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.

THE political correctness controversy surrounding the recent remarks of Mary O’Rourke reached ludicrous proportions. The only thing racist in relation to her comments was the criticism.

THE resignation of Father Maurice Dillane, 73, as a curate in Co Galway after fathering a child has again put the Catholic Church in the public spotlight.

THE Christian Brothers were in the news again this week in relation to a colleague who was apparently handy with his fists.

ON October 22, 1962, when President John F Kennedy made his famous speech announcing the blockade of Cuba to prevent the delivery of Soviet missiles, the world seemed on the brink of nuclear war.

A FRIEND of mine who has been in London since we left college told me how, at a recent dinner party with his English friends, Tony Blair was one of the main topics of conversation.

ONE of the more intriguing files in the State papers opened this week concerned the appointment of Senator Vincent Gair as Australian ambassador to Ireland in 1974.