The seven paintings stolen from a museum in Rotterdam in recent days are so valuable that the police could not immediately say what the haul is worth.

Environment Minister Phil Hogan will announce a root-and-branch reshaping of local government today.

Campaigns run with the best of intentions can sometimes have unintended consequences.

The tantalising discovery of a commercial oil field off Barryroe on the Cork coast has rekindled debate on the generous nature of Ireland’s oil and gas tax deal.

The challenge by eight Fine Gael TDs to the Government’s stance on key elements of the Croke Park Agreement is unprecedented and deals another blow to the stability of the Coalition.

Yesterday’s announcement that the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize would be awarded to the European Union is an acknowledgement of what can be achieved through politics.

Negotiations between health authorities and hospital consultants are beginning to make the Three Hundred Years War look like a jolly summertime manoeuvre for the FCA.

For some the Croke Park deal epitomises all that is wrong in this country.

Baseless optimism is little more than wishful thinking but amidst a seemingly endless deluge of dispiriting economic data any good news is more than welcome.

Today’s report that a priest in Mitchelstown, Co Cork, allowed a woman to stand up in church last Sunday and recount her experience of having an abortion is certain to reawaken divisions in advance of expected government legislation on abortion.