Charlie McCreevy, your time has come. Your place in history awaits you. Fate has decreed this. Being sacked by Bertie Ahern wasn't the end of your political relevance. It was only the beginning and catapulted you onto a far bigger stage to boot.

Sections of the print media seem to have learnt little about taste, decency and appropriateness from the debacle surrounding the reporting of Liam Lawlor's death.

The self-styled liberals of the Progressive Democrats missed two great chances to prove their worth in recent weeks.

One man who must hope more than most that the Lansdowne Road redevelopment is not scuppered by objections from local residents to its size is property developer Sean Dunne.

Matt Cooper on Ryanair's attitude to customer care.

Ian Paisley junior was undoubtedly provocative and perhaps even inflammatory in his call for the Police Service of Northern Ireland to investigate the trouble on the pitch at Omagh during the recent Tyrone versus Dublin National Football League match.

Pragmatic or cynical? Take your pick as to how you would describe this State's foreign policy, as enunciated by both the Government and our president, in relation to China, Saudi Arabia and the United States.

If Mary Lou McDonald has become the smiling, attractive face of Sinn Féin in recent years, then Toireasa Ferris promises to be the legs.

Fine Gael, according to itself at least, wasn't being xenophobic in recently raising the issue of extra child welfare payments to the non-resident children of EU nationals working in this country, the €1,000 per annum that the Government is going to pay parents of the under-sixes.

It is a highly profitable, privately owned company that can make payments of up to €100 million within a few years to one of its main shareholders.