THE appearance by Naomi Campbell and Mia Farrow at the Sierra Leone war crimes tribunal counts as one of the more bizarre events of recent times.

POOR Pakistan: only on the cricket field does it ever seem to have any luck.

A FACEBOOK friend messaged last week to ask: “Have you not read The Spirit Level?” Did he mean Seamus Heaney’s poetry collection or the acclaimed book published last year arguing that income inequality is the cause of most social problems?

AS Charlie Haughey might have put it, I think there is some dissatisfaction with the (FF) leadership at the moment. Forty years ago, in the wake of the Arms Trial, the issue was policy; today, the grumblers claim their differences with the Taoiseach are presentational.

THE animated state of the stag hunting debate is indicative of the deathly state of Irish politics more generally.

WE all need a place to run and hide, a place to think sometimes. For me, oftentimes, it is no further than the bottom of the garden with a cup of tea, a newspaper and perhaps a cigarette.

SO has justice finally been delivered? Years late and at great financial cost, the Bloody Sunday inquiry has finally reported.

IN my first year at Queen’s in Belfast, no subject exercised the monthly meetings of the students’ union more than the name of the hall where our meetings were held.

LAST Wednesday was probably the hardest day of my life. At the grand old age of 37, I thought I was too young to be carrying the coffin of my partner.

HOW do you solve a problem like Iran? As Richard Haas, president of America’s Council on Foreign Relations, and once the US envoy to Northern Ireland states, “what happens in the Middle East does not stay in the Middle East”.