The headstones of 13 people, including W.T. Cosgrave, have been vandalised at Goldenbridge Cemetery in Dublin.

Andrew St Ledger of The Woodland League looks at the benefits that planting native trees can bring in the battle to control waterways prone to flooding

As a new season kicks off, Liam Mackey takes a deep breath, dons a suit of armour and selects his top 25 League of Ireland players of all time. Be sure to let us know who you think the best player is.

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

Frank O’Connor, who lends his name to the world’s richest prize for a short story collection at this week’s Cork International Short Story Festival, was an eloquent critic of the censorship that blighted independent Ireland’s cultural landscape.

I FIRST heard of Jimmy Gralton in the early 1980s when his surname was used as the title for a short-lived socialist magazine.

If you’ve ever wondered what the old men in those sepia photographs of rural early 20th century Ireland sounded like, you can now find out.

BRING back the marriage bar! Hah — that got you reading! OK, I’m not arguing for women to be turfed out of jobs if they getmarried. As we all know, that was what happened to married women in civil service, teaching and banking jobs in Ireland from the 1930s until 1958 for teachers, and 1973 for the rest.

Killings were not common in Co Kerry’s past, but were often brutal — perhaps the influence of Civil War carnage, says Richard Fitzpatrick.

From an economic perspective, the most positive outcome of the treaty negotiations (ratified in 1922) was that the Irish Free State acquired full fiscal autonomy from the UK thereafter.

IT IS difficult to imagine now the intensity of the controversy that was stirred by the Treaty oath, or the fact that history could have ignored for so long that it was Michael Collins who essentially proposed that oath.

Using economics to justify closing our embassy to the Holy See prompted one Dublin mother to say stop, writes Mary E Fitzgibbon

HOW do you get to know a nation? Taste their food? Walk their streets? Read their history? Try clicking through the nearest turnstile, follow the route on the back of your ticket to the seat. And learn.

In the first of three articles on the history of the presidency, Ryle Dwyer highlights the early importance of the office. It was not the partition but the head of state issue that led to the Civil War.

IN the Civil War, Irish Free State soldiers tied republicans to bombs and blew them to pieces.

ALTHOUGH it has become somewhat trendy to denigrate the leadership of Éamon de Valera, he led by magnificent example both at home and on the world stage in the 1930s.

THE words shipbuilding and Dublin are not often seen together – Harland and Wolfe in Belfast and the Verolme dockyard in Cork fit much better.

IF Queen Elizabeth deigns to come to Cork during her State visit to Ireland, they may have to do a bit of heavy lifting at UCC. A statue of her predecessor, Queen Victoria, once held pride of place on the roof of the college’s Aula Maxima when it was Queen’s University Cork.

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.

A CONCISE version of the Encyclopaedia Britannica was about to be finalised when somebody noticed a howler. The encyclopaedia wrongly suggested that our civil war of 1922-23 was fought between the Catholics of the south and the Protestants of the North.

During the Celtic Tiger period, this country was seen as one of the great success stories on the international stage, but we have allowed our influence to wane.

IN a review of Brian Cowen’s first year as Taoiseach, RTÉ News mentioned he had to face an unprecedented series of crises and that none of his predecessors “ever had to deal with problems of such severity”.

IAN PAISLEY Jnr had to resign this week as a junior minister in the Northern Executive headed by his father.

The programme on Michael Collins shown on RTÉ 1 (October 9) was very disappointing.

TWO Sinn Féin members were arrested yesterday during protests against the sale of historical artefacts associated with the 1916 Easter Rising, including the first draft of the Irish national anthem.

A former leas-chathaoirleach of Seanad Éireann who failed to declare a donation of IR£2,500 will be given community service to perform by Dublin Circuit Criminal Court, subject to a report regarding his suitability for such work.

A former leas-chathaoirleach of Seanad Éireann who failed to declare donations exceeding IR£500 will be sentenced at 2pm by Judge Katherine Delahunt at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.

Priceless family treasures belonging to William Butler Yeats will be handed over to the National Library of Ireland tomorrow for its first major exhibition on the Nobel prize-winning poet.

A former leas-chathaoirleach of Seanad Eireann who failed to declare donations exceeding IR£500 has been remanded on bail for sentence by Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.

SEVENTY-FIVE years ago, on July 22, 1929, a massive hydro-electric project at Ardnacrusha was publicly unveiled at a ceremony presided over by WT Cosgrave, president of the executive council of the Irish Free State.

RUMOURS that Guinness was planning to wind up operations at St James's Gate, Dublin, and move its headquarters to the Park Royal Brewery near London were finally killed off this week with the news that the Park Royal operation is being closed down instead.

Political Correspondent Fionnán Sheahan says Martin Cullen has inadvertently done the nation a great service.

“LIKE it or not, Ireland is no longer neutral and this is crunch time,” Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny declared on Thursday.

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

WHILE I was waiting for a flight at Shannon on Tuesday, hundreds of American soldiers in desert camouflage began trooping through the departure lounge. There must have been over 300 men. Some Americans in the lobby began clapping.