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Martina Devlin Opinion Why I fought for years to ensure the victims of Ireland’s last witch trial are remembered

It’s not often the wrongs of the past are righted and lingering injustices recognised. But it happened this week when eight women and one man convicted of witchcraft – an invented crime – were commemorated with a public plaque near where the sorcery allegedly took place.

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Martina Devlin Opinion Jeffrey Donaldson can bang his ‘I’m British’ drum, but he must face the music on the Windsor Framework

President Joe Biden’s Secret Service codename is Celtic, an identifier he selected himself. It is traditional for US presidents and their vice-presidents to pick an alias, and their choice is instructive: Bill Clinton was Eagle, John F Kennedy was Lancer, Ronald Reagan was Rawhide, Barack Obama was Renegade and Donald Trump was Mogul.

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Martina Devlin Opinion What’s worse: giving landlords incentives or watching families becoming homeless?

If there’s a more comforting word than “home”, I don’t know it. Our home is our castle, our sanctuary, our port in a storm – it represents shelter and peace. Never mind financial security – homes offer emotional security, the real treasure chest.

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Martina Devlin Opinion Cold reality hitting home for DUP as trade deal to happen with or without its approval

Can you picture them? The DUP’s legal and constitutional experts poring over details in the Windsor Framework? Me neither. The party isn’t scrutinising the fine print or checking footnotes, it’s playing for time – finger in the air to test which way the wind is blowing.

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Martina Devlin Opinion Shooting of police officer in Omagh is a worrying reminder of our darkest days, but we must remember the progress that has been made

The gun attack on Detective Chief Inspector John Caldwell – father, police officer, football coach who works with young people – was carried out against an individual.

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Martina Devlin Opinion Enoch Burke is a history teacher on the wrong side of history

Teachers are likely to have convictions on all sorts of matters. Every week during term, I teach Irish literature to university students, and during those classes I don’t share my views on the need for more women in politics, or structural failures contributing to the accommodation crisis, or the benefits of Irish unity.

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Martina Devlin Opinion Bertie Ahern’s expertise on Northern Ireland means he still has contribution to make to island’s politics

Bertie Ahern coming back into the Fianna Fáil fold is a welcome development because of his expertise on the North, where he understands co-operation is essential.

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Martina Devlin Opinion Caring, clever and ‘as tough as old boots’ – St Brigid remains an inspiration for women

Unruly women. Unmanageable women. Unconventional women. That is Brigid’s legacy, and it is as important as the miracle-worker legends surrounding her name. Whether abbess or goddess, rule-breaker or realpolitik operator – hers is a composite image – she is an icon for female leadership and independent thinking.

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Martina Devlin Opinion Giving refugees a €20 voucher and then leaving them to sleep in doorways is simply immoral

Take a closer look at the following phrases: “Tsunami of homelessness”; “Migration crisis”; “Worst homeless crisis in years”; “Charities working around the clock”; and “Urgent action needed”. We’re hearing them increasingly, but these are not commonplace expressions to be glossed over, for they signal something appalling happening in our midst.

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Martina Devlin Opinion Time for talking is long over as shortage of dentists sends Ireland closer to crisis point

The proverb about a stitch in time saving nine was first noted down in 1732, meaning its truth has been widely acknowledged for the best part of 300 years. It suggests prevention is better than cure, and nowhere does this apply more tellingly than to pain.

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Martina Devlin Opinion DUP must give up its divisive sabre-rattling and do what’s best for people of the North

Troy was the capital of a rich and powerful kingdom which fell to the Greeks by deception – the Trojan horse ruse, according to the Iliad. This episode in one of the oldest works of literature still widely read by modern audiences continues to cast a spell, including on hard-line loyalists convinced the Northern Ireland Protocol is another Trojan horse engineered to con them out of the UK.

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Martina Devlin Opinion I once spent 20 hours in A&E seriously ill: the scenes I witnessed will never leave me

Some experiences never leave your memory. Almost 17 years ago, I spent 20 hours on a trolley in an overcrowded, overwhelmed accident and emergency department waiting to be diagnosed and admitted to a ward. Waiting to be noticed, it felt for most of that time. The misery, confusion and sense of being overlooked are unforgettable.

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Martina Devlin Opinion The Seanad serves a strong purpose but it remains let down by an elitist and undemocratic voting process

I can’t let the year draw to a close without admitting to something I got wrong. It’s taken me nine years to recognise it, but better late than never.

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Martina Devlin Opinion Cast the Aras voting net wide to include Irish citizens in the North and farther afield

This year, we’ve heard more than usual about democracy because of war in Ukraine and the fallout from the Trump presidency playing out in court. It’s important to remember that democracy doesn’t just sit there like a garden ornament – it’s a loaf of bread, and, like bread, democracy must be remade regularly.

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Martina Devlin Opinion Naming a hospital after Dr Kathleen Lynn in a nation that betrayed its women would send a powerful message

Imagine a world without Dr Kathleen Lynn. Would St Ultan’s Hospital for Sick Infants – where women and children from the crowded, unsanitary Dublin slums were treated for free – have opened its doors without her dynamism, medical expertise and social conscience?

