THE virulent opposition to same-sex marriage, when one strips away all of the extraneous religious ideology, is, at its core, a battle to protect the last bastion of legitimised discrimination.

IF Labour is wondering why its support has suffered a vertiginous drop since last year’s election it need only look to its TDs’ shameful contributions to last week’s Dáil debate on abortion for answers.

In an opinion column in Wednesday’s Irish Examiner on the changed beliefs of Irish Catholics, it was wrongly stated that a Fr Gerry O' Hanlon was censored by the Vatican.

HAVE you heard the good news?

WHY is it that traditional journalists, when asked to review new media, invariably begin with a ubiquitous, “well, I don’t use Twitter myself but …” before launching into a sneering tirade decrying it as a cyber hellhole populated entirely by illiterate goons who happily spend each waking hour directing a torrent of libellous abuse at high-profile innocents in the hopes of making their mascara run?

HOW can we be expected to believe Micheál Martin can root out corruption in the Fianna Fáil party when he can’t even identify the ministers who, according to the Mahon Report, launched a “sustained and virulent attack” on the tribunal and questioned “the legality of its inquiries as well as the integrity of its members” when it was investigating Bertie Ahern in 2007 and 2008?

THE real scandal about the household charge is not its imminent implementation but, rather, the fact that successive governments failed to introduce a property tax years ago.

HISTORY is written by the winners, except on those rare occasions when it is written by a sore loser who claims to have lost a presidential election because of an errant tweet.

TAOISEACH Enda Kenny said Irish people would not respond to bribes when voting on the forthcoming fiscal treaty, but what would he call the promise of access to the ESM bailout fund if a yes vote is returned — or can that assurance be, more properly, called blackmail?

AS Micheál Martin prepares this weekend for his first ard fheis as Fianna Fáil leader, the atmosphere has been soured as ghosts of the party’s shambolic past resurrect themselves to rattle their chains and pour scorn on his performance.