SOME puppet show. There are moments when you despair for this country. One of those moments was when I heard Minister for the Arts, Jimmy Deenihan, thus describe on RTÉ Royale de Luxe, the theatre company whose proposed visit finally broke the relationship between Limerick City of Culture’s board and artistic director, Karl Wallace.

“THIS festival has been a beacon in the traditional music calendar,” said traditional fiddler Paddy Glackin on Monday night at the last Frankie Kennedy Winter School in Donegal.

The Wheel, a resource organisation for charities and voluntary groups, described Section 38 agencies to me as “arms of the State in all but governance”. But shouldn’t all arms of the State be headed by the State? Isn’t governance all important?

AS we look back on the bailout years from the vantage point of our exit, there will be further calls for a wide-ranging enquiry as to why our banks failed us so badly.

SAY what you like about Colm Keaveney, he has put an end to the Civil War. Ah, not that Civil War, silly. The real Civil War. The war between Charlie Haughey and Garret FitzGerald.

In Ireland we are climate hypocrites, you see. How else can you explain the fact that the number of retro-fitting projects aimed at saving energy halved in the last three years? And the fact that Rabbitte has just pushed back new energy efficiency regulations for new buildings until far-off 2020?

The idea that the less well-off would have done better had the entire banking system been allowed to fail is nothing short of puerile.

THE youth guarantee scheme is looking more and more like a PR stunt. The EU-wide commitment to offer young people under 25 who exit education a quality job or training place within four months is a good one.

IF we did not deprive them of life, we deprived them of their identity. That is the hard truth about our relationship with “illegitimate” children which Stephen Frears’s film Philomena makes us face.

Savita Halappanavar has become an icon. Her death in Galway University Hospital a year ago has taken on mythic qualities.