THERE’S nothing like travellers’ tummy to focus the mind on the US election when you have been confined to your hotel bedroom with nothing to watch in English but CNN.

Emboldened by the oil and natural gas resources at its disposal, falling back on a million soldiers, thousands of nuclear missiles and the third-largest military budget in the world, Vladimir Putin obviously considers the time is right to lay his strong hand of cards on the table

THERE can scarcely be a more overworked cliché about the North than Churchill’s words during the House of Commons debate in 1922 on the Irish Free State Bill.

LAST weekend, we joined friends and their children, 13 and 11, who are holidaying on the Cornish coast.

IT is a sign of the times — and a tribute to the political deftness of Ireland’s man in London, David Cooney — that the embassy in Britain will hold its first reception at a Conservative party conference this autumn.

IN Gulliver’s Travels, the King of Bobdingnag — the land of the giants — claimed that whoever could make two ears of corn grow where only one grew before was a greater patriot than all the politicians put together.

IRISH soldiers are risking their lives in Africa as a consequence of China’s thirst for political muscle and oil.

IF you have been reading recently about the salaries of Ireland’s university presidents you might not be feeling very well disposed to academics. For the record, they are all on between €200,000 and €300,000 a year and have a pay award of up to 19% pending.

The trouble is because Obama has set himself up as no mere politician, his willingness to make a casual promise he cannot keep makes voters doubt all his other promises.

THERE are some words you just can’t really imagine yourself writing. A few of them are “Iris Robinson has a point”.