LONG-suffering residents are set to protest tomorrow at the appalling condition of a national primary road which runs through two mid-Cork villages.

WELL done to the Fianna Fáil backbenchers — those brave defenders of rural Ireland whose voices echo so loudly in the parliamentary party rooms that even a minister whose record for draconian legislation is known throughout the country would be stopped in his tracks by their booming protests.

ANGRY debate was avoided at the conference when controversial proposals to give party headquarters greater control over election candidates were deferred until the autumn.