OF all cities, it is entirely fitting that Limerick is the first in Ireland to embrace a scheme in which community coordinators will patrol local areas and help identify social problems.

As usual at this time of year there is considerable focus on education as the various teacher unions hold their annual conferences.

Detective Garda Seamus Kearns was brave to offer himself as a guinea pig to be sprayed in the face with the kind of pepper spray used by police in Europe and North America to deal with violent situations.

BACKBENCH Dáil deputies and senators from 17 different Oireachtas committees spent over €400,000 on 87 different trips abroad from January 2006 to January 2007, according to figures released under the Freedom of Information Act.

FOR generations Irish people’s difficulty with drinking water was on the Continent, or on a visit to Mexico, where an estimated 40% of tourists suffer from what is called Montezuma’s Revenge.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) approved its latest report at a five-day conference on the dangers posed by global warming.

“In a succession of images many never thought possible, we have glimpsed the true meaning of Easter,” Archbishop Seán Brady declared yesterday in a moving and thought-provoking address that deserves to be read with care and consideration.

An Garda Síochána and the Road Safety Authority (RSA) issued a joint appeal to drivers to reduce speed over the Easter bank holiday weekend.

Barnardos, the organisation dedicated to child welfare, has issued a children’s declaration in an effort to highlight the problems of child poverty in this country.

The long-awaited report of the McEntee Commission into the 1974 Dublin and Monahan bombings was released yesterday.