It may be different in other countries but in Ireland we seem to have, chameleon-like, mastered a way of living that vehemently asserts one position but observes a completely different set of rules or realities.

A new international rating of the world’s higher education facilities suggests things are not as bad in our colleges and institutes as we might have thought.

Welcome, positive statements were made on transport policy and infrastructure yesterday.

Anyone who has seen the YouTube clip of a group of Travellers taking over a section of the Cork to Limerick road to run a sulky race — Russian Ladie vs Christy’s Fillie — will be amazed that someone was not killed.

Elections in France and Greece have left those countries in very different positions. Europe, in all of our splendid diversity, can only look on and wonder which situation most accurately presages our fate.

The decision by Fianna Fáil’s Éamon Ó Cuív to observe a vow of silence and accept leader Micheál Martin’s veto on campaigning for a no vote on EU fiscal treaty averts, for now at least, what would have been a major challenge for Mr Martin.

The timely call for an independent inquiry into child abuse deserves to be supported by all sides embroiled in the controversy raging over Cardinal Seán Brady’s handling of the appalling sexual exploitation of children by the evil paedophile Fr Brendan Smyth.

An Irish Examiner investigation today reveals that the Irish Greyhound Board, a commercial semi-state body, ratcheted up an over-spend of €5m on the construction of a new racecourse in Limerick.

THE urgency of ensuring that children in this country get more robust protection against abuse has been given fresh impetus by Archbishop Diarmuid Martin’s call for an independent international commission of inquiry into the crimes of the notorious paedophile priest Fr Brendan Smyth.

THE victory of socialist François Hollande in the French presidential race promises to have a crucial impact on the future of France, the EU, and Ireland.