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

MAKING predictions in politics is a mugs game, we only have to look back on the last few days to confirm that as a fact.

IF you can tell a lot about a restaurant by the state of it’s toilets, then you can surely tell a lot about a nation by the state of its main children’s hospital.

REMEMBER that crowd with the new broom and how they promised sweeping changes? It’s beginning to look like they could teach the old crowd how to suck eggs.

I WAS having a chat with my aunt — 80 years old yesterday — about how women’s place in society has changed. As I’d been arguing that women still had so far to travel, she told me a short story illustrating just how far we’ve come.