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Mary Kenny Opinion Dragon, autocrat, sometimes bigot – yet Dublin’s Archbishop John Charles McQuaid had a redeeming side

New Irish citizens are sometimes encouraged to acquaint themselves with the history and culture of modern Ireland. Perhaps the life and times of Dr John Charles McQuaid – who died 50 years ago this Good Friday – might provide a useful insight into some of this hinterland.

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Mary Kenny Opinion The likes of Harry and Meghan might reject gender stereotypes, but ‘mother’ won’t be erased from the English language any time soon

And, lo, it seems, Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle have lent their support to a movement against “gendering” babies before they are born. So, expectant mother, now you’ve seen the scan, are you having a boy or a girl? Oh, no: you could be guilty of applying “gender stereotypes” to the tots even before they are born! And, by the way, don’t use the word “expectant mother” – that’s a gender stereotype too. Say, instead, “birth-giver”. And while you’re at it, don’t say “mother” or “father” at all – they are prime gender stereotypes.

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Mary Kenny Opinion Giving an Oscar to McDonagh’s boring and cruel ‘Banshees’ would have been a travesty

It had so many Oscar nominations, and such high praise, that I felt I must see it. And I stuck it out for its near two-hour running time in a sparsely attended cinema where some patrons left halfway through. At least the Achill scenery in The Banshees of Inisherin was captivating, and it features an adorable little donkey.

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Mary Kenny Opinion I never foresaw our 1970s feminism becoming the mainstream movement it is today

I sometimes receive emails, or even occasionally get stopped in the street, by women saying “thank you for all you have done for women”. For this kindness, I feel both grateful and unworthy. I was just one of a group of women who, back in the 1970s, launched the Irish Women’s Liberation Movement, which seems to have put feminism on the map.

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Mary Kenny Opinion From John and Mary to Romeo and Phoebe – how our popular baby names have evolved

Names given to Irish babies are certainly more varied than they used to be. Rian and Éabha, Noah and Grace, Theo and Fiadh, Adam and Caoimhe have superseded the more predictable patterns of John (or Seán) and Mary, which led the pack in 1972.

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Mary Kenny Opinion The latest way to help the planet? Return to the habit of keeping Fridays as fish day

Here’s a bright new idea: Church of England bishops are urging their adherents to take up an innovative Lenten practice, starting today – eat fish on Fridays.

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Mary Kenny Opinion The world’s biggest population explosion? The huge increase in living grandparents

Say “population explosion” and images of babies, perhaps in China or sub-Saharan Africa, may come to mind. But the real population explosion that’s happened in recent times is the dramatic increase in the worldwide number of grandparents.

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Mary Kenny Opinion Brendan Behan at 100: He was outrageous, self-destructive, but a national legend

I was 12 years old when I met Brendan Behan – this was the autumn of 1956, during an event for the Dublin Theatre Festival. My elder brother Carlos had been a drinking crony of Brendan’s – who hadn’t been? – and I was duly presented as the little sister.

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Mary Kenny Opinion Never give advice – it infringes upon others’ autonomy, and you’ll be blamed anyway

Many moons ago, when I was about to get married, an older female colleague, who was a feminist, took me aside and advised me not to proceed. The type of man I was marrying, she said, would never be “husband material” – he was by nature a footloose bohemian, unlikely to “settle down” to domestic tranquillity.

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Mary Kenny Opinion Homework’s best lesson is about life and not just about our standards in education

The headlines said that President Michael D Higgins wanted a “ban” on school homework. He wasn’t quite that dogmatic – but he did make a suggestion that time at school “should get finished at school”; and when pupils come home, they should be “able to use their time for other creative things”.

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Mary Kenny Opinion We should drop the phrase ‘toxic masculinity’ and find positive ways to let boys be boys

Here’s a conundrum: when I was young, there was plenty of sexism around. Women were excluded from all kinds of spheres, and episodes such as the “wolf-whistle” (in Dublin, there was also a tongue-click sound) were commonly directed towards women.

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Mary Kenny Opinion Margo Magan’s story: Mother of 12 and champion swimmer whose life tells the tale of a vanishing Ireland

Earlier this month, a Co Longford farmer, Mike Magan, posted a tribute on Twitter to his mother, Margo, who had just died aged 94. Margo was the mother of 12 children – one of whom died soon after birth – as well as a swimming champion and a golf ace. Her son’s post received 380,000 views or shares on the social media network.

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Mary Kenny Opinion Oldies of the world unite – and take feisty, glamorous Joan Collins as your role model

The world of 2023 has many woes and sadnesses, but if there is one thing that cheers me up, it’s a picture of Joan Collins taking a swimming dip in California over the recent festive season.

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Mary Kenny Opinion In the country Ireland once was, nuns did the heavy lifting, so don’t write them off

Lists of famous and distinguished Irishwomen don’t very often include nuns, who have in recent times tended to get a bad press.

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Mary Kenny Opinion At Christmas, keep the family peace – the rows aren’t worth all the hurt that follows

There are families that are paragons of mutual love and support. There are siblings who will go to the ends of the earth for each other – women who will be surrogate mothers to a sister’s child, brothers who will defend one another to the hilt.

