It must be hoped, for the sake of politeness at least, that Australian minister for consumer affairs Marlene Kairouz, who apologised last week for suggesting that anyone with an Irish accent calling to a home in Melbourne should be turned away, did not allow her bias get in the way of backing Irish runners in the Melbourne Cup.

The reaction to the weekend recommendations on the delivery of climate change policy — or the lack of it — from the Citizens’ Assembly was a mix of dismay and derision.

By any yardstick the 2002 compensation deal for victims of clerical abuse agreed by education minister Michael Woods was disastrous — unless of course, your loyalties lie with the congregations who have dodged their responsibilities in what was to have been a 50/50 burden-sharing agreement.

The debate of what might constitute art may never beresolved. 

It's more than 1,000 years since King William the Conqueror of England commissioned the Domesday Book, a record of “The Great Survey” of much of England and parts of Wales to establish “how many hundreds of hides were in the shire, what land the king himself had, and what stock upon the land; or, what dues he ought to have by the year from the shire”. 

Last week’s recommendation that South Africa should host Rugby World Cup 2023 was reached, in part, because our infrastructure was deemed inadequate.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has assumed the mantle of our national conscience — in environmental matters at least. Whether we take any notice remains to be seen.

It is little surprise that unregulated, out-of-control gambling has destroyed so many lives, sundered so many relationships in this society.

THE dispute between the country’s rail unions and Irish Rail shows no sign whatsoever of being moved towards a settlement: the unions — four of them — have started their one-day strike programmes, and warned that they are thinking about action that will close the network during the Christmas and new year holidays. And there’s talk of walk-outs hitting bus services early in the new year.

HERE’S some fake news … pro-independence ministers in a Russian provincial government have spent their first night in a Moscow prison, pending a possible criminal charge of using public funds to incite rebellion and sedition.