I read the harrowing front page of the Irish Examiner (Mar 16), where an editorial written by Garda Representative Association General Secretary, PJ Stone, in their journal was featured, asking whether Irish people cared about what happened to teenager Marioara Rosta, who was tortured and shot in 2008 and had her body dumped in the Wicklow Mountains.

The Irish Human Rights Commission and the Women’s Human Rights Alliance are fully justified in their requests to the UN Human Rights Council to call on the Irish Government to address the issue of reparation for survivors of the Magdalene laundries.

At the risk of appearing pedantic (pedantic? moi? never!)

The lamentable and soulless performance of the Irish rugby team against England at Twickenham on St Patrick’s Day surely raises the question of the importance of the Irish national anthem on game day.

I wonder how many people remember the abolition of rates on the family home in 1977?

Picture if you will the scene: a pathetic swathe of humanity queues outside a feeding station in Frankfurt for life-sustaining, foreign relief aid.

The headline on Fr Con McGillicuddy’s recent letter (Mar 13) says that “Retired religious deserve a break”.

An economist recently gave us a glimpse of what the household charge is going to lead to, a property tax with a real sting in the tail for all those on low incomes.

On Mar 8 one of the strongest solar storms in years glanced off planet Earth.

I was always a firm believer that house prices should have been capped well before the bust, but the Government attitude was that they would or could not interfere in the free market (we know why).