BRIAN LENIHAN ended his baptism-of-fire budget yesterday afternoon by saying his proposals were no less than a call to “patriotic action”.

A GREAT deal of the panic that caused such decimation on the world’s financial markets is caused by uncertainty; by not knowing what is really going on.

THIS week’s report on public attitudes to the Garda Síochána make challenging reading for the Minister for Justice and the Garda Commissioner.

NOT since the great Monty Python sketch, in which north of England voices remember the awfulness of their upbringing, culminating in the proud, chest-swelling boast by one that “we lived in hole in road”, has there been such glee in misery.

ANNIE MOORE has achieved a significance in death that she would never have imagined possible in her lifetime. She was the first immigrant through America’s Ellis Island and her grave in New York was marked this weekend, 84 years after her death.

AS we batten down the hatches for Tuesday’s emergency budget it is disconcerting to learn that our financial problems are in the ha’penny place compared with our environmental excesses.

FINE GAEL demeaned themselves and the political process a few weeks ago when they refused to take part in well-established pairings agreements with government deputies.

IT MAY seem unrealistic, unpatriotic even, to challenge spending cuts just as the finishing touches are being put to the grimmest budget anticipated for several decades but, no matter how reduced our circumstances, we will still have priorities.

THOUGH there are revenue implications — aren’t there always — the figures from the Revenue Commissioners that show a fall of 22% in drink sales last month compared with September 2007 will generate some surprise and a qualified welcome.

The Health Service Executive (HSE) is already failing to meet its 2008 targets and this certainly does not inspire confidence for next year when further cuts are due to be implemented.