Garret FitzGerald: Profile of Expectation

A French Member of Parliament visiting Ireland last year stated that Garret FitzGerald was the most formidable public figure in Europe. Certainly he is preeminent in Ireland where his enormous intellectual and administrative abilities are unmatched anywhere on the political scene. By Vincent Browne

Laity Rules O.K.! ... but not yet

NINE YEARS AGO, the National Council for the Apostolate of the Laity was set up by the Irish Hierrarchy in accordance with the wishes of Vatican II. The Council was to redefine the role of the laity within the Church, giving the flock genuine, not merely connsultative, power.

PORTMARNOCK Golf Club - A Stroke of Snobbery

PORTMARNOCK Golf Club's executive has just passed through the traumatic exxperience of an election (almost unprecedented) to fill commmittee posts, although the same faces appear again on the Committee. It was not too democratic an experience as the club, built on the land of more than one hundred evicted fishermen at the turn of the century, has no women members Women cannot become members of Portmarnock. They cannot even enter the bar as guests of a member. Invited women can play on the fabled links on one week-day, but they must step aside and let members play past them if asked to do so.

Homeless Housing: No Room at the Inn

IT IS ALMOST five years now since Dr Dermot Ryan, newly installed as Archbishop of Dublin, decided that housing the homeless would be his primary social concern.

Magills People of 1977

Liam Cosgrave was the major casualty of 1977, having begun the year, as he began the election campaign, believing that he was invincible. The coalition failed to commission opinion polls to determine the state of public opinion before the election and when their first polls became available a few days after the campaign was begun, several ministers took themselves back to their constituencies to save their own hides. Cosgrave, however, either didn't believe the polls or didn't understand their significance and, right up to the election count, remained convinced that he was invulnerable.

Records 1977: Critics Choice

Below is a list of some of the year's best recordings in classical, traditional and popular music. Prices vary mysteriously from shop to shop, but the index numbers should help you find or order ariy of them. You might also check the catalogues for recommended prices! Incidentally, Ian Fox informs us that if)77 marks the centenary of the gramophone .. Edison having filed his phonograph patent on December 4, 1877

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