AS Brian Cowen’s time as a political leader stumbles towards its ignominious end it is sobering to recall the optimism that greeted his elevation to the Taoiseach’s office less than 30 months ago.

A REPORT from the European Commission yesterday gave the reassuring news that 84% of the software programs tested enabled parents to block their children’s access to certain websites.

NOW that we function as a society only because of the very expensive kindness of strangers debates about access to services that might have once been little more than high-minded public discourse are likely to become the society-defining battlegrounds of the next decade.

THERE is a neat and empowering symmetry between great local produce and exceptional restaurants.

SINCE the end of 2008 former Anglo boss Sean FitzPatrick has maintained a self-serving silence.

PAKISTAN’S blasphemy laws have been used to incite hatred, perpetuate ignorance, provoke intolerance and instigate the violence that has cost hundreds if not thousands of lives.

Questions must be asked about the disclosure that, as minister for finance, Brian Cowen had an extended telephone conversation with Seán FitzPatrick of Anglo Irish Bank around the time that the bank’s shares collapsed in March 2008, and that after becoming Taoiseach they had further contacts in the months leading up to the introduction of the bank guarantee in September.