At the third attempt, Brendan Howlin has become the Labour leader.

Wexford TD and former minister Brendan Howlin has been elected unchallenged as the 12th leader of the Labour Party.

SELF-AWARENESS is a virtue that should never, ever be taken too far. It can trip over into insanity.

MINISTER Brendan Howlin is quoted in your newspaper (November 8) as saying that National Irish Bank cannot be forced to pass on (to hard-pressed borrowers) the ECB rate reduction.

DEAR Eamon, I’ve been half-wondering when it would happen.

I SERVED for 12 years in a voluntary capacity as secretary of the Mallow Hospital Retention Committee under the chairmanship of the late Joe Sherlock TD who was at that time a socially committed member of Mallow Urban District Council.

CONOR Cruise O’Brien would probably have been proud to think that his passing this week would mark the end of an era.

DISCUSSIONS on means testing child benefit brings me back to much tougher economic times when we in the Labour Women’s National Council advised Brendan Corish, then Minister for Health, that while a family might appear well-off, in cases of alcoholism, gambling or violence in the home one could not know if the mother actually had access to the family income.

THE year 1977 was not a great one from the standpoint of the state papers. Historically, the most important events were related to that year’s general election. As the civil servants were not formally involved, the elections were glossed over in the state papers.

THE moment of truth is approaching in the North. On past performance one might be hard pressed to believe Ian Paisley is finally going to say ‘yes’.

Former Labour leader Michael O’Leary, who has died in France, became alienated from politics, writes Paul O’Brien.

The Labour Party could realistically lead a future government in the Irish Republic, its leader Pat Rabbitte claimed today.

THE controversy about whether Seán Haughey was shafted or just plain peed off has been an entirely spurious one.

Efforts to secure an end to the IRA’s campaign ultimately proved fruitless, writes Ryle Dwyer.

MINISTER Micheál Martin, as usual, is long on rhetoric and short on fact (Irish Examiner August 25). It was Mary Harney who estimated the cost of the nursing home debacle at E1 billion.

A former secretary general of the Department of Health could have been sacked three months before he was finally removed, Tánaiste Mary Harney revealed today.

A LOT of lip service is being paid to justice, while our courts have been trampling on true justice in the name of the law.

Political Editor Harry McGee reports on the response of the political establishment to mental illness.

THE late former Labour leader Brendan Corish refused to attend a State funeral because a State car was not sent to his Wexford home to drive him to the ceremony in Dublin.

ONE of the more surprising features of the newly-released State papers was the eagerness of British Prime Minister Ted Heath to establish a power-sharing executive in the North with an all-Irish dimension.