At first glance, the plan to introduce the young people of Kerry and West Cork to drink alcohol through “traditional methods” of initiation smacks of an Irish joke.

Every time a new wonder drug for treating cancer comes on the market, the hopes of patients seeking a miracle cure are inevitably raised, only to be dashed amid controversy over the exorbitant cost of treatment.

With an overnight in hospital now costing more than a room at a five-star hotel, delayed discharges are draining the country’s ailing health service of money it can ill afford, according to Home and Community Care Ireland, which represents private home care organisations.

There is both good news and some that can only be described as downright perplexing in the latest report on wage trends from the Central Statistics Office.

The news that the family of Jean McConville, who was tortured and murdered by the IRA more than 40 years ago, is to sue the PSNI and the British government, reminds us all that there is a lot of unfinished business left over since the Troubles’ turbulent decades.

A robust, independent, and responsible public interest broadcaster is part of the furniture of every democracy.

Invasive species, whether flora or fauna, have had a profound impact on our native wildlife.

Two significant anniversaries in humanity’s visceral but never-ending struggle for justice, recognition and equality fall this week.

Yesterday’s oration at Béal na Bláth was given by Bill O’Herlihy.

If the fact that our fifth attempt at enacting a climate protection bill is winding its way through the Oireachtas at a glacial pace does not portray a dysfunctional, dangerous attitude towards environmental protection or social responsibility, then yesterday’s symbolic protest by around 150 turf cutters — cheered on by two Dáil deputies — at Kerry’s Moanveanlagh bog, highlights the cultural ambiguity that sustains this prevaricating, responsibility-dodging foolishness.