As late as yesterday Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore used the usual catch-all to repel a Sinn Féin attack.

Hardly is the ink dry on the Government’s decision to introduce legislation to give effect to the Supreme Court’s ruling in the X Case, than the deep fissures that divided Irish society on the question of abortion in the past are re-emerging with all the bitterness and rancour.

The financial advertisement about there being no “sneaky” conditions comes to mind in relation to the Bank of Ireland decision to slap an interest rate hike on its credit cards days before Christmas.

We saw again yesterday the relentless nature of life’s cycle — birth, growth, achievement, death, the pain of absence and then almost inevitably rejuvenation.

The Society of St Vincent de Paul is one of the backbone charities in this society.

As America, one more time, pays a very heavy price for its trenchant belief in the right of citizens to own military-grade firearms, the rest of the world looks on with sadness and amazement.

It is an indictment of our Government, our public services, and all of us in this society too, that four organisations, frustrated by how difficult it is to make progress through official channels, have had to come together to rent private accommodation to provide shelter for the growing number people forced to live — and occasionally die — on our streets.

The sense of shock at the sudden death of one of Kerry’s greatest footballers, multi-All-Ireland medal winner Páidí Ó Sé, has transcended the world of the GAA.

With questions hanging over the future of the wild Atlantic salmon, a big money-spinner for Irish tourism, few issues provoke more heated controversy than the operation of fish farms off Ireland’s coasts.

For the first time in history, more people are being killed by obesity than by not having enough to eat.