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.

Ronan Mullen

MORE than 800,000 young people from all over the world, including about 2,000 from Ireland, will gather on the site of an old coalmine in northern Germany this weekend.

A REPORT in The Independent (London) last weekend suggested that the authorities in Saudi Arabia are targeting the birthplace of the prophet Mohammed in the holy city of Mecca for destruction.

“AS THE night progressed the party mood was dampened as fights broke out among several rowdy, drunken louts. Punches and kicks were thrown. Abusive language was hurled back and forth in attempts to provoke confrontation.

The US media is struggling to reconcile two cherished values. One is the idea that journalists must not be forced to reveal their sources. The other is much less noble, but no less cherished: get Bush.

OUR minister of state with responsibility for equality matters, Frank Fahey, was put through the wringer last week when he updated the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) on Ireland’s progress in the field of women’s rights.