Some strands of history are inescapable, they live with us forever — and so they should. Just as we can’t choose our family we cannot choose our past, it is our undeniable, irreversible path to our present.

SEVERAL days after 15-year-old Ann Lovett died in hospital, just hours after giving birth to a 6½lb baby boy found dead beside a Co Longford grotto, an anonymous caller phoned the Sunday Tribune newspaper to explain what had happened on that cold and dark winter afternoon on Jan 31, 1984 outside Granard.

Ireland’s rapidly ageing population is leading to a financial time bomb, with warnings that no plan is in place to cope with the dramatic rise in those aged over 65.

The Department of Education says it is prepared for the anticipated surge in pupil numbers which could require thousands of teachers, classrooms and new schools over the next decade.

Ireland’s population could surpass pre-Famine levels by 2046.