The last hours of Nuala O'Faolain were anguished as she choked and begged for help, while still at home. She had wanted to die at home rather than to be taken to a hospice. She needed morphine but her friends could not access this for her, as general practitioners were either not available or could not supply morphine in the form of a liquid drip. Eventually, she was moved to a hospice, where she died peacefully a few hours later.
Nuala and Nell have been part of the nation's life, through the women's movement that liberated Ireland, and through the stories of their own lives that are part of our fabric
By Susan McKay
Forbes Magazine names 6 Irish citizens in its Top 400 wealthiest people in the world. By Tom Rowe
The enormous disparity in age and economic wealth are fundamental issues in Ó'Searchaigh's relations with Nepalese boys.
By Mary Raftery
He is Ireland's best talk broadcaster by far. Fluent, intelligent, informed, focused, relaxed, his radio programme is a model of professional broadcasting. All the more so since he curbed a tendency to over-talk, to show-off his erudition and to answer his own questions.
He was one of the few players at the Rugby World Cup to have had a full time occupation outside rugby (“Jannie” du Plessis a prop-forward for South Africa, is a qualified and practicing physician). And yet Felipe Conteponi was one of the most accomplished players in the tournament, by far the most accomplished of the rugby players who play their rugby in Ireland.
It was the year of the metamorphis in Northern Ireland. On 8 May Ian Paisley of loyalist extremism and Martin McGuinness of republican paramilitarism took office together as First Minister and Deputy First Minister in the new power-sharing executive in Northern Ireland. t was the year that Bertie Ahern triumphed at the polls for a third successive time, while his own political destiny was challenged by the Planning Tribunal.....
Tony Clare was one of the best debaters to come from UCD. Ever. Effortlessly fluent, witty, persuasive, commanding. He and his close friend of the 1960's, the late Patrick Cosgrave (who later served as an adviser to Margaret Thatcher) dominated university debating here and in the UK during their era. Tony Clare seemed destined for politics early on because of his rhetorical skills and the joy he took in performance. But he was serious about medicine and then about his chosen specialty, psychiatry.
The recovery of the Munster and Leinster players, who played so poorly in the Rugby World Cup, notably Ronan O'Gara, has been so striking that the fingers pointing at Eddie O'Sullivan have got even longer and more insistent. If Declan Kidney (Munster) and Michael Cheika (Leinster) can get so much more from the players that Eddie O'Sullivan failed with so spectacularly, doesn't that say something? And among the thing it says is that Declan Kidney should be preferred as the national coach. And soon.
Cardinal Seán Brady is quite a contrast to the other two surviving Irish cardinals.
He has none of the intellectual firepower of Cathal Daly. He has none of the arrogance or aloofness of Desmond Connell. There is a gentleness about him, a humility, a reserve, which is impressive. And there was a hurt to have been so publicly passed over when Desmond Connell was made Cardinal in 2001, a hurt now delightfully relieved by his recent elevation. Diarmuid Martin is likely to join him in the College of Cardinals soon, two votes for Ireland in the next Papal election.