AN Orange lodge in Belfast recently expressed its disapproval at the attendance of two of its members at a Catholic church service for the late murdered constable Ronan Kerr.

AS I write, a 65-year-old woman remains locked up in Mountjoy prison on an indeterminate sentence.

THE carnage in New York, Washington, London, Istanbul, Bali, Beslan, Buenos Aires, Jerba, Jakarta, Jerusalem, Madrid, Mombassa, Moscow, Mumbai, Yemen, Dafur, Nigeria, Kashmir, Zhengzhou, was not carried out by Israel.

I MUST commend Michael D Higgins for recommending that Dublin City Council Labour councillors do not block Senator David Norris from entering the Presidential race.

I DO believe that George Hook is the finest communicator in Irish broadcasting.

NO ONE wants to see the debates on the Presidency descend into a muck-raking contest, but a reasonably unblemished curriculum vitae is surely a must for such an important State job.

JAILING people like Teresa Tracey and those who can’t pay petty fines is so typical of Western “justice”.

THE committee of the Philosophical Society at Trinity College is to be congratulated for its invitation to the leader of the British National Party, Nick Griffin, to participate in the debate on the 20th October, 2011.

AS today is National Day of Volunteering, I would like to say a big thank you to our hundreds of volunteers across Ireland who give up so much of their time to “be there” for those in need of help and support.

THE Irish Family Planning Association would like children under the age of 16 to have greater access to contraceptives, arguing that “ambiguous” laws in this area (given that the age of consent in Ireland is 17) are putting young people at risk of unplanned pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections, they claim.