Considerable progress, seemingly with the co-operation of all involved, is being made on the issue of school patronage.

The charade of the botched government bid to save money by reducing controversial perks and allowances for workers travelling on the public sector gravy train has taken a significant twist with today’s front-page report that thousands of state employees received more than €1bn in overtime and allowances last year.

Faced with a gathering tsunami of mortgage arrears, it is alarming to learn that the emergency committee set up by the Taoiseach to address this crisis has not met in three months.

A lot of the political activity around restoring the euro’s sustainability has fallen into the one-step-forwards two-steps-backwards category.

One of man’s sustaining joys, one of his anchors, is that, no matter how bleak things seem, if you look hard enough you will find magnificence all around you. No one will have to look too hard today.

Every society has a set of mores around sex, every society has a code of behaviour and if it is breached there are usually pretty severe consequences.

Our world, despite all of our sincere protestations,admires material achievement like no other.

Graphic pictures of a culture of bullying, fear and intimidation at St Patrick’s Institution for young offenders as portrayed in yesterday’s stark report would not be out of place in the pages of a Dickens novel.

The tragic case of a Canadian teenager who took her own life following years of cyberbullying sends out a clarion call to parents around the world.

Every now and then someone steps out from the crowd and challenges our perceived wisdom, our institutions or our unattractive habit of imagining that taking action is optional once a promise to take action has been made. Someone who rejects the beguiling and often deceitful comforts of the status quo.