IT’S difficult not to be moved by the trails and triumphs of the leaders from Operation Transformation. And RTÉ presenter John Murray is no exception.

It’s four magpies for a boy — and also for joy, as RTÉ’s Daithí Ó Sé became a new dad on St Patrick’s Day.

Country music star Garth Brooks was initially reluctant to play four nights in a row in Dublin this summer — the extra date is also his youngest daughter’s 18th birthday.

It takes a lot of chutzpah for someone to confide in another that they suffer from depression or some other form of mental illness. It takes even more to tell the nation at large.

RTÉ presenter John Murray has told listeners how depression once made the day ahead for him something to endure, rather than enjoy.

The Health Service Executive has published the terms of its inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the resignation of childcare expert Niall McElwee from Athlone Institute of Technology.

An independent chairman has been appointed to investigate how a convicted sex offender kept his job as a childcare lecturer.

Fine Gael has called for an external investigation into what it is describing as the failure of the HSE to act on information about a former department head at Athlone IT.

The Children's Minister has asked the HSE to investigate the case of a department head at the Athlone Institute of Technology who resigned last week.

Waterford Institute of Technology has said complaints were made about lecture material used by the man at the centre of the Athlone IT controversy while he worked there.

It has emerged that the Gardaí told the Midland Health Board about allegations of sexual assault involving a department head at Athlone Institute of Technology as far back as June 2004.

Athlone Institute of Technology has said it was not aware the Director of its Centre for Childcare had been convicted of a sex offence before last week.

The children's charity Barnardos is calling for the immediate vetting of some staff at third level institutions.