In an attempt to distance himself from his initial robust defence of the remarks of the Belfast Protestant evangelical minister Pastor James McConnell who described Muslims as heathen, satanic and spawned evil, Northern Ireland’s First Minister Peter Robinson said he believed the pastor "has the right to freedom of speech" but that he "would never seek to cause any insult to any section of our community".

Macroom District Environmental Group is in its 30th year as a community advocate for environmental justice.

We have heard much in the recent electoral analyses on the decline and fall in the Fine Gael/Labour coalition government support.

Gina Hetherington of PAWS was privileged to get an invitation to Minister Coveney’s animal welfare conference held recently in Dublin Castle (Letters, May 29)

Election posters again became a topic of discussion during the recent local and European elections, as an aside to political issues such as water charges, medical cards and the economy.

So finally some of the hitherto obedient Labour classes have said enough is enough and called time on the unfortunate Mr Gilmour. It is a scandalous situation that the people have been ignored, and it has taken the electorate to force an about turn.

The courts in Sudan have confirmed the death sentence of Meriam Yahia Ibrahim after she refused to renounce her Christian faith.

Economist Jim Power says the ideas of independents and those who question austerity, etc, scares the living daylights out of him (Irish Examiner, May 28). He hopes all will return to normal and by 2016 the people will continue to go with the status quo of political parties.

In response to Patrick L O’Brien’s letter (’Charity begins at home’, May 26)) it is a travesty that homelessness in Ireland has risen in recent months. However, there exist a great number of charities working to better the situations of those experiencing homelessness (Focus Ireland, the Simon Community, COPE, Welcome Home, Novas and Depaul Ireland).

Scientists in Argentina have uncovered what could be the largest dinosaur found (Irish Examiner, May 21). Those scientists say it roamed the Earth more than 90m years ago.