Being born with a silver spoon in the mouth really was a mark of rank. Kya deLongchamps sups at the long history of precious flatware.

A suburban police officer likely wouldn’t have shot dead a black motorist if he had been white, Minnesota’s governor has said, joining the national debate in the US over how law enforcement treats black people.

The haunting persistence of anti-semitism is what fuels Shakespeare’s ‘The Merchant of Venice’. A book on Shylock, its main character, offers an adroit slant on modern Judaism by a master literary stylist, writes Mary Leland.

“He was a wonderful raconteur and a fantastic presenter. He was a very unselfish man and he was very happy. His weight was down and he was enjoying spending time with his new grandchild and things were good. And then this happened.”

The word ‘marriage’ is derived from the Latin ‘matrimonium’, meaning ‘mother’ and ‘motherhood’, which imply fatherhood and children. 

Your guide to tonight's best TV.

Simon Callow is on a nine-week run of one-night stands with his one-man play. He talks to Colette Sheridan

Thanks to Angelina Jolie's BAFTA tux, androgyny is back. Get ready for masculine tailoring, cropped hair and brogues.

Perhaps, in hindsight, fortune took too many hostages.

Prime minister Kevin Rudd won appraisal after he mounted a spirited defence of same-sex marriage only days out from Australian elections.

The Archbishop of Canterbury has warned against downgrading the status of religious education in UK secondary schools in his last Easter sermon as leader of the Church of England.

“Use a little wine for thy stomach’s sake and thine often infirmities,” St Paul advised his friend Timothy, who may have been a hypochondriac.

As New York bade farewell to an icon, the world spun on and the city opened its arms wide for the most high-profile low-quality player the NFL has ever concocted

DUBLIN THUNDER earned their place in the Senior Men’s National Cup final with a comprehensive 104-57 victory over TLB Kilkenny in a one-sided semi-final.

MOURNERS who attended the funeral in Limerick yesterday of the mother of the notorious Dundon brothers were told by a priest to “hate what is evil”.

Father Paul O’Boyle takes an extremely active role in his parish, but this does not mean that he shirks from his religious duties. With concerts, lotteries, visits, baptisms, weddings and funerals, fitting it all in is a full-time job, writes Caroline O’Doherty

IT WAS late, for a taking to the church, but still pewter-bright with the promise of rain.

IF the Almighty had sent down the injunction to be fruitful and to multiply to what is commonly called the Bible, his word could not have been more adequately fulfilled.

ANYONE who loved playing football but was forced to stop due to old age and creaking limbs will have understood precisely what the 34-year-old Ronaldo experienced before his retirement.

Fr James Good admires Jennifer Sleeman’s stand on women, but sees no purpose in a Mass boycott, he tells Dan Buckley.

WHAT have we become?

THE earliest known icons of the Apostles Peter and Paul have been discovered in a catacomb under a modern office building in Rome.

COWSLIPs and violets are having a bumper year.

POPE BENEDICT XVI met yesterday with a group of clerical sex abuse victims and promised them with tears in his eyes that the Catholic Church would seek justice for paedophile priests and implement “effective measures” to protect young people from abuse.

CARDINAL Cahal Daly was best known during his time in office as an outspoken critic of the IRA.

A HEDGE fund manager sent a work experience girl a passage of obscene Latin which threatened to “face-f***” and “bugger” his enemies, a tribunal heard.

THE CHANGE of psyche that Jack O’Connor experienced during his sabbatical from the Kerry hot seat provides a salutary lesson for anyone thinking of trying their hand at the management game.

The first scientific test on what is believed to be the remains of the Apostle Paul appears to confirm that they are genuine, the pope said.

THE cynicism with which the Pope’s venture onto YouTube was greeted is ill-informed.

BRIAN COWEN cut a lonely figure in the Dáil yesterday as neither cabinet colleagues nor coalition partners would sit with him.

IN A Wexford village silenced by the death of a family, it was the innocent classmates of murdered Mark and Julie Flood who tried to articulate the enormity of emotions involved.

Merry Monk Ballina’s Ronan McGarrity and Mustang Sally’s St Paul’s Ger Noonan are Decembers Nivea for Men SuperLeague Players of the Month for the North Conference and the South Conference respectively.

Irish Schools Match Play Championship (National Finals)

THE feature article by Fr Brian D’Arcy on priestly celibacy (Irish Examiner, January 27) was one of the most disingenuous I have ever read on that topic.

Pope Benedict XVI thanked journalists today for their coverage during the “historical” events of the papal transition.

MORE THAN half a million people are expected to gather in St Peter’s Square tomorrow for the inauguration of Pope Benedict XVI.

Moving confidently through his first days as pontiff, Pope Benedict XVI acted to guarantee continuity in church leadership while trying to brighten his austere image.

WITH St Patrick’s Day just behind us and Easter fast approaching, it’s worth considering how we celebrate these festivals and what that says about the state we are in.

The Pope prayed for the victims of the Indian Ocean earthquake during a special midnight Mass in his private chapel early today.

The North’s Free Presbyterian church has announced plans to send letters and CDs to 3,000 Catholic priests in Ireland in an effort to convert them.

Pope John Paul II offered a prayer for peace today in the rubble of a town Syrians claim was destroyed by Israel.