The reopening of the US market for Irish beef is a significant fillip, but an even greater opportunity for the farm sector. 

Better late than never must be the response to the news that a website has been established to help the partners and children of Catholic priests. 

Never has there been greater need for renewed emphasis on safety in the killing fields of Irish farming.

Israel’s capacity to shoot itself in both feet appears to have no bounds.

Given the welcome influx of more tourists to Ireland, it is encouraging that our cities are getting cleaner. As today’s report from Irish Businesses Against Litter (IBAL) will show, 13 major urban areas are now better than the European average. 

Independent TD Lucinda Creighton yesterday borrowed a technology metaphor when announcing she is to launch a new political party in the spring. Exhibiting evangelical zeal, Ms Creighton declared: “We want to reboot Ireland and we want those who are as passionate about this country as we are to join us on this mission”.

It is more than 30 years since the images from Ethiopia of helplessness and starvation that spurred Band Aid were seen on television screens around the world.

After more than six years of austerity, the ghosts of the Celtic Tiger are being finally put to rest as we face into a new year with confidence and a real hope of prosperity.

Every time someone runs amok in an American school or university campus, or even an idyllic Norwegian holiday island or a quiet Scottish border town, killing at random but for no obvious purpose, one simple truth is underlined:

It is unfortunate that statistics show that the death toll on our roads rose again last year, especially as the great efforts put into promoting road safety in recent years seemed, for a while at least, to pay dividends.