THIS may be a decisive week for Fianna Fáíl leader Micheál Martin. It may prove an even more significant week for a party once almost blasé about power but now fighting to avoid irrelevance and suicide by implosion.

HEALTH Minister Leo Varadkar yesterday forcefully criticised how parents of babies who died at the Midlands Regional Hospital in Portlaoise were treated, but his assertion yesterday — that parents of babies who died at the hospital “were not dealt with honestly” — must have implications beyond what is usual in these circumstances. Earlier in the week, he that said he was “ashamed” of how patients were treated.

WATERFORD’S claim to be Ireland’s oldest city is no mean boast and it is fully deserving of the opportunity to get a €10m facelift. 

THE gardaí are to be praised for their sensitive handling of the search to identify abandoned baby Maria.

THIS country is about to vote on defining social legislation and if the amendment on marriage equality is endorsed next week it will be an indication of how quick and profound change can be once it is agreed. Opponents of the amendment warn of some kind of social catastrophe if it is adopted.

IT IS entirely natural that our modern, democratic, multi-cultural world is so suspicious of authoritarian governments that they are no longer tolerated. Unfettered authoritarianism, allied with mania, imagined exceptionalism, and deep, irrational hatreds so ravaged the last century that every society that can rejects the idea of entrusting their government with unlimited power.

Johnny Logan, still the undisputed king of the Eurovision stage belted out not one but two winning songs — ‘What’s Another Year’ in 1980 and ‘Hold me Now’ in 1987. And in between those dates, he wasn’t sitting on his laurels as his composition ‘Why Me’ performed by Linda Martin in 1992 earned us another accolade thanks to the white-suited performer.

IT must be welcomed that the threatened bus strikes will not now go ahead. The strikes were called off after early-morning talks concluded with an agreement that gave certain protections to workers in the event of routes being privatised.

THE broadcaster Derek Davis, who has died aged 67 after a short illness, was one of the generation of journalists whose career ran parallel to Ireland’s transformation from being a relatively poor, insular and agrarian society to what it is today. 

CONFIRMATION that four babies have died in 30 months at the maternity unit at Cavan General Hospital adds to the growing sense of unease around our health services, especially our maternity services. That it comes so very soon after relevations about five baby deaths at Midland Regional Hospital in Portlaoise exacerbates that concern.