Polly Samson’s novel The Kindness is built around a family secret — the suicide of a beloved uncle. She tells Sue Leonard about it and what it’s like to write songs for her husband David Gilmour’s band Pink Floyd.

YOU contacted me in your droves last week and expressed yourselves in words of one syllable — all because I queried the significance of the John McNulty debacle.

ISN’T Culture Night fantastic? I don’t know what it was like down your way, but throughout Dublin there was just an amazing buzz last Friday night. Queues everywhere to get into places like St Patrick’s Cathedral and the Dublinia exhibition, and throngs of people in the streets. There was an incredible downpour around half seven, but it didn’t seem to dampen anyone’s spirits.

I SPENT a good deal of last weekend at the Special Olympic Games in Limerick. And a glorious weekend it was. A wonderful, intimate, family-focused opening ceremony on Thursday night was followed by three days of intense competition in the variety of sports in which Special Olympic athletes compete. A lot of the Games was centred on the University of Limerick campus, and the place couldn’t have been more welcoming.

EVER since Brian Lenihan introduced the first austerity budget, I’ve approached this time of year with dread, and usually ended budget days in despair.

Fianna Fáil Senator Averil Power doesn’t quite remember the first time she learned she had been adopted.

I STILL have the pen I got for speaking at a conference of managers in the public service back in 2009.

THERE are things about every budget that we all have to grin and bear.

YOU may have seen the recent news coverage about the Government’s decision to create a new future for Shannon Airport.

I’VE been asked a lot during the last week whether I think Cardinal Brady should resign.

Caretakers, cooks, administrators, and bus drivers who work in organisations with school-going children will not have to be vetted under proposed legislation.

BARNARDOS, Ireland’s leading children’s charity, is set to benefit from Wednesday’s Irish Open pro-am day.

A RANGE of experiences this past weekend began to make me wonder if there is something different going on in Ireland.

HOMELESSNESS. Poverty. Hunger. Cold. Fear. Isolation. Illness – both physical and mental.

BARNARDOS chief executive Fergus Finlay said he was shocked by the “very alarming increase” in certain offences and the “significant gap” between offences and prosecutions.

I DROVE to Clonmel on Sunday for the finals of an under-nines and under-10s football tournament. It was organised by Clonmel FC and brought together young footballers from the six Munster counties. They (and the rest of us) had a brilliant afternoon and we were made to feel really welcome by the Clonmel team.

A COUPLE of years ago, I was asked to deputise for Santa Claus in one of our projects at Barnardos. Santa himself was having a particularly busy time and although he had promised he would visit each child personally on Christmas eve, he just wasn’t going to be able to make their Christmas party on time.

JUST what are the natural and imprescriptible rights of a child? According to our constitution, every Irish child has them. But nowhere in the Constitution is there any attempt to spell out what they are.