SOME time ago, well before this year’s election, when the leadership of Fianna Fáil was questioned in a way it might not be today, party venerable Willie O’Dea admitted that when he looked around the table at a Fianna Fáil parliamentary party meeting he did not see a messiah. 

PRESIDENT Michael D Higgins, speaking at the National Famine Commemoration Day in Dublin yesterday where a memorial was unveiled in Glasnevin, appropriately took the opportunity to remind us of one of the great tragedies and challenges of our world. 

AS late autumn and winter approach bringing the threat of unmanageable levels of rainfall, those living in homes or working in businesses that have been regularly flooded must feel increasingly apprehensive. 

THERE was a whiff of irony in the air at yesterday’s meeting of eurozone finance ministers in Bratislava where Ireland’s normally popular minister Michael Noonan (in Europe, at any rate) found himself somewhat isolated.

WITH the Belfast consultant who carried out the independent clinical review into cardiac care at University Hospital Waterford resolutely defending his findings, it has to be said that he is making a lot of sense.