I’M not sure which is the greater indignity: that Shannon is used for so-called rendition flights, or that we have a Government prepared to tell the world it believes the Bush administration when it says they don’t happen.

FOLLOWING publication of the Book of Estimates last week, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern warned the cabinet against a spending splurge between now and next summer’s general election because he did not want the Government to be seen to be buying votes.

BONO, it seems, has finally found what he was looking for — an old cowboy hat, a sweatshirt, a pair of old trousers and earrings.

DESPITE the apparent euphoria at the news that the gardaí are to recruit more civilians, it seems to be a case of more chiefs and not enough Indians.

AT least there’s one group in the country that shouldn’t have to worry that we are third from the top of the EU’s borrowing league, according to the Central Bank’s reckoning.

LAST week there was considerable alarm when a convicted paedophile escaped from Northern Ireland and headed South where he seemingly moved about freely even though the gardaí were notified of his presence.

THE public opinion poll published last week showing that Fianna Fáil had increased its popularity in the wake of all the revelations about Bertie Ahern’s generous friends reflects the nod-and-wink double standard that afflicts this country.

FRIDAY the 13th is an auspicious date anyway, but it may have a special resonance today for the future of Northern Ireland, or so we are led to believe.

IN the political sense, the country is now morally bankrupt. And that’s official. The high moral ground has been vacated by the Progressive Democrats and apartments are to be built on it.

BERTIE AHERN’S misfortune stemmed from a comatose loan that was awakened anonymously and revealed to the Irish Times.