When Sinn Féin announced yesterday that Michelle O’Neill would succeed the forced-to-retire Martin McGuinnes as their North of Ireland leader, it created an unprecedented situation on — the leaders of the two main parties in parliament are women in their 40s — at least until the elections to the Northern Assembly are completed.

When Food Harvest 2020 (FH2020) “a strategy to chart the direction of agri-food, forestry and fisheries for the next decade” was published in July 2010, it was an ambitious declaration.

The decision by University College Cork to veto a conference to debate the legitimacy of the state of Israel is unfortunate.

One of the most frustrating things about trying to move the idea of accountability to the centre of public life is the dance of the seven veils anyone trying to get to the bottom of an important public issue must indulge in to get to something that might, just might, be the truth.