WE have never had it so good and we have a Taoiseach who has been in power for 10 years, gaining enormous experience, and we expect him to live like the poor relation of those leaders with whom he has to mix.

ONE of this week’s news spectaculars was Ian Paisley launching Dana Rosemary Scallon’s autobiography, All Kinds of Everything. Anywhere else, that would have been just another photo-op but in Northern Ireland it was an event of real significance.

Dev’s papers have been transferred to UCD, which plans to digitalise them and make them available on the internet.

NEWS coverage of the departure of Steve Staunton as manager of Ireland’s soccer team was quite a spectacle. RTÉ was scathing about the supposedly “shambolic” way in which things were handled at the end.

THE face-off between Eamon de Valera and Winston Churchill in this week’s Hidden History TV programme on RTÉ 1 was a case of hiding history and promoting distortion.

McCreevy explained he was objecting to Haughey’s leadership because there had been a lowering of political standards, mishandling of the economy, as well as the party’s failure to secure a majority in two successive general elections.

WHILE researching High Society, her book on drug use, Justine Delaney Wilson interviewed a Government minister at Buswell’s Hotel, which is just across the street from Leinster House.

EAMON GILMORE gave a fascinating interview on Tuesday’s Morning Ireland. It was the finest I have heard from the new leader of any party. He was forceful, yet compassionate and fair.

THE parents of the late Brian Murphy, the teenage student who was kicked to death in a fight outside Club Anabel in Dublin in August 2000 — gave a poignant interview this week following the inquest into the death of their son. They are left with a life sentence of the pain of their loss.

THE LATE Bill Shankly famously said that “some people believe football is a matter of life and death. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that.”