Change, even profound change, can be imperceptible but — usually — the great changes are obvious.

Experience has always been, and remains, one of the very best teachers.

That more than 1.1m homeowners — 70% of thoseliable — have paid the household charge may not be a complete victory for Government but it is a considerable defeat for those who opposed the charge.

A survey of 4,500 Irish 10-year-olds found that 12% were bullied in school on about a weekly basis. What one child may see as a bit of fun may be considered bullying by the child who is the victim of such fun. Thus it is particularly important that people should recognise the different forms that bullying takes.

“I hope that everyone who believes that the right to life is fundamental will make their voice heard in a reasonable, but forthright, way to their representatives,” Cardinal Seán Brady stated in his Christmas message. “No government has the right to remove that right from an innocent person.”

The Irish Examiner would like to wish everyone the compliments of the season.

The Standards in Public Office Commission (Sipo), the current ethics watchdog, has no teeth, so it is not able to bite.

THE exodus of a generation of young Irish people from this country has been one of the great tragedies of our time.

WITH Garda stations closing across the country, people will naturally be alarmed at the latest crime statistics showing an increase of over 2,000 in the number of burglaries in the year up to the end of September.

You may not have factored it into your busy schedule but, as some would have you believe, according to the 5,125-year-old calendar of the Mayan civilisation, the world will end today.