FOR the past two years Ireland has been a member of the Security Council of the United Nations. It has been a momentous couple of years and in time people may question the role we played in what could well be the build-up to many years of strife.

IN THE foreword to Joe Cahill: A Life in the IRA (O’Brien Press, 25), Brendan Anderson explains that Cahill, a former chief of staff of the Provisional IRA, spoke to him “frankly about those things that he is free to speak about”.

"IT IS ALWAYS difficult to speak on a motion of no confidence when the motion relates to oneself and it is especially difficult for a man as modest as myself," Charlie McCreevy told the Dáil this week during the confidence debate on his stewardship as Minister for Finance. This was even before the publication of the Book of Estimates, which foreshadows the forthcoming budget.

IN A public opinion poll published this week, 56% of the people surveyed in the Galway diocese felt that Bishop Eamonn Casey should not be required to explain his past actions.

EVERY once in a while a television programme gets the whole nation talking.

WHILE I was waiting for a flight at Shannon on Tuesday, hundreds of American soldiers in desert camouflage began trooping through the departure lounge. There must have been over 300 men. Some Americans in the lobby began clapping.

THE Department of Justice was given responsibility for the Garda Síochána to leave the gardaí free to do the policing while the civil servants assumed the administrative responsibility for matters such as accounting for the force.

MALCOLM Macarthur is back in the news with the report that the Parole Board has recommended that he be moved to an open prison pending his release, as the board feels that he is no danger to society.