THE announcement was as emotional as its timing was unexpected but even that great emotion and surprise were not enough to dispel an atmosphere heavy with inevitability.

NEARLY every family and society has a few skeletons in a closet and those who insist they do not are usually trying to hide an especially embarrassing one.

ANY DAY now the swallows will return to our skies and even if you see just one you can be reassured that long, sunny days of summer are just around the corner.

OUR children are fatter than ever before and are getting fatter. Unless they buck long-established trends they will be the fattest generation of Irish people ever.

THOUGH only a trickle of official results have emerged from last Saturday’s election in Zimbabwe fears are growing that President Robert Mugabe is planning a massive election fraud to cling to power.

According to a report released by the Irish Patients’ Association, salaries at the principal officer grade in the Health Service Executive (HSE) have increased by an average of more than 6% in each of the past seven years.

In THE past in this country we have often been critical of merchants of death, but we could hardly have ever envisaged that we would become a big arms dealer on the international stage.

THERE was a time not so very long ago when a few steadfast voices were derided for suggesting that terrorism posed a real threat to the stability of this country.

WE all should be concerned that there has been no significant reduction in the drop-out rate from secondary schools despite huge investment.

TÁNAISTE Mary Harney and Environment Minister John Gormley did yesterday what a growing number of Taoiseach Bertie Ahern’s disconcerted colleagues have been doing for some time, but at least, and at last, they did it in public.