PRESIDENT McAleese smiled down as our neighbour lifted the tarantula. He did it so effortlessly.

IT would be an exaggeration to say that Fine Gael’s new policy document on civil partnership aims to abolish marriage. But the overstatement would only be slight.

NOTHING illustrates the cruelty of modern politics like the stitching up of Royston Brady in the run-up to the European elections, and his eventual vindication when it was too late to do him any good.

DAITHÍ DOOLAN says the election was over at Christmas. The newly-elected Sinn Féin councillor for Dublin’s South East Inner City felt confident going before the people.

WHAT was the secret of Ronald Reagan’s success? Was it his timing and theatricality? His charisma? His optimism? His circle of advisers? Or was it that, time after time, people underestimated him?

A FIANNA FÁIL candidate in the local elections told me an interesting story when I asked him about the citizenship referendum.

IF Gianna Beretta Molla were alive today, she would be 82 years old. But she’s not, having chosen to perform a rare act of heroism.

AT first sight, it might not seem that Beverly Flynn and Martin Cullen have a lot in common. She’s from a dyed-in-the-wool Fianna Fáil family and he’s a political waverer.

THE Ugandan President, Yoweri Museveni, has a rather forthright way of warning young people about AIDS.