DURING recent union conferences there were worrying signs that the magnitude of our crisis had not yet dawned on some public sector workers.

THE results of a survey published today suggest that you are as likely to find an optimistic Irish person as you are to find a contrite banker.

THE reluctance of the last government to hold three by-elections was as anti-democratic as it was pathetically self serving.

IT’S been over a decade since so many words were written about Osama bin Laden and more than a decade since he came to symbolise everything about Islamic radicalism that is so disquieting and incomprehensible to western sensibilities.

THE scheme launched by Cork City Council to add €120 million to the €317m generated by tourism in the city is just one of many vital initiatives across the country to create jobs and generate income.

The killing of Osama bin Laden is a grim reminder of the outrages that were perpetrated in his and al-Qaida’s name in the US on September 11, 2001.

Jack O’Connor, general president of SIPTU and President of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) warned yesterday that growth is the only means by which Ireland can avoid default in the current financial difficulties.

TRAGEDY is a part of life’s cycle. It touches everyone of us on the shoulder at some unknowable moment, telling us that’s it’s our time to cope with a broken heart, to fight our way out of the abyss left by the death of someone we loved with an intensity almost beyond expression.

YESTERDAY, the 49 elected seats to the Seanad were filled, and it now only remains for the Taoiseach to nominate the remaining 11 senators for what is supposed to be the final Seanad.