IN recent days two very different people responded in very different ways to the unexpectedly powerful and joyous weekend expression of the cultural revolution that has been bubbling away in this country for several decades. 

MAKING a donation to a charity should be a straightforward transaction between and individual and whichever cause they wish to support.

The Tipperary International Peace Award was presented to UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon during a ceremony in the Premier county yesterday.

The decision by the electorate to enshrine within our Constitution the right of all citizens, irrespective of sexual orientation, access to the institution of marriage is a victory for equality.

Last night the great and good of the Irish film and drama industry gathered in Dublin’s Mansion House for the annual Irish Film and Television Academy Awards.

BECAUSE of the cyclical nature of power in a democracy, the past is a far more active player in our present than we might always imagine or accept.

THE relationship between the banks and Government, and the society our Government represents, can hardly be described as one of equals. Real power still resides in the banks’ boardrooms and Government can, it seems, only cajole and encourage.

ONE of the things that makes us human is our ability, or our need, to dream that anything is possible. Even on the darkest nights we still search for the stars.

IRELAND’S unemployment rate has fallen below 10% for the first time since our 2008 economic implosion — a crash which former Central Bank governor John Hurley told the banking inquiry yesterday was not anticipated by the Government, nor was its severity.

THE opening salvo in Britain’s attempt to realign its relationship with the European Union was fired on the fringes of a two-day Eastern Partnership summit which began last evening in Riga.