FOR many years tax dodging was a national sport and though it would be naive to imagine that the practice is extinct it is considerably less prevalent than it was.

OVER recent weeks we have all heard how a school principal asked the Government for guidance on whether a Muslim girl attending his school should be allowed wear, as her parents wished, the Hijab in class.

MUNSTER made a wonderful contribution to the ongoing task the French set themselves when they began their revolution in 1789, by winning their second Heineken European Cup in Cardiff on Saturday.

TAOISEACH Brian Cowen’s decision that Fianna Fáil should no longer use the fabled Galway Races’ tent as a venue for champagne fundraising events ticks all the right boxes.

NOW that the midweek aperitif in Moscow has been digested and filed away under “another red victory” we are well primed for this afternoon’s main course.

ZIMBABWE is not the only place in Africa where election results do not mean a change in leadership.

THANKFULLY attacks on elderly people in isolated communities are not as common as they were a decade ago.

THE label “working mother” must be one of the most under-powered and patronising descriptions current today. It leaves the delusional room to imagine that there might be another kind.

STATISTICS show that the majority of rape cases never make it to court and yesterday’s two-year sentence for the rape of a woman in Waterford will do nothing to change that scandalous situation.

THE passion and sincerity that animated Brian Cowen’s speeches immediately after his election as Taoiseach were refreshing and immediately reflected in aconsiderable jump in Fianna Fáil’s opinion-poll rating.