Freedom of movement is a basic human right in states around the world, including in this Republic, where such liberties were hard won by people down the years.

The photograph published with this column, taken 30 years ago when Munster lost to Australian rugby tourists in Thomond Park, seems as if it is from a different age.

The absolute importance of foreign investment in our economic recovery was underlined again yesterday when American pharmaceutical company Bristol-Myers Squibb announced that is to create up to 400 jobs in Dublin as part of a €720m investment in a new plant.

Teachers’ unions might consider it churlish if it was pointed out that that the last time they went on strike in December there was, coincidentally of course, a Christmas shopping bonanza for the North’s border towns.

It seems that the events to mark the centenary of the 1916 Rising might yet be as divisive, as loosely organised and as controversial as the event they are supposed to honour. Once again the almost mandatory split — or splits — has worked its way to the top of the national agenda.

Outgoing chairman of the Revenue Commissioners Josephine Feehily has been named as the new chairwoman of the Policing Authority. There can hardly have been a more important appointment to a public body in recent years.

Cork Airport seems to be at a critical juncture, an impression strengthened by yesterday’s announcement that Aer Lingus will not service Cork-to-Lisbon or Cork-to-Nice routes next summer. 

Google has taken a 60-year lease on a Nasa airfield next to its Silicon Valley headquarters near San Francisco.

Global regulators have imposed penalties totalling $3.4bn on five major banks, including UBS, HSBC and Citigroup for failing to prevent their traders from attempting to manipulate foreign exchange markets.

“The Philae has landed”. Not since the first moon landing of 1969 have words like this described a defining moment in human achievement.