Only 11 per cent of newspaper coverage of last year's elections dealt with the issues – the rest was about the candidates' personalities and their battles. The balance has become more uneven with every election – and it's bad for democracy, according to a new report. By Hilary Curley

While RTÉ has always strained to produce decent comedy, most of the howlers have been provided off-screen writes Damian Corless

So it is not surprising that over Christmas and New Year, this track turns into a pilgrimage route dedicated to counteracting over-indulgence. Most years, the weather assists by putting on a penitential air. The day we chose was fairly leaden, but most parking spaces were already taken when we arrived, and the early birds were already striding (or in some cases running) down.

Like its food and music, Spanish wines can be fiery, interesting and with a rustic panache, which add happy alternatives to bland global manipulations of taste palettes aimed at pleasing the unadventurous.

The Chinese are a superstitious people. Many of them consider the year they were born to be the key factor determining their fate, personality traits and prospects for a long, happy, prosperous life. In the Chinese calendar each year is named after one of 12 animals (rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog and pig) and some years are deemed luckier than others. If, for example, you're born in the year of the Dragon or the Horse, you're on the pig's back so to speak. But beware if you're born in the year of the Rooster or the Sheep.

What will you think of when you look back on 2004? The Olympics, the war, the cabinet reshuffle, the local elections? For Bertie Ahern the year was a mixed bag. The high point was the agreement on the European Constitution, and the low point was undoubtedly his appearance at the Mahon Tribunal.

Vedado is coated in gloom. All Havana is cast in a hard darkness and the black smoke of the ancient taxis is periodically visible under the one dim lamp on the street. The roots of the dripping trees rise up through the cracked pavements and dogs make their homes under them while the locals walk on the rubble-strewn roads for fear of tripping.

Labour's Brendan Howlin failed in two leadership bids and is opposed to a pre-election pact with Fine Gael. But he's lost none of his enthusiasm for politics or for his party, he tells Katie Hannon

The work of news journalists is vital to a functioning democracy, yet they operate with no special powers or privilege and even risk imprisonment. New legislation is badly needed, writes Conor Brady

Nestled at the foot of Tooth Mountain overlooking Kenmare Bay, it's hard to pull oneself away from the hypnotic landscape and re-enter the wrestling match of real life. But Village has thrown down a challenge to its readers to envisage the Ireland of 2005 they would wish to see and it is one that has succeeded in distracting me even in this beguiling place.