educated individuals, not to mention the exploitation of the psychiatrically unsound… regardless of all these factors, people tune in in their millions.

LAST week I was very morose (in case you hadn’t noticed). I was being haunted by the Chelsea Ghost of Christmas Past.

TELEVISION is by far our most powerful medium, but the inclusion of Big Brother in the schedules is hard to understand.

Oscar-winner Tim Robbins blasted US President George W Bush's invasion of Iraq yesterday, and challenged the American media to stand up and criticise their leader.

Sinn Féin and the Democratic Unionists were today expected to be accused of carving up the peace process in the North to serve their own interests.

Author Mark Haddon was celebrating today after his novel The Curious Incident of The Dog in the Night-Time scooped the Whitbread Book of The Year award.

MARY Gallagher’s excellent letter on Orwell’s prediction of political correctness (Irish Examiner, May 2) in regard to the ‘New Word Order’ article (Irish Examiner, April 30) speculates that the thought police will follow the language police.