THE seventh rugby World Cup began in New Zealand this morning.

IT IS important to reflect on our priorities and decide on the kind of society we desire.

WHEN the Central Applications Office (CAO) was introduced in 1977 there were only 69 courses at just five colleges, and there were fewer than 15,000 applications.

THE Government parties have — so far — survived their autumn sleep-overs without any calamities like the one that opened the last chapter in Brian Cowen’s tawdry premiership.

PARENTS are under such pressure today that it may seem unfair to burden them with another challenge, but this may be one most would enjoy.

LAST December an international survey reported a startling decline in the level of academic achievement by Irish teenagers.

YEAR after year the tidy towns competition gives us all a chance to celebrate what can be achieved by a community with the enthusiasm and energy to come together to make their home place better than it is.

THE Vatican’s response to Taoiseach Enda Kenny’s criticisms will do little to bridge the widening gap between traditional Irish Catholicism and those Irish people — including a growing number of disenchanted Catholics — who believe the interests of this society and corporate Catholicism are no longer compatible.

NAMA was given an almost impossible task — how could anyone, or any organisation no matter how well resourced, easily unravel some of the spectacularly obtuse arrangements made by bankers or developers to conceal their activities?

“Never forget the importance of history. Not to know what has been transacted in former times is to be always a child. If no use is made of the labours of past ages, the world must remain always in the infancy of knowledge.”