Many so-called revolutionaries are cruel, ignorant and opportunistic men. They don’t have the heart and wit to do something creative with their lives. How much easier is it to tear down the hard work of others or shout some slogan to bolster their egos!

Of course we should invite British representatives to the Easter celebrations on March 27 ... and then, if you like, invite them back for the centenary uprising celebrations on April 24!

Some years ago, I received a very unusual (but very beautiful) card from a gentle friend in West Australia. It pictured a mother kangaroo guarding her baby in a manger, capturing something of the essence of Christmas in an authentic Australian setting.

Good afternoon. Here’s all the news you need to know this lunchtime.

This new enthusiasm by the gardai seemed like a great idea... at first.

Over the years, it’s become fashionable to describe many countries, including Ireland, as post-Christian societies.

Some months ago, a pastor in Northern Ireland mangled an attempt to talk about Sharia law. He was ridiculed and laughed at, naturally.

A pistol used in the murder of Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane was handed back to the British army by the RUC, previously unpublished papers show.

A pistol used in the murder of Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane was handed back to the British Army by the RUC, previously unpublished papers show.

A FEW ideas for the Catholic Church, a bit tongue in cheek of necessity.

A case of mistaken identity which sparked a “riot” in a Tallaght housing estate has lead to prison terms and suspended sentences being imposed on a group of young men.

WITH all due respect to your columnist Steven King’s sceptical demythologising of the Northern Executive’s head honchos (January 16), the two old political cons (Paisley and McGuinness) have surprised more than themselves on their road to Damascus.

LIKE most Irishmen and women, I left home at a very early age.

RICHARD DOWLING (Letters, December 19) says we should not blame Christians for the rise of Hitler. Perhaps we should not blame Christianity, but surely the vast majority of the German people who were significantly responsible for the rise and crimes of Hitler’s regime were Christians.

The Times of India carried a banner headline in the wake of Benazir Bhutto’s assassination: “We’ve terminated US’s most precious asset: Al-Qaida.”

THE Protestant work ethic, so called, has many good features, including the creation of wealth. But its redeeming features are necessarily limited, especially when we are faced with physical or human annihilation.

AT every crucial stage of the peace process, the Provisional IRA decided to test the resolve of the British and Irish governments by dispatching to eternity some unfortunate individual who was, from their lofty standpoint, surplus to requirements. That that person’s summary execution should also prove an embarrassment to the Sinn Féin leadership was sometimes seen as the macabre icing on the cake.

ONCE upon a time and far, far away, there were these galaxies.

ROGER COTTRELL’S critique of “flawed Marxism” (Irish Examiner letters, April 24), especially in relation to the Rising of 1916, was as good an example of pure farce as we are likely to read in any of the national dailies.

ROGER COTTRELL’S critique of “flawed Marxism” (Irish Examiner letters, April 24), especially in relation to the Rising of 1916, was as good an example of pure farce as we are likely to read in any of the national dailies.

EIRCOM has been playing games with their customers for quite a while.

MICHAEL McDOWELL is Minister for Justice, not the minister of silly walks. Even the lowliest credit union must undergo strict audits and be licensed to operate as a public service.

IF Government has no place in the bedrooms of the nation, and formal religion no place in the governance of the State, then why should Government be able to make the study of Irish compulsory in the classrooms?

AMERICA, like Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Britain, has absorbed millions of Irish emigrants, most of whom went on to repay that ‘debt’ by adding immeasurably to the vibrancy of life in their adopted countries.

THE chairman of the Reform Movement, Robin Bury, makes a simple but effective case for a celebration of Ireland’s constitutional past (Irish Examiner letters, November 8).

THE Sinn Féin press officer, Michael Nolan, now sitting pretty in Leinster House, must be aware that his party is carrying substantially more baggage than either Labour or Fine Gael — even without the sartorially challenged dress uniforms of the IRA being taken into the equation.

AUGUST 15 (the Feast of the Assumption) is fondly remembered by Danny Morrison (Irish Examiner, August 18). The bonfires, the innocence, sense of identity and... memories.

HOW are things in Mississauga this fine day? And in Toronto by the lake? Do the natives make you welcome, my Irish friends?

IF sincerity and passion were enough to convince the world of the righteousness of a cause, then we would all be living under the tyranny of fanaticism.

HERE’S a little sample, expressed as articles of faith, of the type of questions which Sinn Féin would only be too happy to answer, I’m sure.

YOUR correspondent Treasa Collins has no love for the IRA (Irish Examiner letters, January 13).

THE IRA wants peace. Perhaps. But it wants power even more. Hence, the ‘harm offensive’ of the IRA becomes the charm offensive of Sinn Féin when dealing with Dublin.

FORGET the lost photo opportunity. Never mind the rhetoric.

AND behold. A delegation came down from the North, snaking its way across the Border towards Dublin.

WAS it Oscar Wilde who said on his deathbed, “Either that wallpaper goes, or I do?”

THOSE iodine tablets sent to every household some time back were never meant to protect us from nuclear meltdown, but they could have captured the thermal traces of our DNA for posterity.

YOUR political editor Harry McGee astutely identified Fianna Fáil’s marriage difficulties in relation to Sinn Féin (Irish Examiner, June 19).