Finance Minister Brian Lenihan yesterday became the first Fianna Fáil minister to address the annual commemoration of the death of Michael Collins at Béal na mBláth.

Record Leaving Certificate grades this year should be warmly welcomed.

The Dublin-Cork All-Ireland football semi-final should be a great spectacle, reflecting what is best in the game. It will attract a large attendance and provide the Gaelic Athletic Association with a magnificent stage on which to display the sport.

France has defied mounting international criticism over its crackdown on the Roma and gypsy community, who are being returned to Eastern Europe on aircraft. Some 139 were flown out of Paris yesterday, in addition to 86 who were flown out on Thursday.

THE decision of Bank of Scotland Ireland (BoSI) to pull out of Ireland will further deepen the storm clouds hanging over the country’s tottering economy.

LAST night’s Primetime report on the sale of alcohol to teenagers who order booze online is further evidence of how difficult it is to resolve this country’s crisis of underage drinking.

In the global economy it is important that outside concerns about the Leaving Certificate results in this country should be addressed.

Newsweek, the American news magazine, has rated Taoiseach Brian Cowen as one of the 10 best leaders in the world today.

As usual there seem to be mixed messages from the latest Leaving Certificate results. The decline in the number taking the higher-level paper in mathematics is a continuing worry. Of the 52,290 who sat maths, just 16% took the higher paper. That was down from 17% in 2008.

Ban Ki Moon, secretary general of the United Nations, has described the Pakistan floods as the worst disaster he has ever seen. “This has been a heart-wrenching day,” he said. “I will never forget the destruction and suffering I have witnessed.”