DUMPING rubbish in the countryside in a sort of free-range vandalism is one of the most common and unacceptable offences against individuals, communities, and the environment.

DIETS, like beards, come in and out of fashion.

IT is disheartening, and unacceptable, that some male religious congregations have yet to comply with the Catholic Church’s child protection guidelines.

THE politicians who, in 2010, when Ireland and Greece faced a nuclear-winter economic collapse that was averted only by the intervention of the EU and IMF, decided that our best interests lay in accepting the reality of our situation and that working with the troika offered the best prospect of restoring some sort of stability to our economy have been vindicated.

YESTERDAY’S arrest of Socialist Party TD Paul Murphy and three other anti-water charges protesters may just be the fillip the anti-water charges campaign craved.

True and unquestionable greatness is a badge reserved for a tiny minority in any sphere of human endeavour. Even fewer can expect that definition to withstand the fickleness of fashion or time.

In a country still suffering the consequences of asleep-at-the-wheel financial regulation it is shocking that a new report has questioned the standards applied during Hiqa inspections of centres where people with disabilities live.

One of the areas where what are assumed to be traditional property rights and what might be loosely be described as the common good and society’s right to protect its environment are most often in conflict is land usage and recreational access to that land.

This week’s Cabinet decision to approve measures that would oblige restaurants to put calorie counts on menus is another example of the nanny state stepping into the gap where personal responsibility should stand.

Richard Boyd Barrett’s address to the Dáil yesterday morning was moving and powerful. He spoke about his daughter Ella, who was born with fatal foetal abnormalities and who would now be a teenager had she survived.