IT’S that time of year again. The great and good of public life pack their buckets and spades and head off to the wilds of Donegal to muse over the road less travelled.

THERE were two hearings last week about one Ireland. Both told plenty about who we are and how we are governed, and, not least of all, how we want to be governed.

DID you know that Bert and Ernie were a couple? It’s amazing what can be learnt on a fair to middling July week in the throes of the silly season.

TIME and again, over the last few years, the powers-that-be have been well-versed on the price of everything, but on the value of nothing. With each cutback, cost-savings have been invoked. Oftentimes, a little creative accounting has been engaged to push a so-called reform that purports to be for the long-term common good.

IT WAS a spur-of-the-moment thing. On Tuesday evening, as the sun beat down, I got a sudden notion to wander in and see how Bob Dylan was doing.

LET’S get Alan Shatter back his job. Let’s start a campaign here for a man who has been grievously wronged. Isn’t that the implication of the Cooke report into alleged bugging of the Garda Ombudsman’s office? Shatter was right all along. There was bugger-all bugging going on.

THE Tuam babies story this week says much about the past, but about the present also.

LAST week, another blow was dealt to democracy in this country and it has passed with little comment.

WELL, that’s sorted then. Everything has changed. The publication of the Guerin report into allegations made by Sergeant Maurice McCabe has ushered in a new era. From here on, An Garda Siochána will be properly accountable. Whistleblowers will be listened to.

MAURICE McCabe’s voice has never been heard in public. No microphone has been thrust under his chin by a salivating pack of reporters. He has not sat in the Late Late Show chair next to Ryan Tubridy and held a nation transfixed with his story. Marian Finucane has not had the opportunity to excavate his character. Neither has Matt Cooper, nor any of the programme presenters on Newstalk. Vincent Browne has never had the pleasure.