APART from the Great Famine few things have scarred our national psyche as deeply as emigration.

WHEN scores of British political careers ended in ignominy because MPs claimed expenses for duck houses, moats, tennis courts or mortgages on unused houses, we might have been amazed but we dared not scoff because we did not know what our lot were up to.

WHAT planet are bankers on? Having brought the country to its knees, they are still engaging in a rotten culture where executives think they can pay themselves like kings.

WITH snow and ice gripping the country, the men and women on the frontline in the battle against the elements deserve the highest praise.

THIS week the Irish Prison Chaplains’ Report revealed abuse of thousands of our fellow citizens almost on a par with the terrible human neglect and abandonment recorded in the Murphy and Ferns reports.

THE evolution of vocabulary and language is one of reliable fault lines between generations and cultures.

THE ink is barely dry on our Faustian pact with Europe but one of the cornerstones in the Government’s four-year programme has been dramatically revised.

THE health police can be some of the most intolerant of any campaign groups in society but then that may be because we are so often unreceptive to ideas that might improve our lives.

TODAY is a grim reminder of one of the darkest eras of Irish history.

IN the darkness that accompanies suicide, it is entirely appropriate that an annual commemoration for bereaved families is called a Celebration of Light.