The protest was organized over social media, where it was dubbed “Call to the Dáil,” drawing participants from far-right groups and individuals nurturing a host of grievances and anxieties about contemporary Irish society, from Covid-19 conspiracies to immigration and transgender issues, housing shortages and the economy.

With so many political and cultural forces arrayed against the Legacy and Reconciliation proposal, why has Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s government pressed on?

A proposal to make "the 12th" an all-Ireland holiday has not been not met with a warm reception. A former government minister described the popular response as “a mixture of diatribe and incredulity.”

Sidestepping reservations individual party members must have about being associated with the pomp and ceremony of a very anti-republican spectacle, Sinn Féin hopes to demonstrate diplomatic gravitas and a mature capacity to lead all Ireland.

I was a teenager at the time of the Columbine High School shooting. No one could mistake suburban Dublin for anyone’s utopia, but even then my friends and I could recognize that we might as well live in a different galaxy.

Mr. Biden’s visit is not just a symbolic endorsement of the Good Friday Agreement. The future of the accords has been thrown into doubt by the decision of the United Kingdom to leave the European Union via its Brexit vote.

Film-making in Ireland has been in the shadow of other cultural successes in literature and music. That may all be about to change. At this year’s Academy Awards, there are three movies with strong Irish connections up for Oscar consideration.

The peaceful sharing of power by Irish political parties that once went to war may be understood as a triumph of the common good.

Just below those top-line figures on religious affiliation, significant changes in national identity also become clear—29 percent of the Northern Irish population now see themselves exclusively as Irish. This is just three points behind the 32 percent who consider themselves British.

The tributes and gestures from the leaders of Irish political parties long established in the European mainstream came as no surprise. What came as something of a shock—especially to some of their supporters—were statements issued by the leaders of Sinn Féin, the party most associated with the Irish Republican Army.