HE has €2 zipped into his pocket, enough for the fanciest ice-cream in the local shop. He takes his bike from against the wall and off he goes.

I DON’T really care whether Micheál Martin or Michael McGrath leads Fianna Fáil — but I do care why.

THESE are the terrible words of a Bethany Home survivor to fellow survivor Derek Leinster, who has for many years led the campaign for redress.

SO now it’s official: childminders are the non-family childcare option chosen by a majority of mothers who go back to work in their babies’ first year. Childminders, who in Ireland are almost completely unregulated.

SHOCK! Horror! Two-thirds of Limerick’s creches failed HSE inspection reports made between 2011 and this year.

SO THAT’S what you meant, Lucinda Creighton, by “a politics of substance, not of sound-bites.” You have risked your political career for your beliefs. Even if the boys are right when they say you will pay the penalty for making your party sweat, you can sleep easy at night.

SO far, not one woman has voted against the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill, even though it is inadequate. Not one woman has stood up for her fellow women and said “I will not call you a criminal if you seek to end your pregnancy in this State.”

EDUCATION Minister Ruairi Quinn should have thought before his proposal for an effective 10% cut in educational provision for children for special needs put the heart cross-ways in parents all over the country.

I COULDN’T believe my eyes but it was all over the papers. The G8 wants growth.

ONE thousand women attended the meeting in the Mansion House, Dublin on Apr 14, 1971, when the Irish Women’s Liberation Movement was established.