JUST two months ago Pope Francis issued an unprecedented and deeply challenging encyclical in which he called on us all to change our culture of consumption and our energy-expensive lifestyles to try to avert the “unprecedented destruction of the ecosystem” before the end of this century.

SOME non-native species, animals or plants, represent a huge threat to our natural flora and fauna and the environment that sustains them. 

ISRAEL’S government has never been shy about confronting critics. 

EVEN if you leave aside the absurd fact that an American presidential race where the two frontrunners — Jeb Bush and Hilary Clinton — represent long-tailed dynasties that have already had their feet under the Oval Office table for two decades, the tremendous sums committed to succeeding President Barack Obama hardly show democracy, or at least American democracy, in an inspiring or reassuring light.

THE Cork Local Government Review Group has, since January, been preparing a report for Environment Minister Alan Kelly about the possibility of merging Cork city and county councils to establish a single authority to manage the region.`

THE Heritage Council report for 2014, which will be published shortly, once again highlights one of our least attractive and self-deluding characteristics — paying nothing more than lip service to doing the right thing while not enforcing laws designed to protect and benefit everyone.

ALL around Europe nasty, hateful little political parties and social movements are getting traction on the issue of immigration because mainstream politicians, and socially liberal societies too, are unsure of how to deal with the escalating, ever-more pressing question, one that seems set to become the challenge of our age. 

THERE are few things as inspiring, as uplifting as the sight of an indomitable human spirit defying the odds to realise a long-held dream.

PEOPLE normally go to the local pub for a pint or two, a glass of wine, or a cup of coffee.

THE imprisonment of three former officials of Anglo Irish Bank for conspiring to hide from the Revenue Commissioners accounts connected to the bank’s then chief executive, Seán FitzPatrick, represents a milestone verdict in Ireland’s long-running banking crisis.