IT is a pity that on the very day that two of the country’s universities announced a research partnership with the possibility of creating 300 companies and thousands of jobs that Eircom had to announce that it was abandoning its multi-million euro high-speed broadband plans.

THE Continuity IRA yesterday, when they admitted murdering PSNI Constable Stephen Carroll, 48, a married man with a family from Banbridge in Co Down, joined the Real IRA in a terrible fantasy world where the democratic wishes of the great majority of the population of this island stand for nothing.

IT was inevitable that the increasingly bitter dispute between the Cork County GAA Board and the country’s representative hurlers would move towards a resolution at some point but it is a pity that it took so very long.

THERE are many people who will not remember Stephen Restorick, many will not even be familiar with his name or even know why he was of any significance.

AT 1.30 this afternoon one of the great Irish festivals of the year will begin when the runners in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle over two miles and half a furlong race across Prestbury Park. It is no more than a passing inconvenience that it takes place across the Irish Sea in an English field in the Cotswolds.

It is impossible to find the words to express adequately the revulsion of all decent people at the cold-blooded murder of the two British soldiers in Antrim on Saturday night, and the wounding of four other people including two civilians — one a Polish man — going about their own business delivering pizza.

Current third-level students will no doubt welcome the announcement by Education Minister Batt O’Keeffe that they will not be liable for any new fees during the present third-level term.

IT is not so very long since the national conversation was dominated by soaring property prices.

FEBRUARY was the safest month on Irish roads since records began.

IT is to be welcomed that Edward Kennedy, one of the longest-serving American senators and a Democratic Party patriarch, is to receive an honorary knighthood from Queen Elizabeth. The honour is one of the highest that country can bestow.