CIVIL servants are often called the permanent government. They are the faceless men and women who implement policy and frequently formulate it, but political decorum requires that they keep a low profile rather than outshine their nominal masters.

SECURITY concerns over a private visit by Princess Grace and Prince Rainier to Ireland were raised with senior gardaí, ahead of a private ball in Co Wicklow.

WHILE at the National Archives previewing the State papers, which were officially released yesterday, I happened to be sitting beside Prof Ronan Fanning when I came across a letter written to him by the Irish ambassador to the US in 1977.

THE British Foreign Office found the Soviets reluctant to help trace the source of IRA rocket launchers with Russian markings.

I AM not surprised that Jack Lane (Letters, October 8) is impervious to new evidence that his vendetta against the memory of Elizabeth Bowen is ill-founded.

IN the past week we had posthumous pronouncements from both Judge Seán O’Leary and the late US President Gerald Ford.

RED CROSS officials who approached the Government with a request to inspect conditions in Irish prisons were told they should be looking at the plight of Irish prisoners held in British prisons instead.

NOT content with President Mary McAleese’s apology for her recent gaffe, people are now looking for an apology to Jewish people for Eamon de Valera’s condolence gesture to the German minister following the death of Hitler.

TODAY marks the 60th anniversary of the famous American note demanding the recall of Axis representatives from Dublin on the grounds that they supposedly posed a threat to the forthcoming Allied invasion of Europe.

ALONG with the State Papers released annually under the 30-year rule, other documents that should have been opened in previous years have also just been released.

FOR the past two years Ireland has been a member of the Security Council of the United Nations. It has been a momentous couple of years and in time people may question the role we played in what could well be the build-up to many years of strife.