IN the past there have always been people in the wings who have had a vested interest in destroying the various peace initiatives.

MARTIN CULLEN has an unenviable record of fouling up more spectacularly than any of his colleagues and most of his predecessors. They used to call Charlie Haughey the great survivor, but at least he did have some achievements.

RICHARD BRUTON’S smile as he was shaking hands with Justice Minister Michael McDowell outside Leinster House in Dublin this week was understandable.

WITH the fiasco of the privatisation of Eircom behind us and talk of the privaitisation of Aer Lingus ahead, the death of one time property tycoon Patrick Gallagher and the demise of the sugar factory in Mallow are a grim reminder that we have lost the old sense of social responsibility.

HEALTH and crime, those two old political staples, dominated the political agenda this week, wrapped of course in the standard gobbledygook that passes for political discourse.

THE killing of Donna Cleary would seem to have been related to drugs. The chief suspect, Dwayne Foster, was reportedly high on a lethal cocktail of heroin and cocaine.

THE riot in Dublin last weekend was a grim reminder that Fianna Fáil came to power in 1997 promising zero tolerance on crime.

SEÁN HAUGHEY has commanded acres of newsprint in the past week while the Taoiseach has been savaged for dithering so long over the appointment of a replacement for Ivor Callely and then getting it so badly wrong.

DURING her first term as President, Mary McAleese never put a foot wrong, but in the past year she has fouled up on a number of occasions. Indeed, she seems to be suffering from that dreaded public disease, foot-in-mouth.

IT is surprising to find Denmark at the centre of the international furore over the cartoons that have inflamed Muslim opinion because it has traditionally been one of those countries least associated with religious intolerance.