Here in Syros, a small island in the Cyclades in Greece, I was ambling homeward at night after a memorable meal of kalamari (squid) stuffed with feta cheese, when I rounded a corner and was stopped as dead in my tracks as if I’d walked into a wall, the wall being the overpowering scent of afrangipani tree growing more than 50m away in the courtyard of our guesthouse.

The conventional wisdom among many Brexit opponents has been that the UK’s new prime minister is “doing a Varoufakis” and will be crushed in similar fashion.

Twelve months after an injustice undid them at the Euro U17 finals, Ireland were again left fuming by a refereeing decision in the tournament.

Fake news has been a part of how humans try to dominate each other since well before the ancient Greeks used a hollow statue of a horse to smuggle troops into Troy to break a 10-year siege.

European champions Portugal got the victory they required over Switzerland to book their place in next year’s World Cup in Russia.

BRITAIN’S House of Commons meets this week to debate the bill which will — as from March 2019 — take the country out of the European Union. 

France steamrollered Holland 4-0 with the help of goals from Thomas Lemar and Kylian Mbappe as they edged closer to qualification for next summer's World Cup finals in Russia.

The European Union has announced that Greece is no longer breaking budget rules.

Valerie O’Connor is at the start of the courgette glut and this week she foregoes the ubiquitous spiraliser in favour of chuny chips and delicious deep-fried flowers

THE ancient Greeks had an appreciation, maybe sharper than ours, of how raw life could be. 

Despite the current concerns in the economy around Brexit and growing industrial unrest, things could be worse. Much worse.

EVEN the most committed Europhiles must occasionally wonder if Greece might have been treated more generously by the European Union when its economy imploded. 

It’s been less than a week since a 26ft statue of Pharoah Ramses II, or Ozymandias as the Greeks liked to call him, was rescued from its ignoble resting place beneath a suburban Cairo slum and surrounded by dirty, running water.

AS we fret about Brexit and the darkened world that will bring; as we fret about the excitable US president, Donald Trump; as we fret (some of us anyway) about Fine Gael’s grand adventure in ineptitude and prevarication; and as we fret about really important things such as Johnny Sexton’s fitness and the size of the French pack, the people of Greece are, again, wondering what the future holds and how much more they might be asked to sacrifice and endure.

A GROUP of county councillors is to ask the National Army Museum in London to repatriate — if that’s the right word — the skeleton of Napoleon’s charger Marengo.

Peter Apps looks at the complexities of the conflict in Syria and says that while blaming Vladimir Putin is easy, the US and the UK must also take responsibility.

In the space of a short few months we have had the double blow of Trump and Brexit, writes Alison O’Connor

I see that I can’t see the Milky Way as I used to. It may be my eyes, but it seems I’m not the only one. 

* Olive pesto with grilled salmon

Greece’s government bonds advanced, pushing the cost of borrowing, or the yield, for the Greek state for 10 years below 7% for the first time since November, after its creditors agreed to release aid and committed to ease the nation’s debt.

Latest: Seven people, including three passengers, are being held hostage aboard the EgyptAir plane after it diverted to Larnaca airport on the Mediterranean island during a domestic flight from Alexandria to Cairo.

Greece and its international lenders resumed talks in Athens yesterday on the country’s fiscal and reform progress, rekindling Athens’ hopes that its first bailout review may be concluded before the end of April.

The French Riviera has long been the playground of the rich and famous. Darragh Murphy experiences the high life – but on a limited budget.

An oasis of peace on a Greek island proved the perfect environment for Claire Droney to practice her writing skills tutored by a Man Booker author. 

In recent years, there hasn’t been much to like about the EU, with its low growth, high unemployment, political squabbles, xenophobia, stifling bureaucracy, and constant threats of a breakup.

Germany’s finance minister, Wolfgang Schaeuble, and a senior Bavarian politician have criticised Greece’s role in Europe’s biggest migration crisis since the Second World War.

A European border and coast guard agency that could also help in patrolling the seas around Ireland, has been put forward by the European Commission.

Any Greeks hoping their days of economic pain are over following the latest bailout agreement with international lenders should look to the dire projections from Europe’s three main institutional forecasters for a reality check.

Ireland’s citizens lost more of their personal wealth than any other eurozone country in the aftermath of the financial crash, while Germany and the Netherlands gained the most, fresh data from the European Central Bank shows.

Peter Andre used to get beaten up at school.

The recent election that returned Alexis Tsipras to power saw a turnout 1.6m down on the referendum vote in July. Passionate Greeks have been left glum, says Yanis Varoufakis

Daily, the pre-budget media coverage highlights the demands for taxpayers’ money by every vested interest in the country. At the same time, the media keep warning us that it would be irresponsible to have any element of auction politics in the run up to an election.

Champions League Group F

Isn’t karma a funny thing? For the last few years the people of Greece have had to endure insufferably patronising moral lectures from Germany about how dysfunctional Greece is and if only it was more like Germany, life for Greeks would be so much better.

There is no natural border between Europe and Asia. Divisions between them are in our heads, writes Victoria White

Pressure is growing on the Government to act immediately to take in refugees risking death to reach mainland Europe instead of waiting for instructions to come from the EU.

The themes may be ancient, but Marina Carr’s tales of tough women in repressive communities feel as relevant as ever, writes Padraic Killeen.

JUST as Muhammed Ali’s great physical beauty, charisma, intelligence and wit once helped to disguise a pitiless prize fighter determined to take the purse, the scale and magnificence of the Burren in Clare is so very breath-taking that sometimes you can’t see the wood from the trees.

The Greeks, credited with creating western civilisation, may have saved it in a near cataclysmic moment for Europe, more profound than the aftermath of 9/11.

Greece’s bailout deal is in line with previous bailouts, only worse. It will lead to further deterioration of the Greek economy and debt, writes Pat Cradock

We bring you a brief look at some of the other news from the European Union from the past week in our Brussels Briefing.