The HSE has agreed to pay €50,000 in damages to the parents of an autistic boy who was locked in a downstairs toilet by a care worker.

SHORTLY before he died, according to his son Seán, Charlie Haughey said: “I never broke my word in politics.”

FORMER Taoiseach Jack Lynch was, as this newspaper editorialised upon his death, “a charismatic leader, political icon and statesman”.

Charlie McCreevy had the courage to move a ‘no confidence’ motion in Charlie Haughey’s leadership in October 1982, but the great majority in the parliamentary party did not have the vision, the guts or the integrity to support his motion, so Haughey survived.

There is the salary of the president and her staff, the cost of the upkeep of the Áras and its staff, providing the president with a car, a driver, and a police escort car, as well as extravagant pensions for former presidents, and ultimately the cost of their state funerals.

A brochure advertising sex films created quite a stir amongst pharmacists, clergy and politicians, writes Caroline O’Doherty.

SOME people have been suggesting that Catherine Butler’s interview in The Village magazine is a Fianna Fáil attempt to rehabilitate Charles Haughey, but publisher Vincent Brown has more reason than anyone to realise that the role played by Fine Gael and Labour in the telephone tapping was the height of hypocrisy.

SOME of the programmes on the airwaves these days are a reflection of changing times. There is much argument about what people should do with their SSIA money.

YOUNGER viewers will no doubt find the TV series on Charles J Haughey interesting, and it will evoke memories for older people who can still remember the events.

An attempt by celebrity chef Jamie Oliver to auction his famous scooter for charity appeared to have fallen victim to hoaxers today.

ON July 7, 1970, protesters picketed outside the home of Peter Berry, Secretary of the Department of Justice.

GROWING up in the 1950s one often heard rantings from the pulpit about slave labour camps in atheistic Russia.

THE late Captain James Kelly, who died during the week, seemed almost obsessed with clearing his name for having supposedly conspired to import arms illegally in 1970. He was cleared in court, along with Charlie Haughey and two others, but some people were never prepared to accept that verdict.

The former leader of the Progressive Democrats, Desmond O'Malley, has said he will be happy to co-operate with any inquiry into the events leading to the 1970 Arms Trial and into the trial itself.