WHEN apartheid was introduced in South Africa in 1948, racial discrimination became official government policy. Apartheid was often referred to in government pronouncements as ‘separate development’.

THE protection of children in Ireland depends to a considerable extent on the skill and efficiency of the Garda Vetting Office. Based in Thurles, its 30 or so members provide an invaluable service to organisations working with children and vulnerable adults.

I JUST don’t get it. I’ve written more than 400 opinion pieces for the Irish Examiner on every subject under the sun.

I WAS born into a rugby family and reared on the exploits of Jack Kyle and others. The memory of watching Mike Gibson play his first game for Ireland is still implanted on my brain, though it was more than 40 years ago.

Donal de Roiste may have been the youngest ever public servant in Irish history to have retired.

I KNOW a woman who is the mother of three children. I won’t tell you where she lives, other than to say it is in a housing estate that reflects very little credit on any of us.

I GOT the usual strong reaction to the piece I wrote last week about the cost of a new prison.

THERE was an American senator one time who said “a billion here, a billion there, pretty soon you’re looking at big money”.

NOBODY captured that feeling quite like Roy Orbison: the end of a wonderful affair, the time when passion turns to ashes, the day that trust dies. His voice, capable of soaring into melancholy, was the perfect soundtrack for a broken heart.

I TRAVELLED a bit of the country over the weekend, accompanying the Special Olympics torch run. It’s an event that has been on the go for a good many years now.