I FIRST met a Protestant when I was 12. My family had moved that year to a town where there were a number of them. There were rumoured to be a few in my hometown, as well, down in the “deep south”, but nobody my age.

A well-known traditional singer who claimed that the cover of a book written by historian Diarmuid Ferriter had depicted him as an alcoholic has settled his claim for damages.

Ireland’s universities have fallen down the international league table again. Should we be concerned, asks Kyran Fitzgerald.

A former mother superior at Bessborough Mother and Baby Home has said its adoptions were not forced, that mothers were well-fed, and that its high historic death rates could be explained by lack of access to antibiotics.

In his article ‘Stronger Action Needed’, Tim Pat Coogan (Irish Examiner, Aug 22) blames corrupt and lazy politicians, senior civil servants, bankers, businessmen, lawyers, accountants and stockholders for Ireland’s affliction. But he has overlooked the dreaded fiscal triads, who scoured city streets and rural roads seeking mortgagees.

THERE was no sex in Ireland before television — this famous political quote from the 1960s sums up the mismatch between public debates and people’s private behaviour.

The stock image of Alex Ferguson, familiar around the world, is of someone who lives and breathes football, and gives it loads to referees. But there’s more to him than that, as Irish Examiner editor Tim Vaughan discovered

We are all part of the same hypocrisy, said Michael Corleone in The Godfather (Part Two).

A traditional singer is suing historian Diarmuid Ferriter, claiming the cover of the academic’s book on the pioneers depicts the singer as an alcoholic.

The regular disclosure of incidents of domestic and sexual violence has led to one professor describing this ongoing problem as a national crisis, writes Cormac O’Keeffe

SEVEN out of 10 child sex abuse victims who sought help from rape crisis centres last year were assaulted by more than one person.

I AGREE wholeheartedly with Fr Iggy O’Donovan’s view of Diarmuid Ferriter’s work and the job of historians (Letters, December 7).