Can Dick Spring pull Labour out of its nosedive after O'Malley has baled out? 

Among the many who left the soporific Labour Party conference in Galway convinced that the party needed a good shake-up were Dick Spring, Liam Kavanagh and Eileen Desmond. On the Wednesday following the conference they went to party leader Michael O'Leary and told him it was time to get his act together. The shake-up which followed wasn't quite what they had in mind. Somewhat disturbed by the approach, O'Leary brooded for a day, then abruptly resigned from the leadership and the party.

Since the February election Charlie Haughey has suffered from a series of "grotesque, unprecedented, bizarre and unbelievable" (to use his own characterisation of the Connolly affair, a phrase immortalised by Conor Cruise O'Brien by its initials, GUBU) events which have undermined his own credibility and that of his Government. The following is the complete GUBU list.

For Barry McGuigan, arguably Ireland's most talented professional boxer, 1982 is the year when the worst thing imaginable happened. In a London fight in June, McGuigan knocked out a 20 year old Nigerian featherweight, called Ali Mustaffa. the Nigerian boxer fell into a coma shortly after regaining his feet and he now lies clinically dead in a Lagos hospital. Mustaffa has been kept alive only by the functioning of a life support system.

In 1976 at the request of relatives of persons held under the Offences Against the State Act, I was involved in monitoring allegations of maltreatment of those in custody. Having failed to obtain the interest of officialdom at the time I submitted a dossier of cases to Amnesty International and other human rights organisations. One of the cases was that of Nicky Kelly whose judicial appeal to the Supreme court against his conviction was turned down last week. Kelly is known to be an innocent man.

Analysis of the Ireland-Spain game.

We are once more blundering towards exterior darkness. Against Spain we snatched a draw from the jaws of victory and, thereby, stumbled a little further away from the limelight. We will simply have to stop congratulating ourselves on having assembled our best ever squad, and get down to extracting the maximum from our limited ability and, so far, untapped potential.

Ireland's game against Spain (Nov. 17) has become the crucial test. Both the side's prospects of qualifying for the finals of the competition and manager Eoin Hand's ability to get the shape, blend and organisation of his side right depend on this game. Manifestly things were not right either against Holland or against Iceland.

The country is facing the most serious crisis since independence. Yet in it's eight months the last Dail met on only 51 days. The summer recess ran from 16 July to 27 October. Of the 166 TDs elected last February, more than 20 contributed not a word to a debate. Only about half made more than five contributions.

Down a lane off Dublin's Pembroke Street there is a small theatre, seating seventy-one people whose contribution to Dublin theatrical life over the last fifteen years is far out of proportion to its size. Opened in August of 1967, the Focus Theatre has consistently presented productions of the great plays of turn-of-the-century drama, the output of Strindberg, Chekov and Ibsen, as well as the work of contemporary European and American writers, with an assurance and strength which are rare in Irish theatre.

Muted murmurings from six thousand throats, a wave of sound incessantly ebbing and flowing.

Hailmaryfullofgracthelordiswiththee ...

Scattered through the crowd, identifiable only by the tunics rolled up and tucked under their arms, are the 200 Knights of Columbanus who have joined this pilgrimage to Knock

"D 'ya do much running"

"Did you ever hear of the Dublin Marathon?"

"God, I did."

"Yea, well I won it last year."