The Making of a Taoiseach

How a cabal of backbench rural TDs toppled the Fianna Fail party establishment and installed as Taoiseach a man whose political career seemed dead twice in the last decade.

Is The Cruiser Springing a Leak?

While the termination of Mary Holland's contract as Dublin correspondent of The Observer after 11 years covering Irish affairs for the paper has inevitably attracted most attention in the media there are signs that The Observer's journalists are now limbering up for a major confrontation with the Cruiser on his increasingly imperial interpretation of his role as Editor in Chief.

A Pilgrim of Peace

The Pope's mission to Ireland was not just to plead for an end to violence but to chastise the Irish bishops for failing to identify with the poor and repressed.

Iran in Flames

Huge oil revenues have destabilised one of the world's most corrupt and repressive regimes, as communists and clerics have joined to topple the Shah.

The October conclave

The last great medieval rite of the modern world is about to be reinacted as over a hundred aged bachelor men of similiarly confined and blinkered backgrounds meet in secret to appoint from among themselves the leader of the world's largest religious community.

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