I DON’T know whether I want to say Bah Humbug, or a heartfelt Happy Christmas.

DEAR Taoiseach and Tánaiste, You were elected to be different.

YOU could spend your life in despair, couldn’t you? Certainly the papers and the news this past week would encourage nothing but negative thoughts.

A LONG, long time ago, when you and I were young, I wrote a column here about the myths and mantras of Irish politics.

The line is from Casablanca, of course, and that movie was about a time when the world was even crazier than it is now.

DEAR Taoiseach, I listened with great care to your speech at the Inauguration ceremony last week, and I have to say I was impressed. It was a powerful and moving ceremony in many ways, and it was impossible to come away from it without feeling a surge of hope in our capacity as a country.

I HAVE a suggestion to make. It won’t be very popular, and won’t win too many friends. But it’s essential that we do something that can make a real difference.

I SUPPOSE one of my claims to fame, from now on, is that I’m not like my beloved Irish rugby team.

SINN Féin will decide who the next President of Ireland will be.

“THE real function of a fiscal council is to speak truth to power, to remind governments of harsh economic facts they may not want to hear, when they least want to hear them — at budget and election time. How will the Coalition Government respond in deed to the bold advice given by the newly established Irish Fiscal Advisory Council?”