If Sean Spicer, President Trump’s biggest-ever-inauguration-crowd press secretary, has even half the wit of one of those clever gamblers who will make a profit at Cheltenham he is a wiser man today than he was when he joined the alternative-facts presidency.

They publish the state papers of 30 years ago around this time every year.

Former US president Bill Clinton was conferred with an honorary doctorate at Dublin City University.

There may be collaboration on the budget, but there is deadly political competition between the two big centre parties, writes Gerard Howlin.

"He was a courageous politician and will be greatly missed.”

Speculation on the future leadership of Fine Gael has resurfaced after Enda Kenny said he would speak to his party “soon” on the matter.

If he tries for a long goodbye, or even no goodbye at all, he puts himself at the mercy of the next crisis, writes Fergus Finlay

Here's your lunchtime bulletin.

The two most likely successors to Taoiseach Enda Kenny are split on how to remove him from power.

The Cabinet was divided over the merits of allowing postal voting after reports of widespread abuse of the system during the 1985 local elections.

Minister for public service, Ruairí Quinn, objected 30 years ago to proposals for Ireland to sign a European Convention which would allow for the transfer of Irish prisoners held abroad back home because of the existing overcrowding problem in Irish prisons.

Some of the 30-year-old archive material published today shows how very little has changed and how very much has changed.

The trial of former Anglo Irish Bank chairman Seán FitzPatrick has begun at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court, where he yesterday denied misleading the bank’s auditors about millions of euro in loans.

Former Government Ministers received almost €4m in pension payments last year, according to Department of Finance figures.

The State will face a bill of at least €10m to fund the investigation into the 2012 sale of Siteserv by the IBRC to a company owned by billionaire businessman Denis O’Brien.

Fine Gael is willing to increase the number of ‘technical’ groups in the Dáil, boosting their speaking rights, in a move widely viewed as an attempt to win the votes of Independent TDs and smaller parties for Enda Kenny as Taoiseach.

The current political stalemate is not unique, suggests Ryle Dwyer, who argues the past may provide the solution.

It is a pack of lies to say the current Coalition inherited “a wreck”. And it’s not convincing people, writes Victoria White.

Former Fine Gael leader Alan Dukes has said it will be up to Labour after the election to decide whether the outgoing coalition can do a deal with others to form a government.

Two future leaders of Fine Gael clashed in January, 1985, over proposals to increase the price of stamps.

Former IBRC chairman Alan Dukes has blamed “negative” comments by Finance Minister Michael Noonan about the bank for “unjustified hostility or a plain lack of comprehension on the part of current and former senior officials of the Department of Finance”.

I HAD a dreadful thought during the budget. It occurred to me that I had worked on or around every budget, in one capacity or another, since 1983.

The former CEO of Anglo Irish Bank has claimed that there were challenges to asset sales by the bank that were "politically motivated" just before it was liquidated.

The banking inquiry is to seek further legal advice on whether it can publish a statement by former Anglo boss David Drumm after the Director of Public Prosecutions objected to the evidence being made public.

It’s hoped the judge-led inquiry will fill in the many blanks regarding IBRC’s deals — and before the next general election, says Juno McEnroe, Political Reporter    

FAI boss John Delaney and media owner Denis O’Brien are the men we’re all supposed to love to hate, men who attract scandal-laden headlines whenever they do anything., writes Fergus Finlay

The investigation into controversial IBRC deals needs to be conducted faster and expanded, opposition TDs have warned.

“Misplaced” Siteserv files suddenly discovered by the Department of Finance have thrown up new questions for the Government amid claims it deliberately tried to hide the information. 

While complicated, the independent commission of investigation examining concerns over bad bank IBRC effectively involves three points: interest rates; ‘unusual’ share trading; and business deals that left the State tens of millions of euro out of pocket.