AT some point today, 41 Lions players will wake up in the Land of the Long White Cloud — home of the most vibrant, powerful rugby culture in the world.

NOW that the initial response to last Monday’s teen-concert massacre in Manchester moves from the “what” and “who” phase to the “why” phase the question that has confounded Europe for decades returns to centre stage: “Why do young men like Salman Abedi — and Paris killers Chérif Kouachi, Saïd Kouachi and Amedy Coulibaly — turn so violently against the society that offers them refuge?”

THE fraught interface between the market and public need is seen in stark terms in our dysfunctional housing market. Business, naturally, puts the necessity of profit before social projects. 

THE food we use and encourage others to use is a defining characteristic in today’s world.

IF a suicide bomber launched an attack at the Guns N’ Roses concert in Slane Castle tonight, or say, at one of the concerts planned for the new Páirc Uí Chaoimh, how would our emergency services cope? 

MAN’S capacity for savagery, man’s capacity for unimaginable cruelty, man’s appetite for revenge may seem inventions of our time, but they are as old as man himself.

VERY few causes have brought the people of the six counties of Munster together like the province’s rugby team.

ONE of the abiding but unfortunate practices in Irish life is that if you must say something say nothing. 

CREDIBILITY is the issue that will define the future of all media. 

AT the start of this week weather forecasters lifted the spirits of the nation in a way even the most optimistic economist can only dream about.