Abortion may be the divisive issue in this and many other societies but that is probably because we have not discussed property rights and the impact that idea, that vague but apparently inviolable principle, has right across society.

The privatisation of Eircom just 15 years ago was one of the most disastrous public policy decisions in the history of the State.

Smartphone theft accounts for 30% to 40% of all American urban crime according to the Federal Communications Commission.

The detention — or kidnapping if you prefer — yesterday of 43 UN peacekeepers in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights by militants fighting the Syrian army, introduces a new layer of complexity and danger into an already dreadful situation.

This Sunday, as we mark the 20th anniversary of the IRA ceasefire, celebrations must by tempered by the fact that, three decades after that great, bitterly-won opportunity, the past still holds a crippling grip on the future.

IF public sympathy has been in scarce supply for the owners of ‘second homes’ or or "Non-Principal Private Residence" to use the convoluted language of bureaucracy, it is growing as it becomes increasingly clear that much of the blame for this mess lies squarely at the door of the Department of the Environment.

TODAY is one of the most exciting of days for children going to school for the first time, joining thousands of others already on the pathway of knowledge, an experience that will shape the course of their future lives. But while school can open the mind and fire the imagination, it can also be a scary place.

ON Saturday it will be 20 years since Ireland, north and south, heaved a collective sigh of relief as the IRA declared its ceasefire, followed two months later by loyalist paramilitaries.

Yesterday’s unemployment figures show that slow, steady progress is being made in confronting the jobs’ crisis. 

Our eating and dietary habits are as varied as we are. One year’s super diet, one season’s super food is destined to become next year’s leftovers.