IMAGINE being a young holidaymaker arriving from abroad to spend a couple of months with people you met as an au pair two years ago.

TWO major press interviews, just published, by two political heavyweights, suggest we are about to enter a new era in Irish politics.

SPICER by name and spicey by nature. The departure of Sean Spicer, Donald Trump’s loquacious press secretary, has robbed the US president of one of the most high-profile members of his frontline staff. 

WHAT we know about the post-Brexit rights of EU citizens living in the UK, and the rights of UK citizens living in the rest of Europe, amounts to less than a hill of beans.

Few celebrities have captured the public imagination in quite the same manner as OJ Simpson.

AS we stand on the cusp of weeks 29 and 30 of 2017, it is sobering to realise that we are already nearly two thirds of the way through the year, but uplifting to know that the best is still to come, starting with this weekend.

The GAA had a hot line into heaven yesterday. The sun never stopped shining, the heat was splendid and Siamsa at Páirc Uí Chaoimh was the best ever. 

It was 48 years ago today that a former US navy test pilot delivered one of the most famous sound bites in history.

The quaint notion of air travel as a romantic and relaxing prelude to a summer holiday disappeared around 50 years ago with the advent of mass transit and package holidays.

Paschal Donohoe won’t be the first or last financial controller with an unerring ability to find a few bob down the back of the sofa when the political situation requires it.