^^ After serving up an embarrassing diet of terrible Christmas television, it's time for RTÉ to reflect on its current schedules and make big changes. Tired Late Late Show, Prime Time, and Questions and Answers formats will need to be replaced with something fresh ahead of the upcoming general election

An eye for an iPod: For people who want to believe in the potential for new media technology to create democratic and occasionally corporate-evading outcomes, there was depressing news under the Christmas tree. Ditto for the far-louder chorus who keep telling us that capitalist markets create diverse products of great excellence at keen prices. (You know who you are, ye talking heads on health insurance, mobile phones, electricity, transport, ad infinitum, ad nauseum.)

For most people Ronnie Drew does not generate awe, more a warmth. People think they know him, they are easy with him. And when the story broke some weeks back that he had cancer, many who never met him in person were shocked. He is part of our cultural furniture. Whenever he dies there will be outpourings not just of appreciation but of affection. There is a raspish quality to his voice, not to his personality. He is gentle, modest, kind.
 

Near the Catholic church in the village, enter Knocksink Woods. There is a car park in the forest area beside the Environmental Education Centre. 

It was Christmas Eve in Long Kesh. We were to be blessed with a midnight mass. It would be celebrated in the half hut which was the only bit of our cage which was not used as living accommodation. There were four large nissen huts in each cage. Three were occupied by a motley mix of male internees who ranged from teenagers to old-age pensioners.

Conceived by Ian Spero and produced by his company BigTime, Rockchic is a lovingly crafted and expertly staged tribute to the life and times of the electric guitar, featuring a decade-by-decade history of the instrument spanning its 75 years in commercial production. Over 130 guitars are featured, including instruments owned and signed by artists like Keith Richards, John Lee Hooker, Eric Clapton, Paul Mc Cartney and Neil Young.

Don't let those Christians fool you – kissing under the mistletoe into the house is an old pagan ritual, says Éanna Ní Lamhna

Droimneach mór, Larus marinus: Often reaching a length of over 75cm, the Great Black-backed Gull, is the largest gull species in Ireland and, for that matter, the world. It is a common year-round resident here, though it is strictly confined to coastal areas. Unlike many of our other common gull species, it never occurs more than a few miles inland.

Asylum-seekers: The cost of compassion

Vincent Browne article: A misplaced compliment to Murtagh

Gangland Murders: ‘Respectable' drug users share blame

Lansdowne redevelopment: Well-heeled residents stop progress 

Irish Health services: Children's hospital  bugs Bertie

Great economy, bad health; In praise of St Vincent's staff; Correction

If Ireland wasn't in fear of Muslims at the beginning of Prime Time Investigates' ‘Suspicious Minds' documentary, it certainly was at the end. Dubious commentators, alarmist allegations and the flimsiest of evidence – not the stuff we are used to from the programme's erstwhile reliable research team