By Ronan Mullen

ALL politics is local, they say. And for me, the farmers’ protest of 2003 will always be about my mother breaking four ribs in the cause of Irish agriculture.

“To jaw-jaw is always better than to war-war,” Winston Churchill once said, and last week’s meeting between victims of child sexual abuse and Cardinal Desmond Connell proved the point yet again.

The Ronan Mullen Column

THIS year, instead of going to see A Christmas Carol at the Gate Theatre, I took my seasonal dose of Dickens by visiting Mountjoy men’s prison.

IF Charlie McCreevy wants to save us all money — now that we’re back in the land of cutbacks — he could do worse than take the advice of one Ulster Unionist Party official who believes investment in the family is the way to keep society intact, while saving the taxpayer a fortune into the bargain.

HOW is it that Bertie Ahern manages to thrive on bad news? Last weekend’s flooding on the east coast brought misery to residents and frustration to commuters, but the Taoiseach, yet again, was a net gainer.

IT’S a pity many of us in Ireland only discuss religion when we are very drunk or very angry. Right now, anger has the floor.

OUR Roman taxi driver was talkative and his view of the Church was negative.