THERE is an illustrative irony that, on the day the best job figures in nearly a decade were announced, Taoiseach Enda Kenny was, apparently, preparing to oppose those who would end his leadership. 

AS we fret about Brexit and the darkened world that will bring; as we fret about the excitable US president, Donald Trump; as we fret (some of us anyway) about Fine Gael’s grand adventure in ineptitude and prevarication; and as we fret about really important things such as Johnny Sexton’s fitness and the size of the French pack, the people of Greece are, again, wondering what the future holds and how much more they might be asked to sacrifice and endure.

The relics of the past are hardly ever a silent partner. They resonate through our lives, even if today’s interpretation of what they actually stand for is more a version of the truth than the absolute truth.

One of the casualties of our economic humiliation was that social services so very long in the building, were reduced, almost fatally in some instances. 

The announcement yesterday that a €100m scheme will provide more than 1,300 houses in Cork is welcome. The announcement must, however, also provoke a sigh of relief.

AUSTRALIA is in the grip of a relentless and record-setting heatwave that is probably beyond the comprehension of anyone who has spent the majority of their life living in a temperate European climate.

THE internet has had a radical impact on access to education and knowledge.

BY any standards, US president Donald Trump’s press conference last Thursday was unhinged. 

Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg is, at 32, a billionaire and one of the most powerful men in the world.

Anyone who enjoys the freedom of the outdoors and appreciates the access to Ireland’s countryside more or less freely given by landowners will have welcomed yesterday’s High Court ruling in which Mr Justice Michael White overturned a circuit court decision to award a hillwalker €40,000 for injuries sustained after a 2013 fall on a boardwalk on the Wicklow Way.