IT IS one of the more simple and predictable tricks of public relations that when you are about to put the boot in, you should start by saying something nice about your victim.

LIFE imitates art. Just over 10 years ago, a French film called La Haine (Hatred) won critical acclaim at the Cannes Film Festival.

“This is not the end. It is not the beginning of the end. But it is perhaps the end of the beginning.”

TRUTH will out. Soon we will know the contents of Judge Frank Murphy's report into sex abuse in the diocese of Ferns.

THE Church is in the doghouse again. You can’t do worse, in public relations terms, than to have people think you would put their lives at risk.

I swear this is not an urban myth. An Irishwoman I know who works in the Netherlands had to arrange a business meeting with a Dutch colleague recently. She rang him and suggested a date three weeks hence.

IMAGINE, for a moment, the following scenario. The Government announces that it will subsidise families where one parent stays at home to mind young children.

IT would appear that, as a nation, we are unhappy. “Yes,” I hear you say, “We know. We’ve seen Rip Off Republic.”

THE silly season nears its end. Soon, Government ministers and opposition spokespersons will be scurrying back from their holidays for the beginning of a new Dáil term.