It is obvious that whoever wrote the Enda Kenny's July 20 speech on the Vatican overreached themselves, which is hardly good enough on an issue as sensitive as this. By Vincent Browne.

With traditional policy options exhausted, and the economic outlook still very bleak, many are beginning to question the system of free markets that has brought such misery. By Vincent Browne. 

While many were critical of Enda Kenny before the general election, his popularity has risen during his time as Taoseach, in particular after his Dáil speech on the Cloyne report. Nevertheless he still faces significant challenges, writes Vincent Browne. 

Enda Kenny has proved many commentators and half his parliamentary party (as they lined up a year ago) wrong. 

Although Fine Gael work hard to give the impression that they are simple pragmatists, the party is in fact a highly ideological one. By Vincent Browne. 

With the world financial system on the verge of collapse, the imposition of unsustainable debt on this society because of the crisis in the banks, and the threat to our economic sustenance from the Franco-German push to harmonise corporation tax across the EU, the last thing we need right now is ideology, isn’t it?

In terms of the only two independent powers the president has, one is a mess, and should probably never be used; as to the other, it is not entirely clear what that power is. By Vincent Browne.

Over the next two months, we will be told by those who like to think of themselves as our leaders about how important the role of the presidency is and how vital it is to fill that office with somebody of outstanding talents and capabilities.

The rioting in Britain was hardly unexpected, given the vast inequalities in British society. Ireland is no less unequal, meaning such social unrest is quite possible here, too. By Vincent Browne.

In itself, the scale of moral hypocrisy that the recent riots in Britain has prompted explains a lot about why the riots happened in the first place - and why similar social conflict may well happen here, again inflamed by our own propensity for moral hypocrisy.

The presidential race gives candidates a chance to offer a different perspective on how our society might be organised, writes Vincent Browne.

Although full reconciliation is still a long way off in Northern Ireland, the Féile an Phobail community event in Belfast shows that it has come much further than many could have ever imagined. By Vincent Browne.

David Norris made mistakes in the face of moral dilemmas, but they should not have stopped his candidature, writes Vincent Browne. 

David Norris was presidential yesterday in his withdrawal speech outside his splendid home on North Great George's Street in Dublin, even though there was an inevitability about the withdrawal once his Oireachtas supporters began to melt away. The candidates who remain in the presidential campaign seem dreary by comparison.

The Catholic Church has sanctioned acts of terrible depravity for hundreds of years, writes Vincent Browne.

The “dysfunction, disconnection and elitism” which Enda Kenny said “dominates the culture of the Vatican to this day” did not start with the investigation into clerical sex abuse in the Cloyne diocese.

It has been the defining characteristic of the Catholic Church throughout history and abuses of an even greater scale than clerical child sex abuse have been a feature of that history throughout most of its existence.