Russborough House was really rather fortunate to survive at all. It was built by Joseph Leeson in the mid-eighteenth century, and was principally the work of Richard Castle, the German architect who came to Ireland in the late 1720s, and was responsible for Leinster House, Powersscourt House, Hazlewood in Sligo, and Summerhill in County Meath, as well as Carton, where he died in 1751. He was then in the middle of work on Russsborough, and his colleague and assistant, Francis Bindon, then finished the work.

Kevin Myers reports on the Asbestos controversy in Ovens, Co. Cork

IT'S ONE OF THE stranger facts about motoring in Irelland that many dealers don't stock the type of oil reecommended by their own manufacturers. This means that your car, which may run best on (say) Castrol GTX 20W-50, could receive instead a transfusion of Shell Super at its regular service. Now, Shell Super is an excellent oil but it may not be right for your car.

O'BRIEN'S PUB in Sussex Tce., off Upper Leeson St., Dublin, has become one of the "in" swinging pubs of late, primarily because the lack of seating accommodation in the lounge encourrages social intercourse, as they say.

The bad news that has dogged British Leyland over the years has largely obscured the fact that the UK giant offers a range of excellent, sometimes outstanding, cars. Although the pall-like cloud of economic uncertainty hanging over the State-owned company has dated some of the models, because new ones haven't been produced, at least the existing range has been around long enough to have proved its reliability.

An analysis of the Government's economic strategy by Paddy Geary

The Provisionals have graduated from the Thompson sub, to a gun that shoots down helicopters. By Kevin Myers

Kevin Myers reports on the finances of the Peace People. By Kevin Myers

THE IRISH Motor Show is a lavish carfest which proves annually what everybody already knows: automobiles are fascinating. Like a sumpptuous banquet spread tantalisingly beyond Mr Everyman's reach, the machines stand in exotic, expensive rows, many of them unattainnable.

THE FORD CAPRI has always attracted buyers with an unusual sense of priorities about what they want in a motor car - namely, appearance. According to market research carried out by Ford of Europe,styling is the key to maintaining the Capri's astonishing sales of 103m since the first model was introduced in Europe in 1969.