THERE was much discussion in recent weeks about the level of participation in science subjects for the Leaving Certificate.

THERE are so many loose cannons rolling around the deck of the State’s ship at the moment that we will be lucky if one of them does not do some real damage one of these days.

IF some of the owners of Ballybeggan Park have their way, today’s race meeting will be the last ever held at the track in Tralee, where there has been horse racing since the 1700s.

GROWING up in the 1950s one often heard rantings from the pulpit about slave labour camps in atheistic Russia.

SOME people say Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has no real ideology. He has been accused of abandoning the republicanism of Fianna Fáil. Surely it is time that this old doctrine was laid to rest. If anything, Bertie deserves credit for not entertaining bogus republican arguments.

“TO Mr Haughey’s eternal credit, and this is not politically popular to say so, he will always be remembered as the man who turned the country around,” Charlie McCreevy declared last week.

AS Nick Faldo was walking to the last green in the final round of the British Open last Sunday, the crowd were on their feet, giving him a tremendous ovation.

THE late Captain James Kelly, who died during the week, seemed almost obsessed with clearing his name for having supposedly conspired to import arms illegally in 1970. He was cleared in court, along with Charlie Haughey and two others, but some people were never prepared to accept that verdict.

NOBODY wants to accept responsibility for his or her own actions anymore.

SOMETIMES something seems so patently obvious that one begins to question one’s own judgment when so many others don’t seem to see it.