Never mind grade inflation, expecting education to solve the country’s economic problems is a joke, says JASON WALSH

25 years after giving up Greek, ANDREW CALCUTT explains why he is now a Latin lover

Social vampire and art critic Waldemar Januszak can now fondly remember the conflict in Ireland – but only because it’s over, says JAMES HEARTFIELD

Nationialism was the politics of empowerment in the nineteenth century – but it’s now 2010, says ANDREW GALLAGHER

Allow commercial whaling, says DAVID JACKMANSON

OWEN POLLEY says we’re gearing-up to blame the SDLP and UUP for failure but they are the very people who can fix the assembly by challenging its authoritarian, centralising nature

Michael Foot wasn’t a hero of the left, he was the last in a long line of Labour losers, says JASON WALSH

Is Britain headed for a hung parliament, asks JASON WALSH – and does it matter?

The UK government’s science policy isn’t just contradictory, it’s used a stand-in for politics, says science journalist TIMANDRA HARKNESS

Ireland’s desperate political elite is now begging the public for ideas – in a bizarre PR-driven competition

Mad, bad and dangerous to know, the Tea Parties are the flip side of Obamamania and both contain positive aspects

Hillary Clinton’s unsolicited offer to mediate between Britain and Argentina should remind us that you don’t need a history degree to know the Falklands don’t belong to Britain. All you need is a map

As Ian Paisley prepares to step down from his role as MP forth traces his transformation from sectarian demagogue to living saint

The importance of numbers

A new Brand of environmentalism seeks to distance itself from its technophobic past but Stewart Brand’s paean to poverty is anything but progressive. JASON WALSH trawls through history, from the classical period to the age of Marxism to show why.

The earthquake that struck Chile was stronger than the one that struck Haiti in January but the death toll is literally a thousand times lower

Updated: 19.30 UTC

Aesthetic experience matters in all other aspects of life so why do software developers treat it like a frivolous luxury?

They may offend liberal opinion but tabloid newspapers are the first line of defence for a free press, says JASON WALSH

Why politics would be lost without the ‘lower orders’

Precious pieties never solved anything, says JASON WALSH

It’s the same as the old one, says STEPHEN MCGLENNON

forth editor JASON WALSH gives his personal view on why nothing matters in Ireland today – and suggests how we might change that

A report from the Magazines Ireland annual debate

Sargent getting his marching orders is more of the same un-politics, says JASON WALSH

Responses to the recent London conference on Irish unity suggest a united Ireland is a mere managerial process. Nothing could be further from the truth

ANNA MORVERN says the alleged Mossad assassination should not be allowed to force biometric identity documents on us

Tiger Woods’s apology was an ugly, forced pantomime and his private life is none of our business, says JASON WALSH

Official censorship pales in comparison to unofficial censureship, says BRENDAN O’NEILL

Complaining about ‘civil war politics’ isn’t enough – it’s time to reinvigorate our moribund political system, says JASON WALSH

JASON WALSH visits the hackers

YAEL MAURER says her country’s foreign assassination antics would be funny – if they weren’t so serious

Three responses to the Belfast Salon debate held as part of Exchange Mechanism at the Belfast Exposed gallery

forth reader MICHAEL GILLESPIE gives his view on the proposed bill of rights for the North

Whatever about the ‘necessity’ of austerity packages, anti-Greek sentiment is inflated by prejudice and unmasks EU bully-boy tactics

Defence minister Willie O’Dea is an alleged perjurer and fights dirty – but the forces circling him aren’t democratic, this is the backstabbing of court politics

As the Greek economy continues to tank many are wondering if joining the Euro was the right idea. JASON WALSH says it doesn’t matter which currency you have, what matters is how much of it you have in your pocket

A report from last night’s Belfast Salon debate: A house divided

The political class has attacked George Lee as an arriviste but they are the ones who abdicated responsibility to outside forces

JASON WALSH explains what’s behind the sudden outbreak of principles in Irish politics

The authorities have given over authority to children, argues DENNIS HAYES, and it is tantamount to child abuse.

Forget the fading messianic effect, Obama’s energising of politics still matters and we could still do with some of that enthusiasm here at home

It doesn’t want anything, says Australian IT professional JONATHAN WALSH. It’s what we want that matters

As ‘lickable’ and beautiful as today’s information interfaces are, JASON WALSH longs for the Rodchenko-like simplicity of the modernist-inspired early Macintosh computers

There’s plenty to dislike about fake ‘amateur’ sports but let’s focus on the skill and beauty of the games, says JASON WALSH

George Lee’s resignation from politics is more than just a ‘hissy fit’, it’s poisonous to politics

Gliberals whinging about labour conditions in the third world are helping to keep the poor in chains, says JASON WALSH

An interview published today lays the blame for the IRA split of 1969 at the feet of one man: Seamus Costello. If true, what does this mean for our understanding of recent Irish history, asks JASON WALSH

The British electorate is capable of kicking-out the alleged expense fiddlers, it’s not a job for the courts

In the second of a series of articles before the Belfast Salon debate, JASON WALSH argues the only way forward for the North is to think about Ireland nationally

JACQUI RUSSELL argues for more development – and transparency – in Uganda as a way of guaranteeing rights

JASON WALSH, outside the Central Mental Hospital in Dundrum

In the first of a series of articles before the Belfast Salon debate OWEN POLLEY argues for a modern Britishness against ‘Ulster’ identity

No, not the Ulster Unionists, it was the public

IRA veteran, former Sinn Féin president, Official IRA leader and leading Irish communist dead

And how can we get there?

