IF he had called off his hunger strike, Bobby Sands would be 54 and still, very possibly, the MP for Fermanagh and South Tyrone.

MONDAY evening and it was off to an amateur production of The Glass Menagerie; strangely appropriate it seemed too in current circumstances.

THE authority of the Government has unquestionably been damaged by the medical cards controversy.

ACCORDING to his critics, the Taoiseach Brian Cowen led a charmed existence — until the Lisbon defeat.

The question is: now that we no longer have the sound of gunfire ringing in our ears, can we see any more clearly how a period of history that began with 400 people gathering in Derry’s Duke Street ended with 3,500 lost lives?

TO say we live in interesting times somehow doesn’t capture the enormity of the events in the global financial system.

IN Washington DC at the weekend, the Bush joke books piled high in the stores’ discount sections told their own story.

IT’S everyone’s worst nightmare. You invite a group of friends over for a bite to eat and just as you’re all about to tuck in to a delicious dinner of smoked salmon and lamb cutlets, your old college pal’s latest girlfriend announces she’s a vegan.

PALIN is suddenly the most searched name on the internet. No wonder America’s left-liberal media is in a panic. And, surprise, surprise, their loyal Irish and British troops are regurgitating a stream of cultural sneers entirely imitative of their big brothers at The New York Times.

But taking pride in the sheer size of your country is increasingly anachronistic.