I was always taught that one should not receive Holy Communion unless one was in a state of grace and I still believe that the sacrament of confession is the jewel in the crown of Catholic sacraments. For that reason I usually receive Communion at Easter & Christmas, preceded by a good confession of sins.

Last week’s publication of this year’s Junior Cert results again draws attention to how well girls do relative to boys in this exam (and, of course, the same is true in respect of the Leaving Cert).

Leo Varadkar appears to have made a serious blunder.

"Impervious to the possibility of effective change". (Editorial & Howlin Opinion, Sept.17th.).

The tragic death of Savita Halappanavar in Galway Hospital in 2012 was massively misused by politicians and the media, who were more concerned with using her death to force abortion legislation into Ireland rather than find out the truth about why she died.

There can hardly be better proof of the correlation between the political ‘silly season’ and the fine weather than the current controversy about direct provision of asylum seekers.

On arriving home from holidays in late July, we found a newly-installed water meter. I took an immediate reading: 10 litres, which accounted for one or two toilet flushes. A fortnight later we had used 5,800 litres. A quick calculation means we will use 150,800 litres per year. We have three teenagers.

Any optimism about our “economic recovery” is surely tempered by listening to debates on national radio about whether or not qualified teachers should be paid €50 for a full week’s work.

The 307-year-old union as been saved. The people have spoken. Scotland remains part of the family of nations that make up the United Kingdom.

In a recent article Tom Barry TD takes issue with the imagery used in a leaflet distributed by Cork Film Centre to highlight their recent Arts Council funding cut, which threatened to close the centre.