On the 125th anniversary of Michael Collins’s birth, Ryle Dwyer examines how attitudes to him have fluctuated through the decades, including a period when he was almost forgotten

Would You Believe? The Tuam Babies, Sunday, RTÉ One.

The headstone on the grave of Ireland’s first head of the Free State, William T Cosgrave, has been smashed in two.

Jim Nolan tells Marjorie Brennan how his play is inspired by the triumph of the human spirit in the face of fundamentalist hysteria.

AN APOLOGY is owed to Enda Kenny and Eamon Gilmore.

I would like to express my appreciation of the excellent article which Micheál Martin wrote recently on the Béal na mBláth commemoration, which was statesmanlike, dignified and respectful.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny described the current economic conditions of the country as “what is in reality a temporary, hand-me-down, financial straitjacket”.

The Oath is Dead and Gone

IT was nice to see a degree of personal warmth in the Dáil between Micheál Martin and Enda Kenny. We have been witnessing probably the greatest changes in the Dáil since 1932.

The president of Ireland’s largest trade union has said Fine Gael on its own in government would be “a recipe for disaster”.

THE Scannal programme on the 1970 Arms Crisis on RTÉ television this week began with me proclaiming that the whole thing was the most serious crisis since the civil war. It has never been properly investigated but then no one should be surprised because the civil war was largely ignored, too.

FORMER US President Harry Truman once explained: “My choice early in life was either to be a piano player in a whorehouse or a politician. To tell the truth, there’s hardly any difference. I, for one, believe the piano player job to be much more honourable than current politicians.”

PEOPLE have become so disillusioned with politics in this country that there are calls for scrapping the Seanad and a significant reduction in the number of Dáil deputies. It would not be the first time for the Seanad to be abolished.

TAOISEACH Brian Cowen and his party certainly did not distinguish themselves with the cabinet reshuffle during the week, but the contortions of Leo Varadkar helped to take some of the spotlight off the Government.

DEFENDING Willie O’Dea on Monday, Justice Minister Dermot Ahern said: “I suppose Fine Gael are returning to type. They’ve always tried to get the dirt on people. I think it is despicable, to be honest.” Of course, he undoubtedly meant it is despicable to make false accusations.

DURING the week Bertie Ahern fell down a stairs and broke his leg. But the media was so preoccupied it hardly warranted a mention. The country has been reeling since the budget. Is that what happened to Bertie?

THE attempt by your columnist Ryle Dwyer (September 13) to balance the books on political betrayal is itself a betrayal of objective journalism.

IN A sense, Irish politics has gone into suspended animation. Bertie Ahern has been replaced as leader of Fianna Fáil but he remains as Taoiseach for over three weeks. This kind of hiatus effectively happens just about every decade after an election in which the people decide to change government.

THE new president of the Garda Representative Association, John Egan, exhibited incredible insensitivity in essentially issuing a threat to his political bosses. “We are waiting in the long grass for them,” he warned.

THE Fianna Fáil Ard Fheis is being held in Killarney over the weekend. The way the Government has been behaving in recent weeks there should be lots of excitement.

BERTIE AHERN’S address to the United Nations this week attracted little international attention, which was hardly surprising.

EIGHTY years ago on Sunday last, a new political party was publicly unveiled at a convention in the Mansion House.

EXACTLY 80 years ago, on December 7, 1922, Sean Hales, TD, was shot dead on his way to a Dáil meeting. This barbaric act occurred a day after the formal establishment of the Irish Free State.