The vast majority of energy consumed on this island, a figure of around 90%, is imported.

The credibility of the financial services sector is in the spotlight again after the Central Bank ordered stockbroker Bloxham to cease all regulated activities following the discovery of what were described as “financial irregularities” at the securities firm.

The Reuters photographs of lines of bodies at Ali Bin al-Hussein’s mosque in Huola in Syria put our debate about this week’s EU referendum into perspective.

Another act in a great summer of sport has begun and if Giovanni Trapattoni’s team can capture our affections like Jack Charleton’s panel did all of those years ago, then the mood of the nation will surely lift.

At moments of frightening flux, certainty is the most precious gold.

It is good news that 400 teachers will return to college to try to get qualifications that will allow them continue to teach maths at second level.

“Anger is not a policy” — along with the abject “this is where we are” — was a catchall that enjoyed currency at an earlier point in our economic collapse.

The prospect of a number of criminal convictions, sound in every other regard, being overturned because the three-judge Court of Criminal Appeal has ruled that search warrants used to gather evidence in the cases were defective is indeed an appalling vista.

If George Orwell, creator of the Big Brother concept of the state snooping on citizens, were alive today, he would be entitled to say “I told you so”.

Confusion concerning the law frequently occurs but seldom has such bewilderment arisen as in the case of double killer John Gallagher who has handed himself in after absconding from the Central Mental Hospital and fleeing to England 12 years ago.