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Mary Kenny Opinion When Britain’s leaders had a Christian identity – but with varying degrees of zeal

Christmas is coming, but according to the latest census data, Britain is no longer a majority Christian country. For the first time in recorded history, the number of Christians in England and Wales has fallen below 50pc.

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Mary Kenny Opinion Let’s face facts – the wealth and success of Ireland today owes much to the English language

The sums of money currently rolling into the Irish Exchequer are amazing – revenues are hitting a record this year at €23bn. An American financial source predicts that this tax take will climb to €26bn shortly. The State has never been so rich.

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Mary Kenny Opinion Rejoice! At long last, the tiresome process of airport security is set to be overhauled

It was just a short city break to Copenhagen with my son, earlier this year. As we went through security at Gatwick, the operator took up my little plastic bag of permitted cosmetics, removing each mini-item, examining make-up, mini-shampoos, and tiny containers of cleansing rose-water with the forensic eye of a laboratory investigator looking for deadly toxins.

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Mary Kenny Opinion Michelle Obama, Amal Clooney and Melinda French Gates prove that marriage isn’t an obstacle to feminist goals

Are Michelle Obama, Amal Clooney and Melinda French Gates the three most influential feminist figures in the world? After they joined together to launch the Get Her There movement, to advance the empowerment of girls worldwide, many saw the trio as dazzling icons for female achievement.

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Mary Kenny Opinion An Irish passport is highly prized – but it shouldn’t be just a flag of convenience

I’VE always encouraged people of Irish heritage to apply for an Irish passport; and this month, as we have been informed by Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney, such encouragement has reached unprecedented success.

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Mary Kenny Opinion Population growth will provide the people to solve all these problems our planet faces

Today, Tuesday November 15, is a milestone in our planet’s history: there will be an estimated eight billion people on Earth – the largest number ever.

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Mary Kenny Opinion Stricter laws simply don’t deter problem drinkers. An alcoholic will always get hold of liquor

Public health doctors have been objecting to the proposed liberalisation of the licensing laws – pubs and clubs will be allowed to stay open until the small hours, and there are concerns that revellers will be reeling home at 6am after a night of heavy drinking.

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Mary Kenny Opinion If men want to yammer on about sport, then let them – it helps them connect emotionally

I was travelling on a train from Dublin to Cork, and near me sat two Dublin men. Throughout the entire journey they managed to keep up a fluent dialogue about English football teams. From Aston Villa to Sheffield Wednesday, from Crystal Palace to Manchester City the conversation flowed eloquently. I was in awe at the minutiae of their knowledge and expertise. And if the topic of their discourse lacked a certain variety, it was nonetheless better than sitting in sullen silence, or glued to their phones.

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Mary Kenny Opinion Critics call it damaging drivel, but latest series of ‘The Crown’ will attract record numbers of viewers

So, who will be watching the new series of The Crown, which will be on Netflix from November 9? Probably as many people – more than 17 million – who watched the last confected drama about the British royal family.

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Mary Kenny Opinion By representing the spirit of the age, Annie Ernaux emerged from the shadow of bigger names to win Nobel Prize for Literature

She is now officially dubbed the most renowned author in the world, but not everyone agrees that the French writer Annie Ernaux deserves the Nobel Prize for Literature.

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Mary Kenny Opinion None of us benefits from the divide between generations, but the gap only seems to be getting wider

I suppose the “generation gap” must always have existed to some extent – did not Shakespeare refer to “crabbed age and youth”? – but patterns of living in Britain are showing there has been an expansion in divisions between old and young over the past 30 years.

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Mary Kenny Opinion Hard times exist today, yes. But it’s nothing compared to the real poverty previous generations endured

Don’t we live in hard times? I hardly know anyone who isn’t dreading the onset of winter, and the cost-of-living crisis occasioned by a dreadful European war, a crippling pandemic and the rocky state of the world economies. It’s depressing to think that clever young people are considering emigrating from Ireland because they feel the crunch of living costs and the shortage of affordable accommodation.

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Mary Kenny Opinion A male contraceptive jab is on the way, but will it truly equalise reproductive control?

It looks as though a male contraceptive vaccine will be available within the next year, according to Dr Amanda Wilson at De Montfort University in Leicester. The jab is called Risug, and it could obviate the demand for vasectomies – which is falling anyway. The vaccine, which has completed its final trials, would be reversible, so it is not as radical as vasectomy.

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Mary Kenny Opinion Of course parenthood makes people more conservative, but the notion that it rids mammies and daddies of their wild side is a myth

After intense sociological research at the University of Pennsylvania, a stunning conclusion has been drawn: when people become parents, they become more conservative. Some 2,610 adults around the world were studied, and it emerged that mammies and daddies gave more conservative answers than the child-free and childless.

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Mary Kenny Opinion Queen Elizabeth held the United Kingdom together – from her early days to global celebrity pulling-power – there will never be another reign like it

At times like these, it is difficult to avoid a cliché: that the departure of Queen Elizabeth II represents, truly, the end of an era. And despite her increasing frailty, her death seems to come a shock. Why she was only photographed the other day greeting her new Prime Minister.