THE PUBLICATION of the next quarterly report on the economy by the Economic and Social Research Institute --expected within the next few weeksis awaited with more than the usual amount of interest. Psychologically, the report will mark the end of the Summer doldrums in economic affairs caused, as in most other aspects of political life, by the anti-climax of the June election and the disappearance of Ministers, Civil Servants, and economic commentators to their various holiday hideaways.

IRELAND HAS thrown up at last its own version of Enoch Powell-in the person of Oliver J. Flanagan, T.D. As usual, the replica is a pale tawdry imitation of the real thing.

"ONE SMALL STEP for man, one giant leap for mankind." With words reminiscent of a children's game, Commander Neil Armstrong, at the culmination of a 204 thousand million dollar effort, took man's first step on the Moon. Does this association of ideas set the true tone of this achievement-a step in a game for children or is there something more?

THE R.D.S. SHOW JUMPING ARENA, August, 1967. A diminutive horse and a tight-lipped rider appear for their second round in the Nations' Cup. Twenty-two faults in their first round and a fall for the rider at the eleventh jump should have severely rattled their cO:1fidence. But, with icy calm and determination they approached each obstacle, willed on by an excited but tense and silent crowd. At a couple of fences the top pole trembled, but none fell. Finally, horse and rider sailed over the last jump for a clear round as wild cheering greeted the terse announcement of R.D.S.

CHURCH IS IN FACT a good place for a confrontation. History and geography have made it a meeting point of the Germanic and Latin cultures. It is of course very much the Swjiss-German tourist town with plenty of good SwissGerman money in the bank-one had hoped to surprise a gnome or two taking time off from Zurich-but Italian-speaking Ticino is near, and Italy itself is not alone near but very much present, in the faces and speech of the hotel staffs who come for the season to earn a year's pay.

AFTER THREE YEARS as Supreme Knight of the 6,000 Knights of Saint Columbanus, the term of office of Vincent Grogan, S.c., has come to an end. He says he doesn't intend ever to hold any official rank in any organisation, apart from his existing commitment to the Council for the Laity, of which he is this year's Chairman, because in future he wishes to be free to speak openly and frankly on all matters concerning the Catholic Church. Certainly he spoke frankly to NUSIGHT about the Knights and his three years' of office.

"WE RECOMMEND that the common scale and the new system of allowances should come into force on the 1st September, 1968 and should apply to all teachers who enter the profession on or after that date".

THE NORTHERN IRELAND Civil Rights Movement is in the process of disintegrating and the Civil Rights Association itself seems on the point of collapse. In the face of the government's relative passivity since the announcement of stop gap reforms, the always precariously balanced alliance between the moderates and the left wing, which was the beauty and strength of the movement in the beginning, has begun to teeter.

" I'VE ONLY BEEN here for the last fortnight," said Gerry Collins disarmingly. Never has a honeymoon been less needed. The new Parliamentary Secretary for Industry, Commerce and the Gaeltacht lost his political virginity years ago. Gerry Collins has' always, so to speak, been on the job.

PABLO PICASSO was born in Malaga in 1881. He came of an ancient family and his immediate relatives were priests, doctors, or were employed in business. His father was the only artistic member of the family; he was an artist who taught in the local art school and ran the local museum. Later in Picasso's childhood they spent four years in Corunna and finally settled in Barcelona when he was fourteen. His father was of course his first master and apparently he was a very precocious child, who took no interest in his school work at all and only thought about drawing.