IRAN tested its longest-range missiles yesterday, in an act that seems to be a deliberate provocation of the international community.

THE loud misuse of mobile pones has become unacceptable in public places.

SO, harmless sabre rattling is building towards the rumble of still-distant but very perceptible war drums.

TAOISEACH Brian Cowen has developed an effective tactic for shrugging off challenging questions.

NEXT Friday we will vote on the Lisbon Treaty. It will be by far the most important vote any of us will cast in very many years if not decades.

WHAT a victory for community, what a victory for determination and imagination. The arrival of the “the people’s ship” in Ireland yesterday brings great credit to all involved, right from those who initiated the project and have brought it this far, to those who bet on the future of this country by investing cash in a project Government would not support.

ANGER can be a destructive if natural response to all sorts of situations. In the last year or so far too many Irish people have had occasion, far too many occasions, to be angry.

SOME of our jails are overcrowded to such an extent that Judge Michael Reilly, Inspector of Prisons, has warned that someone will be killed or seriously injured in Mountjoy unless inmate numbers are reduced to 540.

There has always been racism and discrimination in Ireland, but it has generally been marginalised. The most vocal practitioners are not representative of most Irish people.

In the past 10 years 1,107 people have been killed in speed-related deaths on the roads, and three times as many people have been seriously injured.