THERE’S a thorny old problem in theology: free will versus determinism.

THERE was an air of vultures circling a still-breathing carcass yesterday in my local HMV.

YOU can say what’s happening in the North is due to a disaffected Loyalist working class, or recreational rioters, or good old fashioned thugs, but what does seem to be clear is that they constitute a minority: the vast majority of citizens in Northern Ireland are trying to go about their business as far as possible and stay out of the way of trouble until it all blows over.

SO you’re probably back to work today and doubtless a colleague or two will pose the perennial Irish question: so how did you get over the Christmas?

“IT’S absolutely fucking jammed down there.”

WHY didn’t the Government TDs, now kicking-up over the budget, do so earlier.

BY the time you read this you may well have some idea how tough the next year will be.

WHAT was striking about the marches in Ireland last weekend following the death of Savita Halappanavar was how so many of those attending had never been on a political march of any sort before.

AMERICAN politicians regularly — and often hilariously — describe their country as the “greatest democracy in the world”, despite the fact a president can just squeak election in terms of real votes but win a landslide in the electoral college; despite the fact the balance of powers between Congress and the president are such that the system often seizes up; and despite the fact that new laws are sometimes not made by the legislature but by the US Supreme Court.

IN the late 1980s, like many Irish people, I emigrated to London.