IN RETROSPECT the introduction of civil partnerships to this country was remarkably calm and civilised.

SEAN BRADY has had some interesting things to say in the past about the exercise of conscience, about being required to do something in the course of a person’s job that went against their beliefs.

MANY people fear the monthly announcements from the European Central Bank about interest rate policy.

AT A time of crisis it can pay to be counter-intuitive, to have ideas that seem completely at odds with perceived wisdom.

RECENTLY the National Women’s Council of Ireland made a submission to the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland about what it claimed to be an exclusion of women from the airwaves.

BY NOW you may or may not have heard about a 41-year-old woman called Samantha Brick who became something of an internet sensation this week.

THE stories are mainly to be found in the business pages these days, but the lengths to which some of the formerly rich are going to hang onto their assets while not repaying the money borrowed to purchase those trophies, are extraordinary.

THE Government must be tempted to celebrate any possible deal with the European Central Bank over the payment of those damn promissory notes for Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide, for over €30bn, by announcing the abandonment of the attempt to raise a mere €160m from the Irish people by way of the household charges.

IF a government levies a tax that is patently unfair or excessive then people may go to extraordinary lengths to try not to pay it, even running the risk of major fines or, worse, jail if caught and found guilty of wrong-doing.

It wouldn’t happen here, would it? Iceland’s former Prime Minister Geir Haarde was put on trial this week, facing charges relating to his failure to prevent the island nation’s 2008 financial crash, one that has been rivalled only by ours and Greece’s.