NO other issue is as divisive in Ireland today as abortion. Those opposed to it regard it a kind of State-sanctioned murder, an affront to the great, sanctified gift of life.

THE debate around the the terms of reference for the Commission of Investigation into transactions by IBRC continues but one of the conditions proposed by the Government must be regarded as carved in stone.

LEAD, just like asbestos, was freely used in buildings some decades ago. Now that it has been identified as a health threat, efforts must be made to remove it, or at the very least reduce the impact it might have.

LAST month Údarás na Gaeltachta warned that Irish is unlikely to be the majority spoken language in Gaeltacht areas in ten years time. This near terminal decline, one even faster than had been anticipated, seems inevitable because of the apathy surrounding the use of the language — despite the hundreds of millions spent each year trying to sustain it.

OCCASIONALLY public policy decisions are made that suggest we have learnt little enough from the sordid experiences of our past and that our self image as a caring, protective society — a Christian or even a post-Christian one — might not be as accurate as we might wish.

Department of Health figures suggest that around 200,000 people suffer from eating disorders, so the number of people affected by this heartrending condition is a multiple of that. Parents and siblings, relatives and friends are often left bewildered as they watch a loved one suffer from this indiscriminate, complex mental health problem.

SAUDI ARABIA is one of those countries that is so very wealthy that it does not really have to bother too much with what the rest of the world thinks about it. It can, metaphorically at least, smile at the world’s opprobrium and buy another string of racehorses to get over the slight.

IMAGINE a child of 12 or 13, a nervous, look-away girl or an overly aggressive boy, frightened, cornered, and untrusting because they have been abused, physically or sexually.

IN 10 days’ time, the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo will be marked. That great and brutal event was one of modern Europe’s defining moments and is still regarded in some countries’ military histories as one of the continent’s first concerted responses to tyranny.

THE Corinthian view of sport, one that imagined it a test of courage, skill and honour, may seem hopelessly, pathetically romantic today.