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Martina Devlin Opinion If a united Ireland is a viable prospect, we need to be more precise about what it means

No conversation should grind to a halt because of disagreement: a difference of opinion is no reason to stop talking. Happily, we’re addicted to talking in this country, and it’s happening to some purpose with widespread discussion about constitutional possibilities – even if views diverge on the best way to proceed.

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Martina Devlin Opinion Don’t be a waster – it’s not an option if we want to be serious about saving the planet

One scorching summer, when the tar melted across the seat of every pair of shorts I owned – my mother tried to remove it with butter, and issued a ban (ignored) against sitting on the ground – I dipped my toe into entrepreneurship.

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Martina Devlin Opinion Sea may separate Scotland and the North, but they are united by the waves of change

The Ulster Hall is a landmark building opened in 1862 in the centre of industrial powerhouse Belfast at a time when the British empire appeared unstoppable. It is weighty with its own iconography – the site of notable loyalist rallies, including Edward Carson firing up unionism against Home Rule.

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Martina Devlin Opinion After years of silence, the victims of abuse at Blackrock College finally have a voice

“It wasn’t just a Blackrock College thing, definitely not. This was society – a societal issue. We gave them [the clergy] reverence. We gave them a free hand to do what they wanted because they were so respected. They were part of the establishment. There are similar stories from other fee-paying schools and from state schools. It went on in every school in Ireland.”

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Martina Devlin Opinion Jeffrey Donaldson’s hardline protocol strategy is destined to fail and leave the DUP divided

There must be quite a few DUP members and supporters scratching their heads over Jeffrey Donaldson’s strategy. He is a 21st century Grand Old Duke of York, having marched his people up to the top of the hill, only to leave them standing about with nowhere to go.

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Martina Devlin Opinion DUP is playing with fire by refusing to end engagement with loyalists following threats

As the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement appears on the horizon, isn’t it high time paramilitaries were removed from influence in political decision-making in Northern Ireland? They were essential to deliver the peace treaty, but their role should have faded by now.

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Martina Devlin Opinion Weary voters worried about paying winter bills may not forgive the DUP if election Part II is called

Which of the following statements from Jeffrey Donaldson is true: “I’m not afraid to have an election every Thursday for the next six months” or “I’m not afraid to make a nuisance of my party” or “I’m not afraid of political reality although can someone check behind the sofa for me” or “I’m not afraid to take my case to the people”?

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Martina Devlin Opinion An unshakable resolve persists in Ukraine, says Kyiv writer Victoria Amelina as she shares horrific war truths

A constant state of terror is what onlookers might expect from civilians in a war zone. Instead, from Ukraine comes a strengthened resolve to continue with life as normal. A playground hit by a rocket blast? Repair the damage and reopen the climbing frame and swings. A crater in a busy road from another missile strike? Fill it in. Keep schools, shops and restaurants open, go to concerts and poetry readings – defy the madness.

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Martina Devlin Opinion How the mother of Ciara Pugsley, who died by suicide at 15, used nature to help her on journey through grief

“The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough,” wrote the Bengali polymath Rabindranath Tagore, who was awarded the 1913 Nobel Prize in Literature for his poetry. Nature in general, and butterflies in particular, have helped Aggie Flanagan cope with the unfathomable loss of her daughter.

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Martina Devlin Opinion Creeslough: The community mourns deeply – I saw that happen in my hometown of Omagh, it’s happening again

An intake of breath born of shock, a hope we misheard or misread the news, a sense of “there but for the grace of God goes any one of us” – it is impossible not to feel orphaned, in some shape of form, by the Creeslough disaster.

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Martina Devlin Opinion A new Stormont election looms large – and it seems as though a united Ireland could too

An election is a way of telling whether the powers that be are the powers they ought to be, because how they react to the message from voters is instructive.

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Martina Devlin Opinion Maeve Binchy’s homespun wisdom and brilliance as a storyteller will echo through the ages

It was such a deceptively simple, Maeve-like way of explaining something. We were talking about manuscripts being turned down by publishers and how writers had to believe in their work and persevere. “It’s like if you don’t go to a dance you can never be rejected, but you won’t get to dance either,” Maeve Binchy told me.

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What will it take to unite Ireland? Opinions are divided

There are those for whom Northern Ireland is a geographical fragment of the UK holding true to empire on its western flanks, and those for whom partition is a century-old wrong that must be overturned. Somewhere in the middle are the persuadables — people willing to accept either unity or union, so long as the justification is logical. One way or another, the unity conversation is in the air.

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Martina Devlin Opinion Secular society, Brexit and looser ties of identity point only one way for Northern Ireland

“Lord, we know what we are, but know not what we may be,” Ophelia says in Hamlet. Change is hard-wired into the human condition and is often invisible to the naked eye, but – unusually – the Northern Ireland census returns show it happening right before our gaze.

All The Broken Places by John Boyne: A sister’s lifetime in the shadow of the death camps

When he wrote The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas more than 15 years ago, John Boyne could never have imagined the novel’s impact on his life and career. It went on to sell 11 million copies and counting, delivered an international audience for his work and meant everything he wrote afterwards would attract attention.