Michael O'Leary is a houshold name in this country, but he is actualy a retiring and private individual. Hilary Curley profiles a new man for new Ireland.

The debate in the Labour Party about forming a pre-election pact with Fine Gael is hotting up in the wake of the overwhelming vote at the Green Party conference in Cork last weekend against any such initiative on their part.

The president of UCD is ruffling a lot of feathers in the college by introducing radical reforms designed to bring it into the twenty-first century. But is he up to the job? John Byrne reports.

In the week that Mary Harney addresses the nurses at their annual conference, low pay, poor working conditions and differences over the training of care assistants may lead to industrial action. Hilary Curley reports

Community non-profit childcare facilities in Ireland's disadvantaged areas are likely to close because they are not 'financially viable'. Hilary Curley reports

Over three hundred academics have now petitioned the Government to reverse the decision to route the M3 motorway through the Tara/Skryne Valley. They include a large number of prominent academics from Britain, the United States and other foreign countries.

There are relatively few people in jail in Ireland by comparison to Britain or the US. But our new-found wealth may see that change, respected criminologist Nils Christie warns. John Byrne reports

He was a magnificent pope who presided over a controversial pontificate, at times daring and defensive, inspiring and insular. John Paul II, 263nd successor of St Peter, leaves behind the irony of a world more united because of his life and legacy, and a church more divided, writes John L Allen Jr.

Despite the radical recommendations made by a government report in 1996, the numbers of drug users are increasing and services cannot respond to demand. By John Byrne

Possibly the most famous whistleblower of all time, Jeffrey Wigand paid a heavy price for the information he supplied about the tobacco industry. He tells John Byrne about his admiration for Micheál Martin, his fears for the Third World and how smoking literally changed his life. Photograph by Tom Galvin