For some months now the Government jet has been cruising along nicely on the wings of strong economic growth and kudos from its showdown with Sinn Féin and the IRA. Opinion polls show support for the government parties growing while the opposition parties lose ground.
The coverage of the Pope's death ranged from the ignorant to the utterly reverential and there were few female voices in the mix.
Hurt is a hard emotion to address. There has been so much of it around in the last week on numerous lesbian and gay websites and internet discussion forums. Sometimes the hurt is expressed as anger, hostility and attack, more often it is articulated as betrayal and bewilderment. Whatever form it takes the response to Pope John Paul's death has exposed the deep wounds he inflicted repeatedly on many lesbian and gay people throughout the world.
The very early Wednesday morning bin collections on Abbey Street in Ennis prior to October 1979 would, likely as not, wake you up. There was much clattering of bin lids and much chatter among the bin collection men. After October 1979, there was an added dimension to the noise. As they journeyed around the small streets of the market town, one of the young men would place himself in the centre of each street and shout loudly "Yang people of Ireland, I loff you".
Poor Royston Brady! He's finding out the hard way that Fianna Fáil loves a winner, but doesn't have much time for those who fail to step up to the mark. Whatever "promises" were given to him about his election expenses, there's a clear precedent that the party only pays a certain amount, equally for all candidates. Anything over and above that is raised by the candidates themselves, with their own election campaign teams.
The release of Nick Broomfield's most controversial film on DVD offers viewers the opportunity to judge for themselves whether he really is the leading exponent in a genre that is leaning more and more towards entertainment writes Feargal Mc Kay
The story of Italian journalist Guiliana Sgrena has been largely neglected outside Italy, who was injured in an attack in the Iraq.
The sun just set on the Beara and lit Tooth Mountain in a fuschia-coloured glow. It was certainly something to see. This nature thing is really very wonderful. It can keep me distracted for hours. But it cannot stop me thinking about the McCartney sisters. Several days of Republican parades and Easter commemorations up and down the country provided the Sinn Féin leadership with enough platforms to denounce the people responsible for Robert McCartney's murder. And they were denounced. But I still do not get it.
In a break in the endless shaking of hands, we checked out the shoes. The men in the family were a credit, it has to be said, and myself less so. My daughter was philosophical about her cowboy boots, proclaiming them "shiny enough". She had patterned dark tights and a black skirt bought in Dunnes in Shannon. It was the only acceptable style of skirt, none other could even be contemplated, but it was shop soiled.
The media and the Garda make uneasy bedfellows, but building a strong relationship is crucial, writes Conor Brady