Okay folks, it’s showtime! The late PJ Mara’s open invitation to electioneer and party would have nothing on President Michael D Higgins, writes Gerard Howlin.

Early governments acted as if Irish independence amounted to Rome Rule. It took the revelation of the clerical sex abuse scandal to end such deference, writes Ryle Dwyer

Dancer Michael Flatley’s Castlehyde mansion has disappeared from property websites, having failed to find a buyer after two years on the open market with a quoted guide price of €20m.

A man with a sombrero in a Mexican photo studio might not look like having much to do with the Irish-language revival but the image recalls a key moment in its early days.

Paul Rouse has more than a few issues with the place of women’s sports in the heart of Irish society.

The Brexit vote has sparked renewed interest in Michael Flatley’s mansion, which is on the market for €20m.

Forgotten Patriot is the story of Douglas Hyde, the first President of Ireland under the 1937 Constitution. He founded the Gaelic League in 1893 and was therefore responsible for the “cultural proselytising from which Irish sovereignty flowed,” according to Brian Murphy.

A biscuit or a Bard? As the world marks the great writer’s 400th anniversary, Ger Fitzgibbon reflects on how Irish people drawn to his work included rebels holed up in Jacobs during the 1916 Rising.

Ray Ryan looks at some of the highlights of ESB Tree Week, which is encouraging communities to develop ‘NeighbourWood’ activities.

Doctor Thorne, from Julian Fellowes, begins on UTV Ireland tomorrow at 9pm, starring Rebecca Front, Tom Hollander, Ian McShane and Stefanie Martini.

Literature, Gaelic games, and Irish classes were all activities in the early 1900s of the young nationalists who would later rally around the Rebellion, writes John Gibney.

Emotion without reason is dangerous. Reason unhinged from imagination is sterile, writes Gerard Howlin.

On the eve of the 70th anniversary of his first stay in Ireland, Ryle Dwyer examines the early visits of the iconic John F Kennedy, and his thoughts on the likes of Eamon de Valera

The fear is that if we are to vote a majority yes today ... we could end up with a mere child in the Áras, writes Alison O’ Connor

WE HAVE two constitutional referenda to decide on May 22 and I’ll be voting yes and no says Gerard Howlin

Donald Caird

Retirement isn’t an option for the many well-known octogenarians living life to the full. Dave Kenny looks at the older people with a spring in their step, who believe age is no barrier to a full life.

President Michael D Higgins yesterday recalled the snugs of the pubs his father ran in his childhood days in Limerick City.

The national conversation about 1916 is starting in earnest. What did it mean then; what does it say about us now?

Dance superstar Michael Flatley has revealed how Fred Astaire and Michael Jackson both danced their way down the sweeping staircase in his Irish stately home.

President Michael D Higgins said it was with “a great sense of humility and appreciation” that he had become the sixth Irish head of State to be bestowed with the Freedom of Cork City.

Final preparations are under way to confer the Freedom of Cork on President Michael D Higgins this week.

Gerard Howlin (Opinion, April 9) writes: “Until Bunreacht na hÉireann established the office of President of Ireland, and Douglas Hyde was elected to it in 1938, the King of England was head of state in Ireland.”

THE significance of President Michael D Higgins dining in state at Windsor castle last night is that it is the culmination of British recognition of Irish independence. It is also a full recognition of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

President Michael D Higgins is set to be made a Freeman of Cork.

President Michael D Higgins’s office has run up a million euro-plus bill for honouring older Irish citizens.

TAOISEACH Éamon de Valera told a dinner of the Past Pupils Union of his old school, Blackrock College, at Shannon in Apr 1957: “I have not been at a rugby match since 1913 because I do not want it being raised as a political matter and having rows kicked up about it.”

It would have been unthinkable even a decade ago for a leading Unionist politician to salute the GAA. Even a “snaking regard” of the organisation and the sporting skills of its members would hesitate to heap praise on the organisation in private, let alone in the public eye.

New collections of poetry from Afric McGlinchey and Paul Casey.

Reporter sacked after fake reports

The photograph above was taken 74 years ago today: it shows the then President of Ireland, Douglas Hyde, flanked by Éamon de Valera, the Taoiseach of the time, and Oscar Traynor, then the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs, at an international soccer match between Ireland and Poland.

The largest gathering of brass bands in the country will this weekend raise the spirits of people in a flood-hit town.

A private collection of 177 paintings and drawings by Sean O’Sullivan RHA (1906-1964) comes under the hammer at James Adam in Dublin next Wednesday at 6pm It was put together over a period of 50 years by a single Irish collector.

AS THEY say in political backrooms: you campaign in poetry and govern in prose.

MORE than 200 Irish people celebrated their 100th birthday this year according to figures released this week.

IT’S been interesting to hear the merits of democracy bandied about during the reality show that the race for the Áras has become.

PRESIDENTIAL hopeful Mary Davis was accused of employing a “blocking” strategy to prevent other independents getting nominations from local councils.

WAKING up at the end of a week that teased us with a whiff of excitement in the presidential race, we’re left with that empty feeling described in the opening line of Samuel Beckett’s novel Murphy: “The sun shone, having no alternative, on the nothing new.”

The possible entry of Gay Byrne into the race for the presidency has generated a considerable amount of attention, especially in the light of recent reports that the Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin has promised Mr Byrne the backing of his party, which has essentially been behind the successful candidacy of all but one of our eight presidents.

DANCE legend Michael Flatley is planning on raising his little boy in sun-soaked California rather than on his 19th Century Cork estate.