A year after the Groceries Order was abolished with the promise this would lead to savings of about €500 per year for every consumer, the predicted savings have turned out to be just another empty political promise.

THE Lotto has had a series of exceptionally large jackpots over the last while and people who might normally resist the plunge, modest as it usually is, have been tempted by the prospect of palmy beaches and the time and money to enjoy them.

YESTERDAY’S airwaves were animated by great anger and, conversely, great and disheartening apathy.

THERE are criminals in more or less every city and town, and most likely every village, in this country.

THE Olympic torch is a contrivance invented to add atmosphere and drama to the Hitler games in Berlin in 1936.

IF SOMEONE who left this country 20 years ago returned for the first time today they would find a completely different country.

THERE are few minefields as vividly framed by political correctness as the area of lone-parent allowances.

THE almost daily stories of scandalous mismanagement of our health services are so spectacular that they are unlikely ever to become so run-of-the mill as to fail to generate outraged responses.

SO, IT’S take it or leave it. Transport Minister Noel Dempsey has told the Cork Airport Authority to accept €113 million of the airport’s €220m debt or remain under the control of Dublin Airport Authority.

BY NOW Fianna Fáil loyalists will have begun to come to terms with the shock of Taoiseach Bertie Ahern’s Wednesday announcement.