Conor McCarthy, a founding member of the Irish Palestianian Solidarity Campaign, finds a new book on Irish-Palestinian relations by Rory Miller's 'important at the documentary level, but flawed and even grossly biased at the interpretative level'

This particular one was introduced in 1752. It is huge and beautiful all year round for differing reasons. It is the first of all the maples to flower, which it does obligingly every March with hanging clusters of long-stalked, pale yellow flowers suspended beneath the opening bright green leaves, which later turn yellow to a pale orange, translucent in the autumn sunlight. This particular specimen is majestic against the winter skies.

Essential advice from Póilín on Tribunals and terriers

When the Asian tsunami struck, the Irish public dug deep and ended up donating €50m while the Irish Government gave another €20m. It was a remarkable response for a country of our size.

The rise in evangelical, Pentecostal and gospel style churches in Ireland in recent years is relatively unknown to the general population. Village takes a soulful journey. Words and photographs by Tom Galvin

Imagine your child is at a school where neither the teacher nor anyone else in the school can communicate in his/her own first language. Imagine that all the children in the school share the same first language, but none of the adults who work there do. Imagine that your child will never be encouraged to communicate in its own language for the entire time it is at the school.

Dear Póilín,

Ronan Browne sorts through the books on offer this summer, sorting the thrilling from the trite to ensure you get the holiday read you deserve

If you consider yourself a Premier League Organic Foodie then you will have already pencilled in next Friday, 22 April into your recycled Green Party diary. You won't of course have used a charcoal pencil with which to mark the world wide "Earth Dinner" promoted by the American Organic Consumers' Association – that would inadvertently contribute to further removal of sections of the rainforest.

Cosmopolitan, multi-cultural, colourful – in a word a 'Europiccola' – Aoife Carrigy is lured to Trieste by the magic of James Joyce