Hearts melted on last night's Late Late Show when Vin and Michelle Manley introduced their adorable infant twins to the audience.

A lost letter from a dying mother to her little girl which was found in a second-hand bookshop in England has been returned to its rightful owner after 15 years.

Why were the Irish civil service and the 18 holy orders able to hijack the 2002 Redress Act? The State’s position was set out in the Dáil by the then minister for education, Michael Woods, as to how the homes and institutions would qualify. Over 120 homes and institutions went on the official list and no survivor could receive redress unless their institution was on the official list

227 children lost their lives at the protestant Bethany Home. It is now two more years since we erected our memorial, and we still wait on our Government to say that they wronged those who died and those who survived.

The leadership of the Protestant Churches of Ireland have to finally accept their historic responsibility as their counterparts in the Catholic Church did recently in Scotland. 

LUCY FALLON, Coronation Street’s newest star, has her driving licence with her at all times. 

Boris Johnson has accused an advocacy group in the UK of being apologists for terrorism after it said the Londoner believed to be Islamic State executioner Jihadi John had previously been harassed by the British security services.

Security services are facing mounting questions over claims that the British graduate believed to be murderous extremist Jihadi John was known to MI5.

SPOILER ALERT!

I KNOW one of them fell off a train on his way home from school and two people have told me his shoe-laces were tied together. I know he never came back to school, and no-one ever mentioned him again, recalls Victoria White.

"We want to see as many of them as possible." This was the one-line response from Enda Kenny when he was asked — at the launch of his party’s election campaign in 2011 — if female representation would increase under a Fine Gael government.

A woman has become an internet sensation after posting pictures of herself online in a bikini.

The Bethany Home survivors, and people of minority religious groups, are still being ‘abused’. Their ‘crime’ was to be born out of wedlock.

Abuse survivors of Bethany Home have welcomed a Government commitment to review any evidence of State responsibility in the negligent treatment of residents at the facility.

As a monument is unveiled today to the 222 children who died at a Protestant children’s home and were buried in unmarked graves, survivors of the home have pledged to continue their fight for justice.

WILL there be truth now, or will we go on hiding?

I’M loving this Fourth Wave of Feminism. All those years when we were told that swinging around a pole as exercise was both ironic and empowering always felt like a massive joke – on us. Raunch culture felt like a big fat lie. How could the galloping pornification of women and girls ever be empowering?

December 10 and 11 were sad days for Irish democratic politics. Reference the debate on the Bethany Home survivors’ case.

Paralympics Ireland lost one of its leading lights yesterday as Co. Down swimmer Bethany Firth’s bid to change allegiance to Great Britain was given the green light by the International Paralympic Committee.

Listening to the Joe Duffy show last week I was reminded of the contempt the state and Catholic Church has for dumped children, and the very sad history of the victims.

An Irishman living in London was among four people killed as hurricane-force winds battered England, leaving a trail of destruction and disruption.

THESE are the terrible words of a Bethany Home survivor to fellow survivor Derek Leinster, who has for many years led the campaign for redress.

Survivors of the Bethany Home have vowed to take their case to the UN following the Government’s decision not compensate its former residents.

It is hard to believe that the Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, instructed his ministers to deal impartially and fairly with the issue of the Bethany Homes.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have become the parents of a baby boy. He will never know poverty, will receive the best of care, attention and education, and live a life of inherited wealth and privilege. This wealth and privilege will be handed down to his successors.

Protestant church leaders have historically looked ‘the other way’, when it came to dealing with the abuse and neglect children were subjected to in their institutions.

We wish to draw the Taoiseach’s attention to the inaccurate description used to define the Bethany Home, Dublin, when it is referred to as a ‘mother and baby home’ by Mr Kenny and some of his ministerial colleagues.

The Child Abuse Redress Scheme does not apply to all victims equally, says Conor Ryan

Survivors of the Protestant-run Bethany Home have claimed it is a form of “discrimination” that they are excluded from justice or redress granted to victims of Catholic-run institutions.

The Taoiseach or perhaps his civil servants and those in the Department of Justice appear worried that including Bethany Home in a redress scheme similar to that offered to Magdalene women opens up the state to further claims from broadly comparable Roman Catholic institutions.

VICTOR Stevenson looks and sounds like your average middle-aged, middle-class Northerner.

TDs will shortly meet with survivors, says Victoria White

NOW we know the State’s share of the blame for the slavery of our women in the Magdalene laundries.

Please allow me to respond to Janet Maxwell, Church of Ireland Head of Communications (Letters, Jan 10). She wrote to you on the Protestant evangelical Bethany Home (that closed in 1972), in response to a column by Victoria White and a subsequent Examiner editorial.

I wish to comment on Victoria White’s sobering article (Opinion, Jan 3) — “Justice needed for the survivors of and victims of Bethany House abuse”.

Tina O'Brien is set to return to 'Coronation Street' in 2013.

Unlike Derek Leinster, (letters, Dec 14), I am not a product of the Bethany Home but I nonetheless feel outraged at the treatment these children received and a sense of anger at my powerlessness.

The Archbishop Of Dublin, the Most Revd Dr Michael Jackson, attended a memorial service for Bishop KH Ting at Mochou Road Church in Nanjing, China, on Saturday, Dec 8.

Speaking in the wake of the children’s referendum, Taoiseach Enda Kenny said the Government will respond “positively and wholeheartedly” and match the new legislation with appropriate action.