Society

The cervical cancer vaccine is finally being rolled-out for Irish first-year girls after much uncertainty. By Sara Burke.

This week the HSE started vaccinating first year students in 20 schools around the country with the HPV vaccine. The HPV vaccine is part of a national programme to prevent cervical cancer.

The vaccine was initially recommended by the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA), but famously in the last few months Mary Harney withdrew the programme, before re-announcing it in the last few weeks.

Dan Brennan's farm in Castlecomer, Kilkenny overlooks the Ormonde Brick factory where shale from a local mine is converted to building materials. Trees on Mr Brennan’s farm are dead and his cattle don’t gain weight. A report by the Department of Agriculture and the Environmental Protection Agency was commissioned to find out why. Mr Brennan has long alleged that the brick factory is the cause of these problems, though there is no proof of this. Department officials were not allowed to investigate the brick factory as a source of pollution in this latest report.

Emily Logan's investigation highlights State and HSE inefficiency in implementing Children First. By Sara Burke

On Tuesday last, the Ombudsman for Children, Emily Logan, published an investigation into the State’s implementation of Children First, the national guidelines on child protection. In the investigation, Logan reprimanded the State’s failure to adequately protect children.

Wild Romance is the study of a generation undergoing seismic change. By Clare Lanigan.

Life imitates art, as the old saying goes, but more often than not it’s the opposite that’s the case. Writers, no matter how literary, can’t help being influenced by the scandalous stories of their day, and this was as true in 19th century Dublin as it is now.

John Martin's biography of Jonathan Swift is a brilliant dissection of the man who wrote Gulliver's Travels. By Edward O'Hare.

The Danish philosopher Kierkegaard once said that the life story of Jonathan Swift is an archetypal tale of human folly: in his youth he worked to build an insane asylum, in old age he was an inmate in one

But there was nothing normal about Swift’s life, as The Man Himself, John Martin’s rambunctious new biography shows.

Penguin recently launched a series of books entitled Central European Classics, which highlight the tragedy of the twentieth century. By Shane Creevy.

The books are designed to showcase writing from the region and include novels, short stories, dystopian satire, short fables, memoirs and essays.

A new book by author Greg Simon charts the attempts by the Russian government to control the media narrative of its war in Chechnya. Mass Media and Modern Warfare: Reporting on the Russian War on Terrorism details how Russian censorship faces a new challenge in the form of the internet. Review by John Murray.

Cost-saving measures implemented by the Department of Defence leave Ireland vulnerable to drug smugglers, an anti-drugs group says. By Vincent Ryan.

Citywide has criticised the government's decision to reduce the number of patrolling days that the Irish Navy carry out as a deterrent to drug smugglers.

Ireland is already seen as a weak spot by international drug traffickers looking for an easy route to the lucrative UK and European markets. The government now plans to cut a further 100 routine patrolling days from the Navy’s operations as part of a cost saving measure.

The community sector is a key part of our equality infrastructure but is facing many battles. By Niall Crowley.

The community sector is an infrastructure that also encompasses equality legislation, statutory equality bodies, national strategy plans, and equality mainstreaming. This is the infrastructure that drives forward the search for a more equal society. The closures, cutbacks and loss of independence that have been visited on the community sector can only reflect a Government that believes equality is not important.

If Ireland is to move towards a desirable alternative future, a change in core values will be necessary. By Fr. Sean Healy.

The dominant narrative that underpins policymaking and public discourse in Ireland is deeply flawed. A narrative in this context sets out how we explain ourselves to ourselves and others. It addresses key questions of how we got to be in the situation we’re currently in, where we are now, our vision of the future and how we can reach that desired destination.