On Sunday 29 September, Archbishop Kevin McNamara watched and listened as Dr Donald Caird was enthroned as Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin.

It is a truism of art history and critiicism to say that Edvard Munch's best work was done prior to his severe mental breakdown in 1908. Before that there are the claustrophobic visions of tortured emotional life, destructive passions, anxiety, arguuments, fights and the notorious inciident involving a gun which led to the artist losing part of a finger. After the pivotal six month stay in a Copenhagen clinic during the winter of 1908-9, all is changed. There is an apparent withdrawal from a volatile closeness to life, a recourse to peaceful, passive retirement, all passion spent.

Siobhan McKenna, the grande dame of the Irish theatre, has just returned to the Dublin stage in "Arsenic And Old Lace". She is, at 62, a living symbol of Romantic Ireland.  By Fintan O'Toole

In recent weeks, the American Senate have had hearings relating to a proposed extradition treaty between Britain and the US. Dominic McGlinchey, extradited from the Republic eighteen months ago is appealing his conviction for murder. Two months ago, John Quinn was freed by a London court following extradition from Dublin last March. Very soon, even more controversial cases are likely to come before the courts.

The government has - in the cases involving PMPA, ICI and the alleged "IRA money" - shown itself capable of urgent measures when it believes them warranted. Four years later the Stardust case drags painfully on.

Irish film critics spend half their working days watching movies and the other half complaining about what they have had to endure. With good reason - financial considerations aside, most of the movies released here were not worth making in the first place. For every Witness or Blood Simple, to name the only outstanding releases of the last four months, there are a dozen dumb sequels and another dozen or more inane, scrappily assemmbled teen sex comedies.

ACC user the law to restrict scrutiny of its affairs. The law is so broad that even ACC was censored. The Sunday Tribune was prohibited from publishing a story on ACC based on information that was already on the public record. Christy Moore tried to song about the pain caused by the fact that the Stardust case has not been resolved. He was censored - because the case has not been resolved. And censorship in RTE caused a case of jitters among journlaists and the backlash resulted in a strike.

Garret was chalking his cue, sizing up a difficult but possible pink into the top left and the white off the side cushion and into a cluster of reds, so he didn't notice Jim Dooge coming in the door of The Long Rest. I gave Bobby the high sign and he was out from behind the counter like fast, feeling Jim bo's collar. Sorry, sir, members only, that kind of thing.

A 40 foot high, 147 acre plateau of mining waste is lying in a valley near Nenagh, Co Tipperary. When the wind rises, clouds of poisonous dust blow from the plateau onto neighbouring land causing human ilness and the death of animals. The problem is getting worse.

TROUBLES CROWD in on the decrepit Gorbachev regime in the USSR. Hooliganism, alcoholism, petty theft and joy riding in official cars are widespread as the working class expresses its discontent with its corrupt state-capitalist rules. A .thoroughgoing revolution which will sweep this collection of vodka-soaked gangsters into oblivion is, of course, the only ultimate answer. In the meantime, Ulick O'Connor and the National Union of Jourrnalists will do their best.