Sun, sea and… no sex or politics. According to reports Australia has gone censorship crazy, at home and away (on the internet). DAVID JACKMANSON brave the battle of the (bantam) breasts to find out what’s really going on

The endless and farcical devolution talks at Stormont should remind us of the need to replace the exhausted institutions, both north and south, writes forth editor JASON WALSH in Spiked

Anything Sinn Féin and the DUP can agree on isn’t worth the paper it’s written on

The anti-clerical ‘Count Me Out’ inflates the importance of Ireland’s rotting Catholic Church, says JASON WALSH

Why is Ireland’s Socialist Party arguing – quietly – for union with Britain, asks SÉAMUS Ó SIONNAGH

The lesbian, the Pope and the right to free speech

The new lowered speed limit of 30 kilometres per hour is not about traffic management or road safety, it’s an assault on mobility – and the statistics prove it, says JASON WALSH

IT journalism is crap, says JASON WALSH

Or it would be if it wasn’t for those nasty voters, reports our Northern staff.

We’re richer than you because we’re smarter, says KENNETH MISER

And I will complain about it, tendentiously, forever says JOHANN WOOTERS

This is the end. Possibly.

Three forth contributors give their thoughts on the future of Ireland’s Green Party after the next election

Young, educated Protestants are leaving the North – but the problem is economic, not cultural, says JASON WALSH

The crime story that ‘gripped Ireland’ tells us a lot about ourselves, but not quite what the press is claiming

The DUP and Sinn Féin failed Friday to agree on bringing policing and justice under local control. If a stalemate continues, it could result in the collapse of the Northern Ireland Assembly, reports forth editor JASON WALSH in the CS Monitor

The Republic of Ireland has a lower population than major cities – the only reason anyone cares about Ireland is because of the conflict

The anti-iPad backlash is as tedious as Apple worship, says JASON WALSH

Today’s proliferation of rights is having the effect of making us less free

JASON WALSH wouldn’t vote for a unionist party if his life depended on it but says the Orangemen have one thing right – the Parades Commission is undemocratic

The state’s Irish policies have failed. Any genuine revival of the language will come from elsewhere, says JASON WALSH

Socially and economically liberal political group to launch before election hopes to avoid making the PDs’ errors all over again

OWEN POLLEY argues against the North’s proposed undemocratic Bill of Rights

forth editor JASON WALSH reporting on the ‘Irish-speaking elite’ in the CS Monitor

The shine has come off the Conservatives’ alliance with unionists as sectarian politics reasserts itself in Northern Ireland, says forth editor JASON WALSH, writing in the Guardian

Political discourse? It’s an oxymoron, says STEPHEN RAINEY

forth editor JASON WALSH reporting for the CS Monitor

Martin Cullen is being torn to pieces (not literally) in the press for using a metaphor. Both his critics and Cullen should grow up, says JASON WALSH

Just because we don’t like them doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to understand dissident republicans – and what they tell us about Sinn Féin

Moral dilemma: what will replace the church as our compass? forth editor JASON WALSH and LENNY ANTONELLI in conversation with scientists and philosophers in the Irish Times

The goal of proportional representation isn’t to enhance democracy, it’s to frustrate it, says JASON WALSH

Why personal communication should be personal, in Global Comment

Frequent forth contributor DR STEPHEN GINN addresses a critic on the issue of government-issued ID cards

Since when were software upgrades worth partying about, asks JASON WALSH

PAULINE HADAWAY asks if the cost of the Northern Assembly is distracting from creating a real and vibrant democracy?

As the Ukrainian presidential election goes to round two, candidates’ “pro-Western” or “anti-Western” leanings are not what actually matters, says NATALIA ANTONOVA reporting from Ukraine

Paul Chambers arrested under controversial law and banned from airport for obvious joke, report forth editor JASON WALSH and MARK HUGHES in the Independent of London

The abuse allegations are damaging to Sinn Féin but it’s the never-ending peace process that’s really hurting the party, says JASON WALSH

Statement republished by forth for informational purposes only. forth has no ties to the Haiti Support Group or any other organisation and makes no claims on behalf of anyone in relation to Haiti

Some commentators say Haiti would be better off if had never overthrown its French colonial masters. They’re wrong, says JASON WALSH

England’s politicians and pundits are thrilled to see the skeletons in Northern Ireland’s closets, says JAMES HEARTFIELD

Comparisons are unfair and unhelpful but we do need to get our act together, says JASON WALSH

Both climate changers and their opponents should stop blowing hot air over cold weather, says PATRICK WEST

China-bashing has a long and ugly history, says forth editor JASON WALSH, writing in Global Comment