HAVING shot itself in the foot by peremptorily axing financial support for families affected by cancer, the Irish Cancer Society has risked compounding the controversy by the way it has gone about announcing its partial reversal of the contentious decision to slash hardship funding for cancer victims.

IT IS alarming to note that the number of gardaí working on so-called cold cases has been halved. A special unit formed to investigate unsolved homicides and high-profile missing person cases, it has brought hope to many families up and down the country.

THERE are very few stories from the recent history of the south of Ireland as romantic, as uplifting, and as much high-octane fun, as Munster’s successful plunder-and-pillage raids against the grandees of European and British rugby.

ARLENE FOSTER became the North’s First Minister yesterday and added another first to her CV — she is already the first woman to lead the DUP. She is also the youngest person to do so. 

It is a recurring, central theme in the discussion around how we might improve our public life that accountability remains little more than a notional principle, one that sounds good in a civics class — or even during an election campaign — but one we are not ready for just yet. Our indifference to the idea is a glaring weakness, a debilitating get-out-of-jail clause casting an opaque cloud over nearly everything we do.