The road of the newly-acquitted Paul Murphy from his privileged past to the criminal courts has included its fair share of ups and downs.

Consumerism isn’t just about buying goods and services. It has come to define the way we shape our identities and how we interact socially every day, as JP O’Malley discovers in a supersized tome that traces its history.

SINCE receiving his PhD from St John’s College, Cambridge, in 1961, David Harvey has had virtually unchallenged standing as the most insightful and innovative voice on modern Geography and social theory, and is generally considered the world’s foremost authority on the works of Karl Marx.

Jeremy Corbyn’s head of policy, Andrew Fisher, has been suspended from the Labour Party in Britain following complaints that he campaigned for a rival party in the general election.

EVOLUTION is not just confined to the species; according to Matt Ridley’s account, it is happening all around us.

A $1.54m (€869,000) masterpiece by an 17th century Italian artist was back on display in the Taiwan capital after a 12-year-old boy tripped, fell and punched a hole in the canvass, the exhibit organiser said.

“NO-ONE understands men better than the women they don’t marry,” declares Lizzie Burns, the eponymous narrator of Gavin McCrea’s debut novel Mrs Engels.

To hear HSBC bank’s chief economist echoing Karl Marx is surely a significant event. At the recent Left Forum in New York, Chris Hedges recalled Marx’s observations on capitalism. 

Robert Hume is intrigued by the life and habits of William Thompson, the eccentric ’Red Republican’ from Carhoogarriff in West Cork

Our brains are designed to panic when the love that sustains us is suddenly removed, says JP O’ Malley.

WHILE some politicians like to quote Marx or JFK, Ivor Callely is more of a ‘Kung Fu Panda’ kind of guy, telling a Seanad probe into his expenses: "Yesterday’s history, tomorrow’s a mystery."

When the financial crisis threatened to topple the global economy, my Russian friends took great delight in calling me from Moscow and sharing the bittersweet response that was making the rounds of a city that always laughs loudest when things go wrong: Everything Marx told us about communism was false, the gag went, but everything he told us about capitalism was true.

KARL Marx, who died of a chest complaint in 1883, was buried on St Patrick’s Day at Highgate Cemetery in North London.

GROUCHO Marx once observed: “I’ve had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn’t it.”

Greece’s election campaign turned ugly yesterday on live television.

TRADITIONALLY, politicians aspire to enter cabinet so they can introduce reforms and policies that they passionately believe in. Regrettably, in Ireland, it seems to be more a case of getting bums on seats and crudely balancing books.

PROSECUTORS played a recording yesterday in which Michael Jackson is heard discussing his plans to build a hospital for children in a rambling, slurred conversation with the doctor charged over his death roughly six weeks before the entertainer’s death.

Prosecutors played a recording today in which Michael Jackson is heard discussing his plans to build a hospital for children in a rambling, slurred conversation with the doctor charged in connection with his death roughly six weeks before the entertainer’s death.

Prosecutors have called on a computer forensic analyst to describe his investigation into the mobile phone of the doctor charged in connection with Michael Jackson’s death.

In one sense, the London riots defy explanation. All mob violence does.

The problem with capitalism is that the money and the decisions are the preserve of an elite few. There is a better, fairer, sustainable way that could serve us all, writes Kieran Allen

The Pope was today urged to make a public apology for the church’s years of covering up sexual abuse.

GIVEN the appalling state of the economy, our democratically-elected Government had no alternative but to impose the most severe restrictions on public expenditure.

HERE’S an easy tip for you to spot a wrong one, Red-wise: did he burble to you on Saturday night about Ryan’s “100th Premiership goal”? If so, it’s as sure a mark of a clown as a bright red nose. (Erm, that’s not a dig at you, Fergie.)

HOW Karl Marx must be chuckling. He wrote the following many years ago in Das Kapital: “Owners of capital will stimulate the working class to buy more and more expensive goods, houses and technology, pushing them to take on more and more expensive debt, until their debt becomes unbearable.

LOOKS like the American worker will have to rescue the American capitalist.

It’s just that the strength of capitalism lies in its ability to adapt itself to new realities.

It may prove to be a good time to be in opposition given the economic uncertainty, broken general election promises on the part of the Government, a growing anger over political mismanagement and a sense that three terms in office has made Fianna Fáil insufferably arrogant.

THE ENEMIES of Reason, a TV series by Richard Dawkins, is being shown by Channel 4.

WORKERS around the world held May Day rallies yesterday to press for better factory conditions and higher wages, while activists in the Philippines and Belarus used the holiday to show their opposition to their governments in tense protests watched by police.

INEVITABLY, the 90th anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising last week found both the Fianna Fáil-led Government and Sinn Féin outbidding each other to exploit the event in order to justify their contemporary political programmes.

IRELAND’S young cricketers beat Namibia in the Plate competition of the U19 World Cup in Sri Lanka yesterday.

ONCE upon a time in the west, eastern European teams, no matter how good, could never be described as excellent or formidable or even - and this would have been particularly appropriate - well-marshalled.

WELL, if Arnie can become Governor of California, there’s no reason why Groucho Marx can’t be elevated to the Cabinet.

RONALD REAGAN'S fierce protector was there to the end.

Heavy snowfall brought traffic chaos to parts of Germany today, leaving some drivers in the east of the country stranded in their cars for part of the night, authorities said.