THE biggest surprise about the continuing inability to form a government at Stormont was that anybody was surprised.

WITH negotiations going on to form a new government in Northern Ireland, this week’s RTÉ documentary on the life of Kevin O’Higgins seemed particularly timely.

NO ONE should be surprised that Eamon de Valera used the Irish Press for his own purposes, because he saw newspapers as a tool of political power and he had an almost insatiable need for such power.

AMERICA may be the oldest modern democracy, but wisdom has not come with experience. The way it elects its president is dangerously antiquated.

HAVING written full-length biographies of both Charlie Haughey and Jack Lynch, I was particularly interested in Frank Dunlop’s book, Yes, Taoiseach.

THE public opinion poll this week showing that 90% of voters are happy with the job that President Mary McAleese has been doing has exposed some of the chattering class as nincompoops.

ONE of the first books on Irish neutrality was a 1969 collection of essays in RTÉ’s Thomas Davis lecture series. It was published in time to exploit the 25th anniversary of the end of World War II.

MANY political pundits have been writing off John Kerry because he is clearly behind in the public opinion polls.

DRUGS Minister Noel Ahern caused a bit of stir when he suggested that prison authorities should provide clean needles for drug addicts in prison.

NOW it’s official: we have the highest cost of living in the eurozone. Nobody should really be surprised.