At a moment when social diversity is the defining characteristic of our age, it seems at best anachronistic to frame the debate about access to publically-funded education as an issue to be resolved between any particular religion and the State.

Every now and then, a phrase or a piece of data has an impact that far outweighs its immediate import.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, especially in politics — it might save many blushes had we the facility to change the past. Ask Theresa May or Hillary Clinton. Or Joan Burton.

THE political wrangling that surrounds the change in the system of bin charges bears all the hallmarks of another Irish Water fiasco.

IN a landmark case in 1982, the Supreme Court Judge Seamus Henchy spoke about “The bitter Irish race-memory of politically appointed and Executive-oriented judges”. 

WHEN he was 12, Kevin Moran decked an opponent a foot taller than him on a football field in Athlone because he felt a teammate had been fouled. He has been known as “Boxer” ever since.

It is not at all surprising that Google yesterday rejected the findings — and a €2.42bn antitrust fine — imposed by the European Commission after a seven-year investigation into how, according to the EC, the company abused its position “to give illegal advantage” to its own shopping service by making access to alternatives far more difficult than it might be.

Demographers — and pension advisers — have been warning us about the implications of Ireland’s ageing population for some years but our response has been more head-in-the-sand than get-up-and-go.

The letters pages of many a newspaper, the lively high-stool forums or the online chat rooms that neatly reflect the heartbeat of a society have often been exercised by the idea and quality of public art.

Over recent years judges have shown that they sometimes confuse the independence from the Oireachtas they are entrusted with to something like a sanctified separation from the world they live in.