Fine Gael enjoys watching Micheál Martin hop on hot coals, and foolishly he gives it the pleasure, writes Gerard Howlin.

The prosecution of Sean Fitzpatrick bore many elements of a stitch-up, writes Michael Clifford. 

We all know that The Singularity is coming. I just didn’t expect my first sighting of it in Nowlan Park after a National Hurling League game.

A Doomsday Clock symbolising the threat of apocalypse could be about to move closer to midnight.

Munster surveyors in the SCSI meet tomorrow night for their annual dinner, at a time of recovery in the construction profession. Here, former SCS Munster chair Rob Andrews surveys his own half-century in quantity surveying.

As a rollercoaster week on the financial markets comes to an end, we appear to be right back where we started, writes Kyran Fitzgerald.

Fianna Fáil under the leadership of Micheál Martin has not captured the public imagination with any distinctive policy programme, either right or left, writes Gary Murphy

Even Armageddon can have a silver lining, according to a new discovery about what followed the massive meteor impact that wiped out the dinosaurs.

A freak mudslide and flood hit one town as the rest of the country enjoyed summery sunshine.

Residents have described the chilling moments when a river of mud and water swept through their town flooding homes and businesses.

For the first time since 2011, there are signs that the party is going somewhere, says Gerard Howlin.

“Hang on, what’s he played there?”

I am totally against any acts of terrorism, be they small or big as I am a member of Amnesty International. I am totally anti-war and other violence no matter what form it comes in.

Tensions over Syria are expected to dominate a summit of the world’s major economies being held in Russia in the run-up to an expected US military assault which host Vladimir Putin has warned would be an act of aggression.

It was a week for reflection. A week when we marvelled at a great champion besting injury to captivate us with a dramatic entrance.

Should darts be in the Olympics?

Economic optimism is now official.

Making the Future:Occupations, Interventions, Empire and Resistance

Brechin City’s financial structure for the upcoming season could be thrown into disarray if their Ramsden’s Cup tie with Rangers is called off, the club’s vice-chairman Martin Smith has warned.

THE intangible thing that most defines all of our lives is power — our proximity to it and our possession, or lack, of it.

An 11-year-old’s plan to solve one of the key questions at the centre of the European crisis — how to get countries to leave the euro — features unhappy Greeks and pizza.

Peter Brown and Nick Leeson are in agreement about one thing: Ireland is not about to miraculously recover from the recession any time soon.

Most students could repay a €10,000 college fees loan within 15 years of graduation if the Government decided to introduce such a scheme, according to University of Limerick research.

Consumer sentiment rose in January as the speculated economic Armageddon did not arise but consumers are braced for a tough year, worried about their living standards and jobs, the latest KBC Bank Ireland/ESRI Consumer Sentiment Index indicates.

EVER since his comments about their ugly win over Antrim, Pat Spillane hasn’t exactly been flavour of the month in Donegal.

The organiser of an Ottawa music festival where the stage collapsed during a sudden storm, sending thousands of fans watching the band Cheap Trick scrambling to safety, called the accident "a freak situation".

CRONYISM, the political nod-and-wink, and membership of quangos go hand in glove and have long been at the heart of Irish politics.

BANKING’S restructuring may require the nationalisation of our national payments system to protect what is a vital strategic asset.

A LIVELY and healthy-looking Fidel Castro appealed to US President Barack Obama to stave off global nuclear war in an 11-minute address to parliament – his first official government appearance since emergency surgery four years ago.

A lively and healthy-looking Fidel Castro appealed to US president Barack Obama to stave off global nuclear war in an 11-minute address to parliament – his first official government appearance since emergency surgery four years ago.

The White House has announced a fundamental shift in America’s nuclear strategy, calling the spread of atomic weapons to rogue states or terrorists a worse threat than the nuclear Armageddon feared during the Cold War.

I FULLY accept Tom Kindlon’s points in his letter (‘State pensioners spared budget cuts’, January 19).

A pall of red dust blown in from the Outback clogged the skies over Sydney today, diverting international flights, disrupting public transport and prompting a spike in emergency calls from people suffering breathing difficulties.

Rob Lowe told today how he fled with his family as a wildfire he said was “like Armageddon” destroyed more than 100 homes in a wealthy, celebrity-studded California enclave.

The United States will face “complete financial Armageddon and a great depression” if a financial rescue package to overcome the economic crisis cannot be agreed, a former Federal Reserve official said.

Stocks rallied today as investors placed bets that a recovery in the financial and housing sectors is more likely to occur following the US government’s move to bail out mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The Dow Jones industrials gained nearly 300 points.

THE average homeowner will have to fork out an extra week’s wages to cover soaring mortgage costs after the European Central Bank (ECB) increased rates by another 0.25%.

Celebrities like Mel Gibson, Kelsey Grammer and Victoria Principal have been forced to flee their homes in Southern California driven out by unstoppable brush fires that are devastating the region.

Al Gore’s climate change campaign which led to him being awarded the Nobel Prize today was criticised as one-sided sentimental mush which could lead to global instability, not peace.

YOU arrive back from holidays to find that your home has been robbed. You go to the police station, where a bored sergeant tells you that there’s nothing they can do about it. You protest, but the sergeant throws you in the cell to cool your heels. On the way home, you get mugged by a gang. As you arrive home injured to your burgled house, your neighbour asks: “Are you OK?” “I couldn’t be better,” you reply perkily.

POLITICS, during the summer, is as dead as vaudeville.

The diaries of former US president Ronald Reagan – described as the most detailed presidential record in American history – have been unveiled.