THE ability to travel overseas on generally recognised and accepted documents is a benefit which seems to have been with us forever. It has been the engine of international tourism and all the attendant industries and businesses which depend upon it and grow from its fruits.

In 1946, when this novel begins, the world was still coming to terms with the horrors of the death camps of Nazi Germany and elsewhere. 

THE UN is in danger of becoming as irrelevant and ineffectual as the League of Nations that preceded it — able to condemn atrocities but not halt them. The chemical attack in Syria, most likely by government forces, is the most recent example.

75 years on, the consequences of Pearl Harbour have yet to be fully played out, writes Geoffrey Roberts

British, French, and German leaders and bureaucrats realised after World War II that only an economically stable ‘United States’ of Europe would guarantee peace, says Kyran Fitzgerald.

United Nations secretary general Ban Ki-moon has offered a grim assessment of prospects for defusing the latest wave of violence between Israel and the Palestinians.

Tackling the twin challenges of sustainable development and climate change is vital for the UN but its founding principle was peace, the edifice upon which it was built, and it must now step up to the plate and find a way to end the slaughter in Syria, writes Barry Andrews

The Leinster Council will vote next month on whether to allow Galway’s minor and U21 hurling teams into the province following Wednesday night’s presentation from leading Tribe officials seeking full integration.

Success in their Ireland jobs for Martin O’Neill and Roy Keane yesterday became a lot more than just about qualifying for Euro 2016 following confirmation by Uefa of a new Nations League from 2018.

Gary Spedding of Queen’s University Students’ Union (Letters, Oct 31) brands those facts that contradict his argument as Israeli government ‘propaganda’.

Paul Revere, the American patriot, has gone down in history as the man who warned his fellow countrymen at the outbreak of the American War of Independence in 1775 that “the British are coming”.

The G20 has backed afundamental rethink of the rules on taxing multi-national companies, taking aim at loopholes used by firms such as Apple and Google to avoid billions in taxes.

AFTER completing my doctoral dissertation on Irish neutrality, Tim Pat Coogan, the then editor of The Irish Press, wrote that his newspaper would be interested in publishing a series of articles based on the papers of David Gray, the American wartime minister to Ireland, but he added his own health warning.

Michael Winters’ Galway Hurdle hero, Rebel Fitz, is set to make his eagerly awaited debut over fences in the Irish Stallion Farms’ EBF Beginners Chase at Killarney tonight.

TODAY marks the anniversary of the Anglo-Irish agreements of Apr 25, 1938.

Britain, France and Germany are pushing for new measures to clampdown on multinational companies avoiding corporate taxes.

THIS shouty noisefest of a referendum campaign on the European Stability Treaty is part of a hugely important cultural debate, or it should be.

There was a time as a new young nation when our membership of international bodies, like the League of Nations, was important to our sense of national self-esteem.

KEVIN McLAUGHLIN hasn’t exactly got a wealth of experience when it comes to playing rugby in France but he has enough to know what to expect in Montpellier this Saturday.

The Irish Government has essentially thumbed its nose at the Vatican by announcing the closure of the Irish diplomatic mission to the Holy See.

David Cameron was at his most slippery during his recent tour of the Middle East, trumpeting his commitment to the Arab democracy uprisings while leading a multi-billion-pound arms trade delegation intent on selling weapons to the very regimes their own people want gone.

AS I sauntered past the bookie’s window on Sunday morning the odds displayed were for Liverpool 3, United 1. I thought “make it 250/1 and you’ll still get no takers”.

Taoiseach Brian Cowen told a press conference on Thursday: “I don’t believe there is reason for people to feel ashamed or humiliated at all.” He was referring to the current financial crisis.

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 taoiseach Liam Cosgrave has said his predecessor John A Costello helped to modernise Ireland more than the country ever realised.

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.

David Cesarani

Natacha Appanah

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”.

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.

Ahern left himself wide open to the suspicion that he was under obligation by appointing several people to State boards after they gave him money.

THE face-off between Eamon de Valera and Winston Churchill in this week’s Hidden History TV programme on RTÉ 1 was a case of hiding history and promoting distortion.

McCreevy explained he was objecting to Haughey’s leadership because there had been a lowering of political standards, mishandling of the economy, as well as the party’s failure to secure a majority in two successive general elections.

IT was a year of hope in the North, with realistic signs of progress in that there was so little talk about ending partition. It was not even mentioned during the talks at St Andrews.

ON Tuesday last, Caroline Glick, deputy managing editor of the Jerusalem Post, was interviewed on RTÉ.

THE majority of Americans now have reservations about their country’s involvement in Iraq, with a resulting plummet in the popularity of George W Bush.

AS yet another controversy flares in Northern Ireland about who and what is a Nazi, perhaps it is timely to reflect on the actual history and practice of world conquest and the extermination of inferior races.

“WHY has Jesus Christ so far not succeeded in inducing the world to follow His teachings?” US President Woodrow Wilson of the United States asked in 1919.

THE appointment of former Taoiseach John Bruton as head of the European Commission’s delegation to the United States has been warmly welcomed as an honour both for this country and for Mr Bruton himself.

I AGREE with the sentiments expressed by Tony Moriarty and Sean Ó Mochóir in relation to the anti-Bush protesters at Shannon and elsewhere (Irish Examiner, June 24).