WHETHER Lucinda Creighton’s Renua Ireland has the impact its supporters imagine it might have remains to be seen, but yesterday’s launch in Dublin was more an underwhelming, long-flagged formality rather than a spectacular challenge to the status quo.

BY any standard, even the stellar standards set by AP McCoy, who is to retire from racing this year, having been champion jockey for 19 seasons, winning 100 caps in international rugby is a very considerable achievement.

TWO developments yesterday highlighted the contrasting responses of EU states to the financial crisis.

WITH SYRIA, a coalition of more than 100 humanitarian and human rights organisations, says that 83% of the night-time lights in Syria that were visible from space just four years ago have gone out.

THE inevitable challenge from tobacco conglomerates to legislation making plain packaging on cigarettes mandatory cannot be dismissed lightly but it cannot be shirked either.

IS it possible that the Rape Crisis Network of Ireland got the wrong end of the stick by calling for the immediate withdrawal of an advertisement aimed at raising awareness of alcohol abuse? 

WHENEVER it suits Sinn Féin, the party draws a line in the sand, making a fine distinction between its role as the self- described biggest political party on this island and its attitude to and handling of historic but still live allegations involving crimes of rape and sexual abuse of young people by members of the republican movement.

THE National Transport Authority may indeed be “acutely aware” of how deeply the loss of buses and other services will affect the people of rural towns and villages but what really counts is Bus Éireann’s attitude.

IN contrast with the crowd of protesters who forced a meeting of Cork City Council to be abandoned, the one-man demonstration which led to its second abortive session within a fortnight could hardly be described as a protest worthy of the name. 

ONE of the founding grandees of the BBC described public interest broadcasting as “making the popular good and the good popular”.