From chomping on cabbage to one day of glory. Éanna Ní Lamhna tracks the journey from caterpillar to moth

The appearance of Croke Park-sponsored "bring your litter home" advertisements on the big screen in Croke Park this weekend is obviously a direct response to the controversy surrounding the same advertisements taken out by Dublin City Council.

Though perhaps not familiar to many readers, the Kittiwake is a common breeder on cliffs all around the Irish coast; around 50,000 pairs nest here. A member of the gull family, it occurs in both the North Atlantic and North Pacific, and it is by far the most numerous species of gull in the world.

Run! Hide! We may not have any sharks, but these fellas can be just as vicious, says Éanna Ní Lamhna

Apologists for the Israeli government claim the ongoing slaughter of Lebanese civilians and attacks on ambulances, hospitals, sewage and water works are for their own good. And it's all for the cause of peace. Do they really mean a piece of Lebanon, a piece of Syria and a large piece of Palestine?

A widespread but declining species in Ireland, the Spotted Flycatcher is strictly a summer visitor, arriving in May and departing for southern Africa in September. A small bird, just 15cm in length, about the same size as a sparrow, it nevertheless has quite a stocky build, making it appear somewhat larger.

They really aren't the best of friends, as Éanna Ní Lamhna explains

The Irish Palestine Solidarity Campaign and the Irish Anti-War movement are calling for diplomatic relations with Israel to be cut, and boycotts and sanction to be enforced against Israel until it pulls out of Gaza and Lebanon and ends its four-decade-old occupation of Gaza, east Jerusalem and the West Bank.

RTÉ outdid itself in the shame stakes last Saturday night (15 July), returning to the days of Section 31 with Miriam O'Callaghan's interview of film director Ken Loach. Just as in the censorship era, when anyone with a sympathetic republican view was interrogated rather than interviewed, Loach was subject to the most insensitive, overly simplistic, biased, derogatory questions O'Callaghan could muster.

John Waters is right that guilt can be a part of charitable giving (Village 29 June). Simply being born in a place like Ireland at once puts us at the head of queue for the distribution of good fortune. We are all better off than most of humanity.