YOU wouldn’t put it past Michael Healy-Rae to try to turn events of recent days to his own advantage.

AS Rory McIlory walked from the 18th green on Sunday evening to the scoring room to present his card for the final round of his victorious US Open golf tournament somebody from the crowd threw a tricolour at him.

IT LOOKS like we never learn in this country, no matter what. What other country grants planning permission for a €460 million development that depends for its financial success on the inclusion of something that is not legal?

MANY people cheerfully and willfully ignored all the warnings about a financial and property bubble and the damage that their bursting would bring to the Irish and world economies.

WHO would ever have imagined at the time of her election that Mary McAleese would have turned out to be such a superb president?

IF EVER there has been a telling story of the Celtic Tiger era it is how a mess was made of organising the provision of a sensible taxi service throughout the country.

ONCE upon a time our political classes bowed to Rome. Now they do so to Brussels and Frankfurt.

I FLEW back into Dublin on Monday after 10 days in the United States and my heart sank at coming home to Ireland, for the first time that I can remember. I normally look forward to returning, having enjoyed a break.

Nobody needs to bow or scrape, but it would be nice if all would be polite when an 85-year-old woman comes to visit, just as our President Mary McAleese has been welcomed with graciousness on many occasions to Britain ...