“The Trad Wife thing has very little to do with what real women did 50 years ago” Nollaig na mBan in 2026

Joining Dearbhail to discuss the modern meaning and relevance of Nollaig na mBan (“women’s Christmas”) are activist and founder of Topical Popical, Andrea Horan; interfaith minister, singer and theolo...

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Catherine Prasifka: For young adults without a home of their own, Christmas is not a return to childhood but a reminder they never left

Christmas is a holiday that we celebrate at home. The dining table and fireplace take centre stage. We watch movies on the couch, there’s mulled wine and hot chocolate brewing on the hob, and on Chris...

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Catherine Prasifka: We should be wary of those who want to preserve their own version of the past

Irish folklore is having a moment. Whether it’s the ubiquity of Claddagh jewellery, St Brigid getting her own bank holiday or the Morrígan finding her way into one of the most popular romantasy book s...

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Catherine Prasifka: Why are there no safe areas for children to socialise online?

There is no version of the internet that is safe for children. There is simply no way to securely fence in an area where children can exist online and interact with only other children and their paren...

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Catherine Prasifka: Giving up pleasure and forcing your body to suffer is too high a price for thinness

It would be incorrect to say that skinny is back. Skinny simply never went away. The last few decades have given us different versions of it – everything from heroin chic to the curvier Kim Kardash­ia...

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Catherine Prasifka: Yes, they’re ‘winter’ lights, not Christmas ones – after all, what have laser beams shooting from the Spire got to do with the birth of Jesus?

Dublin City Council’s annual collection of twinkling lights and projections are coming back to the city this year.

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Catherine Prasifka: There is no ethical way to be a billionaire and near-trillionaire Elon Musk is living proof

Growing up, once children learn to recognise themselves in the mirror, they begin to ask themselves some important questions.

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Catherine Prasifka: Why ‘performative’ racism on social media is a growing threat we can no longer ignore

It must have been easier to get into ­politics before the internet. Before digital cameras and social media sites. Before everything came with a paper trail. Before consequences.

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Catherine Prasifka: Rise of the pornbots – how AI standards are being lowered to seduce us with titillating tech

Forget hover cars, jetpacks and colonising Mars – the strangest people you know have found a way to let you have sex with the dictionary. Finally.

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Catherine Prasifka: Bizarre and unfunny memes are rotting young people’s brains

Brainrot is a word that has come to define much of the content on our phones. It is content that is usually absurd, notably low in quality, sometimes offensive and always addictive. It keeps you scrol...

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Catherine Prasifka: Online debate has changed how we engage with politics, and it’s not good

Watching the presidential debate on Monday night, I could not escape the creeping feeling that it is all a bit pointless.

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Catherine Prasifka: ‘The Traitors’ brought us together to enjoy and laugh at our shared Irishness

In the age of streaming, it is rare to sit down with friends and find you are all watching the same thing.

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Catherine Prasifka: When online words have such immense consequences, influencers must own what they say

Thirty years ago, if you had 10,000 followers you would have been a successful cult leader. Today, 10,000 followers will not even qualify you to be an influencer – there will be no brand deals or free...

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Catherine Prasifka: Don’t buy into the tech bros’ claims that AI can replace creativity, all it feeds us is slop

C AO offer day is not easy. The queasy anticipation, the fear, the unshakeable feeling that whatever offer you get will set you on an irreversible collision course with your future. The hope that all ...

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Catherine Prasifka: Donald Trump’s ‘gotcha politics’ made him king – now Gavin Newsom is after his crown

A political shift is happening on X. Recently, your feed may have been dominated by AI-generated photos of California governor Gavin Newsom. He might have been riding a dinosaur and waving the America...

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Catherine Prasifka: From ‘RushTok’ to Sydney Sweeney – why mindless scrolling is a threat to feminism

Every August, TikTok gets taken over by “RushTok” – the term for content created by, and centring on, hopeful new recruits for American college sororities. The name comes from “rush week”, the period ...

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Catherine Prasifka: The robots are here, and there’s a creeping sense the tech bros have created a world to which we never consented

We may already have the word of the year, if not the decade: clanker. Originating from the Star Wars universe, it has become a catch-all term used to refer to robots and AI. Any technology can be refe...

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Catherine Prasifka: Silence is golden, but finding time to enjoy it without distractions is almost impossible

We are all adept multi- taskers: listening to music while we walk, watching a show while we cook, messaging a friend while we are reading a book. With phones, laptops and televisions all within easy r...

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Catherine Prasifka: Unskippable ads are just the latest social media ruse designed to undermine EU regulation

Instagram users may have noticed a change in their app experience over the last week: strange pop-ups that you cannot skip, vague regulatory language dressed up in preppy social media speak, blue hype...

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Catherine Prasifka: We’re terrified of being labelled ‘cringe’, but I’d rather embrace it than live in fear

Forgetting the name of someone you just met at a party – that’s cringe. Referencing a meme that’s gone stale? That’s cringe. The video of all the celebrities singing Imagine during the pandemic? Unima...

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Catherine Prasifka: Elon Musk gives us his sci-fi villain’s vision of the future — a chatbot that takes off its lingerie

Elon Musk is a science-fiction fan who refuses to learn anything from classic works of science fiction.

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Catherine Prasifka: Micro studios may be a safe investment, but they are another slap in the face for young people

The Government continues to struggle to meet its housing targets, and it is all out of ideas. Except for one: what if apartments were smaller? What if they pared back regulation and allowed developers...

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Catherine Prasifka: Fate of Tiny Chef is a salutary tale about how short life is in attention economy

It is likely that you have never heard of Tiny Chef, the stop-motion character who starred in an Emmy-winning Nick Jr show. And if you have heard of him, it’s probably because you saw his heartbreakin...

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Catherine Prasifka: Chatbots trawled our data, now they’re mining our deepest feelings

Over the last 15 years, we have seen technology replace humans in countless ways. Supermarket cashiers and customer service operators have been replaced by technology. Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa ...

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Catherine Prasifka: J1 student summer no longer seems sweet with threat of social media surveillance

Foreign students applying for visas to study in the US are now required to list “all social media user names or handles of every platform they have used from the last five years” on their application ...

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