TO what degree does snobbery influence the madcap rush to third-level education driven by the Leaving Certificate points system contrasting starkly with the number of young people wishing to become craftspeople? 

A PASSENGER arriving at Cork Airport on Monday afternoon observed that in contrast with Liverpool John Lennon Airport, there were only two planes on the runway. Despite its new terminal, there was a distinct sense of a rundown airport desperately in need of some business so as to give it an uplift.

AS our economic recovery continues apace, as we fret over changing our Constitution to allow same-sex marriage and allowing last summer’s minor hurlers challenge for the presidency the crisis around Greek debt and the country’s position in Europe approaches something like an endgame — an endgame that casts an ever-darkening shadow right across Europe.

EVEN though depression exacts a huge toll on individuals, families and society, our understanding of it remains less than complete. It is at the root of so much unhappiness and tragedy that anything that helps us reach a better understanding of it and helps those so afflicted must be welcomed.

THERE is growing concern around a number of IBRC transactions, including the 2012 sale of Siteserv to a company controlled by plutocrat Denis O’Brien.

AS EU foreign ministers met in Luxembourg yesterday, the refugee crisis in the Mediterranean escalated.

THE trial and conviction of Graham Dwyer for the sadistic, almost satanic, murder of Elaine O’Hara transfixed and shocked this society.

THE prospect of bus services being disrupted for the next two bank holiday weekends is a disproportionate response to the deadlock around the possibility of privatising 10% of the country’s bus routes. Not only will thousands of travellers — many of them tourists — be discommoded, many struggling businesses right around the country will feel the impact.

REFORM is very rarely successful or enduring if it is imposed from on high, but if it comes as a consequence of a grassroots groundswell then it can be profound and successful.

TWO connected events of recent days represent a huge moral challenge to the West and Africa’s functioning states, especially its oil-rich Arab countries.