THE be-alert appeal by Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI) issued to farmers yesterday was a pretty standard piece of red-flag waving but one of the details contained in the plea is worthy of qualified celebration.

THE Trump White House may be the most spectacular and worrying example of what happens when we take democracy for granted.

MICHEÁL MARTIN’S willingness to consider entering into coalition with Fine Gael indicates his growing confidence as Fianna Fáil party leader and his maturity in recognising that inconclusive election results are becoming the norm here.

WHERE have all the protesters gone?

CYNICS may see the National Lottery as a tax on stupidity.

AS FIRST acts go the opening module of the Charleton Tribunal has had much to commend it.

NEXT week will mark the departure from the world stage of one of its great entertainers. No, not Vincent Browne, whose sterling contribution to the gaiety of nations is marked on page nine in today’s Irish Examiner.

An Garda Síochána are correct that imbalances in recruitment will, over time, produce an unbalanced police force attempting to serve an increasingly diverse community.

IT IS not always possible for a prominent public figure to provide an Apologia pro Vita Sua — a defence of one’s life — in convivial surroundings and amidst the company of former colleagues, some of them well-wishers.

IN Brian Friel’s visionary play, Translations, he interrogates the challenges of communication across generations and cultures and he laments the incremental decline, and loss, of original language and metaphor and subtlety of meaning.