France lessons for Irish parties

The enduring power of symbolism and the different ways in which society deals with it.

The annual but illegal gorse burning season is upon us.

Every society in every time gets a warning that something may be wrong, that something we regard as almost impossible may be about to happen. 

Even as World War II fades from living memory, its vocabulary retains the power to shock, to call us to reckoning. 

Societies are judged by many criteria. Some regard gross domestic product as defining.

IN a world looking as if might be sliding backwards toward the division and horrors of the last century rather than embracing the bright tomorrow the hopeful among us believed was secure, history’s lessons assume a new relevance.

THOUGH it can be difficult to get a person of a certain age to discuss pension provision, it is far, far easier to do that than face old age without one that might support a lifestyle other than the genteel poverty faced by many of today’s pensioners.

OVER the last number of days public debate has been animated by the prospect that the Sisters of Charity might be involved in the new National Maternity Hospital.

IT is difficult to imagine that the after-dinner, residents’ lounge conversation among any group involved in how our seas’ resources are managed, exploited or shared would be a cheery, celebratory affair.