IT’S a cartoon, drawn by artist William Hogarth in 1751. Entitled Gin Lane, it shows a crowded, chaotic, 18th century street scene, every detail of which tells the story of what one alcoholic drink — gin — was doing to the city life of the poor. 

THE up-side and down-side of rancid sexism are hard to distinguish from each other, these days.

THE symptoms of diseases are often misinterpreted. Diabetics, when they need sugar, talk nonsense or collapse, and people mistake it for drunkenness. But that’s a misunderstanding of the symptoms.

HEALTH Minister Leo Varadkar’s plan to take patients on trolleys out of A&E and put them, together with their trolleys, on wards, can be criticised, but medically it would have advantages. 

The great thing about the days on which Christmas and New Year happened, this time around, was the way it provided a week-long holiday.

JUST as our personal virtues, over time, become our vices, so, too, our national advantages, over time, can become disadvantages.

ON the face of it, I’m all set for Christmas. But not really.

Back in the days when I was a junior reporter with RTÉ and the Troubles were going on north of the Border, a mad young producer got the idea that someone should go Up There and capture covert recordings of just how difficult the British Army and the RUC were to people from the Republic. 

WORKING dogs are confusing. 

MOTHERS are fighting in toyshops over dolls fashioned after characters from a movie named Frozen. This is to satisfy their children this Christmas.