Society

Everyone loves a crackpot, especially an Irish crackpot. And our history is full of them writes Damian Corless

Lot's wife:

While anguished questioning is inevitable in these cataclysmic circumstances, we should keep some historical perspective, and not leap immediately to the denial of God. Huge natural disasters have happened in the past, and they will likely also occur in the future. We live in a world that is as precarious as it is wonderful, and where the delicate balance of natural forces that generally work to provide a congenial habitat for us sometimes slips, to let us see the chaos, the volcanic magma, that lies not far beneath earth's crust.

'Less is more' will be John Paul II's motto this year. John L. Allen looks at the key issues facing the Vatican as the Pope becomes increasingly an icon, and not a governor, of the Catholic Church

The seventies. Flares, dope and free love? How about strikes, low wages and high prices. Damian Corless investigates

Lloyd Geering traces how the followers of Jesus first came to see him as Christ, later as the Messiah, later still as son of God, and not until three centuries later, as God, second person of the Holy Trinity.

These are exceptional times in the life of this country. In a decade or two from now and certainly in a century, the years we are living through will be regarded as a renaissance. Spectacular economic growth and job creation. Success in achieving peace in Northern Ireland even if the last ingredients of peace have yet to be embedded. The transformation of our cities and the environment, and by no means all of this transformation disfiguring. A flourishing of literature, music and theatre. Impressive success in sports from football, to rugby, GAA and horse racing.

An Óige is closing and selling eight of its hostels in counties Cork, Kerry, Wicklow, Galway, Donegal and Wexford, because of its "precarious financial position" according to a letter issued on 21 October to the managers of the hostels to be closed.

The ‘painted ladies' of the sea show that a race is about more than just speed and reward.

It appears to have had it all. Cutters, Brigs, Schooners, Ketchs, Sloops and full rigged ships. We oohed at their jibs, gasped at their staysails and ducked heads as their spanker booms swooshed across the deck. It was all long wooden masts and fluttering material. Painted ladies of the ocean drawing in great breaths of wind on the Dublin Bay catwalk.

Anti-racist and refugee groups in Dublin have begun monitoring race attacks in the city, in order to establish if they are the work of an organised, or a nascent racist grouping.