NEVER mind the views of a self-important pundit. And let’s avoid political correctness, too. Is there really a big issue around this business of single parents?

“RESPECT our mandate.” With which political party do you associate that demand? Every political party has a mandate, to a greater or lesser extent.

An open letter to Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams,

HAVE you ever tried to change your bank account from one bank to another? Or have you ever tried to change solicitors? Do you know how much you pay for a gallon of petrol?

EILEEN DESMOND was one of the greats.

HOW does one begin to imagine the awesome power that can lift the sea 30 feet, that can suck an ocean into itself and then send it roaring for hundreds of miles, all in the space of minutes?

NONE of us knows, of course, what the future will bring. Did Charlie McCreevy ever think, this time last year, that he’d be pulling his next Christmas cracker in Brussels?

THE panto! It was always one of the best parts of Christmas, though perhaps never to be the same again now that Maureen Potter is no longer here.

HUMPTY Dumpty said it in rather a scornful tone: "when I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean - neither more or less."

WATCH out for spin. It’s all around you. Some of our politicians have been spinning madly this past week about a whole lot of stuff that doesn’t deserve it.