Yesterday, Údarás na Gaeltachta made its contribution to what seems to be a growing sense that we have weathered the worst of the economic storm.

Four years after his first inauguration, US President Barack Obama yesterday officially assumed office for the second time in a Capitol Hill ceremony that seemed more rooted in what is possible than the exceptionally optimistic and deeply emotional events of 2009.

Rolling out the red carpet for the European premiere of Lincoln in Dublin has given the Irish film industry a welcome fillip that will help to keep it in the picture.

On a weekend when the Catholic church flexed its muscles in the abortion debate, bringing an estimated 25,000 pro-life supporters from all parts of Ireland onto the streets of Dublin, its moral authority was quietly dealt a potentially damaging blow by an outspoken priest who openly defies the power of the Vatican.

Yesterday, as Met Éireann issued a severe weather warning and as 3,000 schools closed in England and Wales because of snow, Australians were warned to prepare for temperatures greater even than the spectacular ones of recent weeks.

There are few things as comforting, apart from bullet-proof personal relationships, than a secure place in an active, united, and caring community.

The Supreme Court has provisionally fixed February 19 to hear the appeal by Marie Fleming, a terminally ill woman, against the High Court’s rejection of her challenge to our constitutional ban on assisted suicide.

The decision yesterday by the High Court to extend for another year the investigation by the Director of Corporate Enforcement into the collapse of the former Anglo Irish Bank is more than frustrating for anyone who wants to see our justice system work effectively.

The relationship between consumer and food supplier is so fundamental to our wellbeing that the trust consumers show every time they buy a food product must always be justified and protected.

The guarded optimism expressed by the governor of the Central Bank, Patrick Honohan, when he spoke to an Oireachtas committee yesterday, carries some weight.