We’ll need our humour and a balanced reading of our history this Easter to negotiate a path through the treacherous waters of commemoration. Let’s hope we can also make room for the voices of the children of the centenary of the Rising, writes Clodagh Finn.

DURING the last general election campaign Fine Gael made much of its five-point plan to rejuvenate a battered society and an imploding economy. The fifth point promised “to stamp out cronyism and low standards” in politics.

In 1982, the country was stunned by a series of scandals. Taoiseach Charles J. Haughey inspired the sobriquet “GUBU” in describing one but a truly grotesque, unbelievable, bizarre and unprecedented event went essentially unnoticed in Kerry.

A packed Court Three shows the huge level of interest in the case, writes Michael Clifford.

WHILE the implications of the Garda taping crisis continue to unravel, there are growing concerns at the Taoiseach’s role in Martin Callinan’s shock departure and the impact on the relationship between the Government and An Garda Síochána.

Michael Clifford (Opinion, March 24) goes for the ‘gubu-lar’ as he resurrects with relish the old-chestnut acronym Gubu

Yesterday’s startling events, Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan’s resignation and Cabinet revelations about widespread Garda telephone bugging, came as close to rendering the acronym GUBU insufficient as any scandal since double-murderer Malcom McArthur was arrested in the home of then attorney general Patrick Connolly in the summer of 1982.

In the past, Garda commissioners became implicated in what were largely political controversies, writes Ryle Dwyer

If it isn’t ‘GUBU’, it’s not far off. The vitriol pouring down on Philippe Saint-Andre and his French players this week is unbelievable, occasionally bizarre.

Commentary based on speculation, or speculation based unconfirmed reports, is usually best avoided but exceptional circumstances very occasionally make it unavoidable.

On budget day, I watched, with growing disgust, our politicians in their expensive business suits, as they sat on their luxuriously upholstered thrones meekly doing the bidding of their Troika masters.

The head of TV3 has called on the Government to end the “failed dual-funding mechanism” which allows RTÉ to earn revenue from both advertising and the TV licence fee.

Chris Froome’s performance in the Tour de France seems superhuman.

Turns out Christy Cooney was wrong after all.

In your Editorial of Jul 8 last you may have invented a new acronym, worthy to stand alongside the famous GUBU.

The Texan heat has been occupying the mind of IRFU strength and conditioning man Jason Cowman, but it has been a welcome relief to the series of injuries that beset the squad in his first Six Nations in the role.

Ireland team manager Mick Kearney has insisted a poor run of luck rather than a problem with the IRFU’s player welfare programme is the reason for the national side’s current injury crisis.

It’s 30 years since the “grotesque, unbelievable, bizarre and unprecedented” events that led to the resignation of the attorney general, writes Richard Fitzpatrick

Another Olympic Games and another afternoon of gut-wrenching disappointment for kayaker Eoin Rheinisch.

THIRTY years ago this month, a young TD named Tony Gregory held a government to ransom.

AT HIS address on the opening night of RTÉ, 50 years ago today, President Éamon de Valera worried that TV might “lead through demoralisation to decadence and disillusion”.

THE sole witness to one of Ireland’s most notorious murders has broken a 30-year silence to reveal his attempts to save the life of nurse Bridie Gargan, who was beaten to death in Dublin’s Phoenix Park by Malcolm MacArthur.

IT is almost impossible to believe that any previous leader of Fianna Fáil would have publicly offered the party’s support to a potential candidate for the presidency without establishing that the individual was fully committed to the idea.

AN ASSISTANT Garda commissioner is to be appointed to head policing in the southern region as part of a reshuffle of senior garda personnel.

WATCHING this week’s RTÉ programme on the beginning of the Troubles in 1969, I was struck by the similarity of what happened then and what has been happening in the past year.

IT’S been quite a while, but GUBU is making a comeback. An acronym for grotesque, unbelievable, bizarre and unprecedented, the phrase was paraphrased from a comment by then Taoiseach Charles Haughey while describing a strange series of incidents in 1982 that led to a double murderer being apprehended in the house of the attorney general. It was a bizarre happening, an unprecedented situation, a grotesque situation, an almost unbelievable mischance.

NINE years ago, on December 22, 1999, I said here that the “economy is booming and this country will be enjoying unprecedented prosperity at the start of the new century.

THE death of Dr Conor Cruise O’Brien robs us of one of the best and brightest we have had in the past century in Irish politics.

Tributes were paid tonight following the death of former government minister and journalist Conor Cruise O’Brien.

SHE told them to put him in the bath and melted all the jelly she had, poured it into the hot water with which she had surrounded his comatose form, and left it to solidify around him with a spoon on the ledge, together with a note reading ‘Eat your way out’My phone made its text noise when I was starting to cook. I ignored it.

THE momentous events in the United States and the outrage in Limerick have been major distractions from our economic plight, but we are going to have to face it, and the sooner the better. A number of political commentators have called for a new Tallaght Strategy.

WITHOUT warning Stupor Tuesday suddenly threw the Government onto a non-emergency footing as 24 hours passed without a single significant sleaze allegation exploding at the Taoiseach’s feet.

IT was the week that Bertie Ahern said Irish politics was lying in the gutter — and the opposition shot back that the Taoiseach was just lying.

TÁNAISTE and Justice Minister Michael McDowell has refused temporary Christmas release to the four men jailed for the killing of Garda Jerry McCabe.

THE Criminal Assets Bureau is to get a new chief, replacing Felix McKenna who is set to retire in two week’s time.

THERE is no doubt we have never had it so good in this country.

A HIGH Court challenge by convicted murderer Malcolm MacArthur to his continuing imprisonment will be responded to by the State within three weeks with a file, the High Court was told yesterday.

HIS dramatic arrest sparked the phrase that is forever associated with Charles Haughey.

ONE of the more intriguing files in the State papers opened this week concerned the appointment of Senator Vincent Gair as Australian ambassador to Ireland in 1974.

IN selecting his generals Napoleon Bonaparte was more concerned that they were lucky than that they were talented. In recent days it is beginning to appear like Bertie Ahern may be running out of luck.

IRELAND’S forestry authorities continue surreptitiously to carry out policies that have been disgraced and abandoned throughout the civilised world.

IT beggars belief that the statutory body responsible for protecting public health through the regulation of medical products failed to appear in court to prosecute a raft of 59 summonses against three defendants.

A SENIOR detective used Charlie Haughey’s infamous GUBU phrase at the Morris Tribunal yesterday to describe “sinister elements” in the murder investigation of Richie Barron in 1996.