It is more than half a century since our relationship with America reached peak sycophancy. Just months before he was assassinated, John F Kennedy spent four days in Ireland.

It is easy to dismiss the idea of billionaires’ philanthropy where the plutocrats rather than governments get to decide how funds are used. Despite that almost begrudging view, the benefits of such generosity cannot be denied.

Ireland’s only national listening line for older people is helping some lonely and isolated people to live independent lives at home for longer.

A €6 million expansion of the four-star Castletroy Park Hotel in Limerick will increase the number of rooms and suites to nearly 160 and add a state of the art fitness and leisure facility and facilities for corporates.

The global business elite, each coughing up over €20,000 each, are gathering for their annual shindig at the up-market Swiss resort of Davos.

I see that I can’t see the Milky Way as I used to. It may be my eyes, but it seems I’m not the only one. 

Good morning. Here’s everything you need to know before you start your day.

It’s simple. If I’m heterosexual, I can get married to the person I love. If I’m not, I can’t, writes Fergus Finlay

The rich are different, even more different that we ever imagined, discovers Marjorie Brennan, the only problem is the gap between them and us is widening.

A €14.7m grant from the foundation set up by Irish-American philanthropist Chuck Feeney will help the increasing numbers of people suffering from dementia in Ireland.

THE Encyclopaedia of Music in Ireland is the summation of 10 years of research, and brings together some 2,000 articles by 240 contributors in a handsome two-volume, cloth-bound edition.

FRANK Flannery is an influential guy. He has been one of Fine Gael’s leading power-brokers for over 30 years, even though he never held elected office, serving instead as an administrator and strategist.

We can all contribute to our recovery, in our communities or for a cause, and it doesn’t have to be financial, writes Frank Flannery

The former St Patrick’s Marymount Hospice on Wellington Road in Cork looks set to be taken over by Griffith College.

One of the country’s best-known hospices issued a warning last night about bogus collectors using its name for door-to-door collections.

To the casual eye, Chuck Feeney could pass for an ordinary Irish-American on a visit to the home country.

The Irish-American philantrophist Chuck Feeney has this afternoon been awarded an honorary doctorate of Laws by the Universities of Ireland North and South.

As the rain began to soak the grounds of the University of Limerick yesterday afternoon, an 82-year-old professor was running around the college grounds on his 43rd marathon.

Chuck Feeney, the grandson of an immigrant from Fermanagh, is not a household name.

In New York’s Lincoln Centre last May over 1,300 Irish Americans and their friends attended a dinner which, in the middle of the most difficult economic circumstances in decades, raised $4.3m (€3.5m) for the American Ireland Fund (AIF).

Two of Ireland's best-known gay choirs will give a joint concert tonight in a bid to stave off a funding crisis facing the national civil marriage equality campaign.

Two of Ireland’s best-known gay choirs are to sing off the same hymn sheet to help stave off a funding crisis facing the national civil marriage equality campaign.

A 13-year-old New York boy who played hockey growing up in Ireland can keep playing on the girls team at his school, at least for one more season.

He’s too good, and that’s too bad.

The oldest resident of one of the country’s most advanced hospice and hospital facilities helped the President officially open the €54m complex yesterday.

A NEW €58 million palliative care centre and hospital was officially opened yesterday in Cork following the successful transfer of patients from the facility’s previous home on the northside of the city.

THE country’s most advanced palliative care centre and hospital threw open its doors for the first time yesterday to allow those who helped fund its construction to see how their money has been spent.

LIVES will be put at risk in east Cork, it has been claimed, as one of three out-of-hours SouthDoc cars is to be withdrawn from service due to cutbacks.

She started her own practice in the mid-1980s, in the midst of recession. In 2011, not much has changed for Ireland. Now a director of FLAC, Noeline Blackwell still sees first-hand the look of despair on people’s faces, writes Kyran Fitzgerald

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett has hosted a private gathering at an Arizona resort for American billionaires who have pledged to give away at least half their wealth.

A NATIONAL gathering of concerned citizens is to be held in the summer with a view to re-invigorating Ireland’s democratic institutions and restoring trust in public life.

THE planned sale of a 140-year-old hospital will help fund the move to a new €55 million hospice facility, west of Cork city.

IRELAND’S research reputation and job-creation potential is to get a major boost through a €359 million investment that will create almost 2,400 jobs, according to Taoiseach Brian Cowen.

A €360m research investment unveiled by the government today will create almost 2,500 jobs and help drive Ireland's economic recovery, the Taoiseach pledged today.

AN organisation which works with asylum seekers in Limerick has hit out at the living conditions in hostels.

SMILING alongside Ireland’s most powerful office holders, a grateful but nervous Sharon Commins was praised for her courage and endurance after her 107-day ordeal in Sudan.

EIGHTY percent of children whose parents had attended a community parenting programme displayed a “substantial improvement” in their behaviour and schooling six months on.

A GOVERNMENT plan to invest €300 million in third-level research will provide facilities for more than 1,400 college researchers in a bid to drive future job creation.

A state-of-the-art sports centre part funded by American billionaire Chuck Feeney was officially opened today at Trinity College Dublin.

THE Minister for Children is looking at generous donors to help fund the Government’s roll-out of youth cafes nationwide.

WHAT must the super-rich in Ireland make of Chuck Feeney? The American billionaire has put it up to them by giving away more than €1 billion to support worthy causes in this country and he wasn’t even born here.

THE Government yesterday confirmed that it plans to shut down St Patrick’s Institution — but it did not say when.

A new Institute for Ethics will help fill the void left by the Catholic Church, it was claimed today.

RECENT statistics and reports show that binge drinking is an increasing problem especially among the young in Ireland.

THE controversy concerning the Centre for Public Inquiry is cast as a tussle about the respective bona fides of Frank Connolly and Michael McDowell.