Children’s Minister Frances Fitzgerald was among the politicians who paid tribute to Christine Buckley, who she described as a “courageous and consistent campaigner” for the rights of the child.

THE funding of political parties has long been a closely guarded secret. However, the corruption and abuse of power this has engendered over the years has become an all too familiar story.

THE controversy that has come to be known as The Lowry Tapes tells us much about what passes for democracy in this State.

John McColgan (Aug 9) seems to be slightly at variance with Dr Elaine Byrne and your own Michael Clifford in his assessment of the annual Summer School in Glenties.

IT’S that time of year again.

Fianna Fáil senator Averil Power called for candidates for public office to sign up to a legally-binding ethics pledge which could be monitored by an independent electoral commission.

ONE of the gigs worth your attention next weekend is the Trim Swift Festival.

We have long imagined or simply wanted to believe that the inherent goodness and honesty of the great majority of people is a robust enough buttress against the obvious and eternal corruption all around us.

A new book exposes how, after a promising start, corruption became endemic in Irish political life, writes Colette Browne

Fine Gael and Labour will get what they deserve if they do not unite to challenge the “culture of impunity” fostered by oligarchs, Michael McDowell has said.

LEO Varadkar is extremely witty. To this I can testify, having seen him in action at the Trim Swift Festival at the weekend.

“WHO are these people?”

I FOUND it very amusing watching Eamonn Dunphy getting highly indignant with Elaine Byrne on RTÉ’s Eleventh Hour.

THE death of the 30th Dáil can allow rebirth of Irish democracy. An unnoticed aspect of Bertie Ahern’s tenure was the irrelevance of policy platforms within parties.

THERE seemed to be a sense of relief and a sense of expectation in many quarters last week as the end of the era of Bertie Ahern was announced.

The murky world of political financing needs to be opened to full public scrutiny.

IRELAND’s Euro Indoor athletes weren’t the medal heroes of the weekend. The Special Olympics team returned yesterday from the Winter Games in Nagano, Japan with a 12 medal haul in tow.