I DON’T know what the broadband speed is like in Islandeady, Co Mayo, but I hope it is sufficiently fast to allow for a little internet surfing on exotic holiday destinations.

NOBODY can accuse us Irish of lacking when it comes to expressing our "public outrage".

TODAY I write in praise of Health Minister James Reilly. I can imagine others reading that sentence and reckoning that I am in need of assistance from the State’s mental health services.

POLITICS can be a sad business, and I don’t just mean for the electorate. There was a palpable air of sadness in Iveagh House last Monday as Eamon Gilmore announced that he was going to stand down as leader of the Labour Party.

THE Government has cheapened itself with two-bit election promises from which it will be very difficult to recover, even if the election results are not as disastrous as they have been dreading.

SHE’S the thinking woman’s political crumpet — the girl crush that more and more are willing to admit to having. But why, oh why, does Mary Lou McDonald have to be so bloody brilliant, and yet a member of Sinn Fein?

THE clue is in the name really. Labour. It doesn’t paint word pictures of sunny skies, optimism and basking in the glow of an affectionate electorate.

I HAVE a small girl who appears to be allergic to going to bed. Every night we make a deliberate visit to the kitchen for a last-minute snack but still she shouts from her room upstairs about how she is either hungry or thirsty.

THERE are groups all over the country busy making preparations for a traditional Irish wake – these are town councillors whose councils will disappear next month under what has been described by Environment Minister Phil Hogan as the most fundamental and radical reform of local Government structures since the 19th century.

By Alison O'Connor