Society

Keith Duggan went to America to watch a colllege-football game. He came home to the Irish Times with a remarkable piece of militarist propaganda. By Harry Browne.

Rhetoric and reality have only a glancing relationship with each other in the Government's Medium-Term Fiscal Statement. By Michael Taft.

So we have more austerity and less growth, more debt and fewer jobs, more spending cuts and less investment – welcome to the Government’s Medium-Term Fiscal Statement.

A ghost story writer without equal, M.R. James's tales of the supernatural have terrified generations of readers. Now a Trinity College professor has edited the definitive edition of James's stories. The perfect book to rediscover on these dark winter nights, the Collected Ghost Stories of M.R. James is a masterclass in the uncanny, but don't be surprised if you find yourself sleeping with the light on. By Ed O'Hare.

Reports of a recovery in 2012 have been greatly exaggerated. By Michael Taft.

If I hear one more time that we have exited the recession I’m going to put my head through the computer screen. We’ve come to expect this line from cabinet ministers. But when commentators and media interviewers keep repeating this, per ministerial press statements, well...it’s getting a bit much. And when you add in the insult of paying of Anglo bondholders (€700 million on Tuesday, €1.25 billion in January), well...the economy sinks but bank creditors are 'recovering'.

ICTU's pre-budget submission outlines a set of concrete alternatives to the Government's austerity policies. However, the real test is what strategy the organisation will pursue to mobilise the broadest possible coalition to support that set of alternatives. By Michael Taft.

The obesity crisis won't be solved if policymakers continue to focus on individual choices while ignoring the bigger picture. By Anke Klitzing.

The reduction of public policy issues to simple economic calculus is a practice that needs to be challenged. By Frank Groome.

During the 1990s and 2000s, the Irish Celtic Tiger model of development was hailed as a model for other European countries, but the global economic crisis has completely removed the credibility of Ireland’s approach. So where does the country go now? By Peader Kirby and Mary P. Murphy. [Event details below]

The biggest ever study of its kind has shown there are no links between mobile phone use and the development of brain and central nervous system tumours, writes John Holden.

/>Third time's a charm. Following on from two previous posts (here and here), tracking the stat-bending the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council was engaged in, we can now put that issue to rest.