IRELAND has agreed to take two of the prisoners from the American concentration camp at Guantanamo, Cuba because they cannot go back to their home country, Uzbekistan. The Americans would like us to think they have jailed only crazed Muslim terrorists in Guantanamo, but people should ask who were held there.

PHARMACIES have proliferated in recent years and there are many stories about exorbitant prices being paid for medication. It has all been part of Rip-off Ireland.

LIES, damn lies and statistics have long been regarded as the great falsities, but one might also add bureaucrats distorting the national interest in their own personal interest. There was some surprise this week that the Government published the report of An Bord Snip Nua.

LAST Friday three clean-cut young American backpackers arrived at Dublin airport from Texas. They were setting out on the first international leg of a yearlong trip around Europe.

CRIMINAL activities, whether committed by common criminals or political ones, should be investigated by the gardaí.

The Lemass style of leadership was to encourage his ministers to be proactive. Unlike de Valera, he never managed to lead Fianna Fáil to an overall majority but, unlike some of his successors, he refused to bargain with any independents to support his nomination for Taoiseach

WHILE Eamon de Valera was dreaming of comely maidens dancing at the crossroads, young boys were being flogged and buggered by a sordid assortment of perverted clergy and depraved Christian Brothers.

MERCIFULLY the election campaign is over. Some will say it was the essence of democracy, but the whole thing was particularly tedious.

Kenny, in effect, was trying to hurt Fianna Fáil by helping Mary Lou McDonald when he criticised Garret FitzGerald for suggesting Fine Gael should transfer votes to Eoin Ryan. At the same time he was trying to have us believe that he would not deal with Sinn Féin. He can’t have it both ways

MANY people felt a deep sense of betrayal over the disclosure that Bishop Eamon Casey had fathered a son, but in the last analysis what was betrayed was their own sense of innocence.