At a meeting last week in Cork TDs expressed concern when told of the effects of cuts to special educational needs services on children and parents, but offered little by way of promises to act. By Diarmaid Ó Cadhla.
Venorica O'Doherty wonders who will care for the carers.
Morality, like art, means drawing a line someplace. Oscar Wilde (1854 – 1900).
When cynicism becomes the norm in a workplace you know there is a problem unfolding before your eyes. In health care workers from all sectors in hospitals, in primary care and voluntary bodies and across all the health professions I see signs of serious stress and sometimes outright burn out.
Minister for Children needs to roll up her sleeves and fight for the needs of children, writes Evin Daly.
In a country of four and a half million there are few resources available for abused or Irish children in need. So said the Minister for Children today.
Empowering citizens, and recognising the right of the people to be the decision makers in the State is the only political objective worth pursuing, writes Diarmaid Ó Cadhla.
We should not resign ourselves to the idea that those responsible for our national economic meltdown will not be held to account for their actions, writes Paul McElhinney.
In the North at present there are infrequent attacks by at least three armed Irish Republican insurgent guerrilla 'armies'. 'Dissident' Republicans were responsible for the April 2011 bomb attack in Killyclogher, near Omagh, which killed PSNI member, Ronan Kerr; the Antrim fatal shooting attacks at Massereene Barracks in 2009; a fatal shooting attack in North Armagh, and the Omagh bombing of 1999.
A sign hangs from the gates of Leinster House this week: "gone on holidays" it reads, and it's signed by our entire elected political establishment. As you walk the now silent halls of the Dáil you notice the signs of the hurried summer departure, like schoolchildren at the end of term - hallways empty, offices vacated. All of our newly elected officials, who promised us the world if elected, are gone. Surprised? You shouldn't be. Our apathy let them go.
Ian Palmer's film Knuckles presents Travellers in a prurient and stereotyped way, writes Rosaleen McDonagh.
The film Knuckles both frightened and disturbed me. It confirmed all my fears about voyeurism and creating entertainment from people living on the margins.
Yesterday (26 July), singer-songwriter Amy Winehouse was laid to rest in her native London. For years, the public watched the troubled star battle with severe drug and alcohol addiction. Surprisingly, before her rise to stardom in the mid noughties, not only was Amy not a drug user, but she was avidly anti-drugs.
By Alan Moss
RTÉ's latest insight into the woes of the departing thousands provides a depressing outlook on the current situation faced by the youth of Ireland. Is it really necessary to air such a documentary, when the realities of emigration are so horribly evident in Irish society today?