IT is not surprising that the marked increase in suicide recorded during the so-called Celtic Tiger era should get worse in times of recession.

THE plight of people incarcerated for years in psychiatric institutions tends to be swept under the carpet in Ireland.

IN his first State of the Union address to the European parliament, European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso yesterday spoke for the great, great majority of Europeans when he described the sentence imposed on an Iranian woman convicted of adultery as “barbaric beyond words”.

ALREADY this week we have heard that almost half of Irish people have difficulty with basic arithmetic.

AN individual’s ability to perform simple calculations, and to read and write to a functional level by and large defines their place in the modern world.

JUST as this country did with our own terrorists, Spain is having difficulties accepting that the ceasefire announced by Basque separatists ETA is genuine.

LAST February Environment Minister John Gormley asked businessman Denis Brosnan to chair the Limerick Local Government Committee to consider how local government might best serve the needs of the Mid-West.

WE already know of the epidemic of suicide sweeping the country – more than 10 a week – but figures just published reveal another manifestation of the terrible challenges facing individuals, families and communities.

TOMORROW afternoon only something a little over an hour and Tipperary will stand between Kilkenny’s hurlers and the kind of life-shaping achievement many of us fantasise about, a very small few of us dedicate our lives to, but no one has achieved.

CEREAL farmers are enjoying the best and most lucrative harvest in years and after so many disappointing and barely viable years it is hard to begrudge them their modest change in fortunes.