^ Though they didn't specifically authorise the Northern Bank robbery, senior Sinn Féin members on the IRA Army Council sanctioned the principle of armed robberies, writes Suzanne Breen

Is that it then? Four thousand deaths later, the second Intifada ends in an outing to Sharm el-Sheik? While we may only be a news item away from the shattering of our own peace, it is difficult to force the mind to remember the worst of it, both in Israel and here at home.

The press response to crime statistics is bereft of logic or consistency, writes Conor Brady

With the fear of being branded a weirdo by friends and family, Eoin Butler sells out and puts all his collection on an iPod. Oh dear

The turning of the sod in Adamstown may well mark the real beginning of the general election campaign – even though we will have at least two by-elections before then.

I'm not an expert on discrimination against people with disabilities. But I know 700 people who are. I sat in the RDS on Tuesday night last and listened to what they had to say. If the members of this Government had done the same, listened, then they could never have produced the insult that is the Disability Bill.

Try this one if you are wanting to trade surplus energy for a changing selection of some of the finest views in County Wicklow. You should choose a bright day, but, unusually for Wicklow, you don't have to worry too much about conditions underfoot – except for short sections at either end, you can walk it dry-shod.

Declan Hassett's works of nostalgia have been hugely popular over the past fifty years but Brian O'Connell is unconvinced by Sisters

Dear Póilín,

The "Butterfly Effect" is a scientific idea that illustrates how small and apparently insignificant events in one part of the world can cause a tornado or an earthquake in another part, thousands of miles away.