OH, when cringe and current affairs combine to produce the perfect picture of the political zeitgeist.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has signed a coalition deal with rival parties to form the next government in an agreement that was stalled for weeks due to tough negotiations.

When I was a teenager, the recruiting advertisements for Oglaigh na hEireann (Parkgate Street) invoked heroes from the days of Fionn MacCumhal, Brian Boru, through to the IRA of 1916-1921.

The former Defence Minister Willie O'Dea has said he will be voting against Brian Cowen in tomorrow's Fianna Fáil confidence motion.

MINISTERS last night defended the tax perk that lets them claim €100,000 a year for second homes, insisting the amounts were “small”.

The Government is to unveil a major new report aimed at improving the services for the victims of sexual abuse today.

THE Limerick school bus row sparked open political warfare among Fianna Fáil ministers yesterday.

The Oireachtas Health Committee will today hope to establish political accountability for the illegal nursing home charges scandal when it begins hearings on the issue.

CIVIL servants failed to present a proper appraisal on illegal charging of public nursing home patients to successive Ministers for Health, a report into the affair concludes.

The names of three former Justice Ministers were on an alleged IRA document found by gardaí in the home of a Dublin man accused of IRA membership, the Special Criminal Court was told today.