The number of properties for sale here has hit a nine-year low, according to the website DAFT.ie.

ONE in three Irish primary schools is gearing up for an exercise programme that encourages children – and their parents and teachers – to put daily physical activity right up there in importance alongside school homework.

The Rally for Life, last Saturday, in Dublin, was attended by 25,000 to 30,000 people from all over the country.

Congratulations on both your opinion piece (Irish Examiner, February 10) and the tone and balance of yesterday’s edition.

Congratulations to RTÉ One and director Ciarán Deeney of El Zorrero Films for screening on December 28, the one-hour long documentary Man on Bridge, recalling the life and times of Dublin street photographer Arthur Fields.

I live in a modest three bedroom home just a couple of miles from where I was born and raised. That happens to be in the area of Dun Laoghaire Rathdown. For that privilege, I must pay €497 in property tax — a figure that will no doubt increase. 

When my late uncle opened an early version of a supermarket on a new housing estate in Drogheda, Co Louth in the mid-1950s, he (aggrievedly) lost out to the shop next door in the winning of the sole licence to sell newspapers in the area.

I would simply like to pay the highest of compliments to Michael Clifford for his piece last Saturday, (Opinion, February 2), re religion in education — one of the most cogent, succinct and necessary columns seen in any paper for many a long day.

Regarding the revelations about Irish Water: inefficiencies in our State enterprises lead to internally-generated inflation in the wider economy.

On Sept 16 Lynn Kelliher wrote in your newspaper about the “uncanny accuracy” of long-range weather forecaster Ken Ring.

The conferring on rugby player Brian O’Driscoll with the Freedom of the City of Dublin may be trendy and populist but I believe it is not in keeping with the spirit of this coveted honour.

In agreeing to implement one of the principal recommendations of Mr Justice Quirke’s Magdalene report that all lump sum payments to survivors of the Magdalene laundries be exempt from tax, Finance Minister Michael Noonan, in the course of Budget 2014, has made a virtue of doing what is right and moral.

The violent expression of indignation by loyalists and Orange Order members at the sight of the Lord Mayor of Belfast Máirtín Ó Muilleoir visiting the Shankill Road is nothing more than a grotesque display of raw sectarianism.

On Friday, Mar 29, graves and headstones in St Finbarr’s Cemetery in Cork were vandalised. Graffiti was daubed on some headstones.

If the apology proffered by an Taoiseach Enda Kenny on behalf of the government and state to the Magdalene women is one of genuine substance and compassion and not empty rhetoric for public consumption, then all victims, including those survivors of the Protestant-run Bethany Homes, Westbank and St Mary’s in Summer Hill must be part of that apology and be included in the redress scheme.

While greeting the recent launch of the Arts in Education Charter as a positive development that will enhance children’s experience of arts, we feel that it is vital that it not deflect from the funding and promotion of Arts Education.

The possible involvement of the BNP and other far-right groups in the Union flag issue in the North is sinister.

Unlike Derek Leinster, (letters, Dec 14), I am not a product of the Bethany Home but I nonetheless feel outraged at the treatment these children received and a sense of anger at my powerlessness.

Speaking in the wake of the children’s referendum, Taoiseach Enda Kenny said the Government will respond “positively and wholeheartedly” and match the new legislation with appropriate action.

The Government grant of almost €750,000 to the Orange Order to enable them to erect interpretative centres and museums in Belfast and Armagh should be withdrawn.

Following the release of thousands of official documents relating to Britain’s deadliest sporting disaster, the deaths of 96 Liverpool football fans at Hillsborough Stadium in 1989, British prime minister David Cameron expressed a profound apology on behalf of his government to the families of those killed (‘Cameron offers apology for Hillsborough cover-up’, Irish Examiner, Sept 12th).

As we approach a number of centenary commemorations over the next few years, most especially the 1916 Easter Rising, the 1918 General Election and the First Dáil Éireann in 1919, calls have been made to be as inclusive as possible as we remember these, and other events, in which citizens died.

The suggestion by Justin Kelly to name the new bridge across the river Liffey in honour of our Olympic gold medallist Katie Taylor (Letters, Aug 15) is, I believe, bordering on the ridiculous.

Derek Leinster (Letters, Jul 28) rightly expresses his disdain of those in government who remain equivocal on cherishing all the children of the nation equally.

By any standards, the decision of the 1st US Circuit Court of Appeal to order Boston College to hand over recordings of taped interviews with dozens of former IRA and UVF members, which were conducted on the basis of confidentiality, is bizarre and has significant implications for future academic and journalistic research (US tapes ‘may implicate IRA chiefs’ Irish Examiner, Jul 7).

I see that the celebratory photo session trumpeting the ‘significant Fine Gael achievements’ of year one in office has been derailed by their Labour coalition partners.

Despite the Northern Assembly adding its unanimous voice to calls for the Government to issue both a pardon and an apology to the 5,700 Irish soldiers who deserted their posts during World War II and joined the British Army, the Government must remain resolute and refuse.

THE findings of the Historical Enquiries Team in the North into the murders of three members of the Miami Showband carried out by the UVF in 1975 is a step along the path to justice and closure for those killed and bereaved (Spectre of collusion in Miami Showband killings, December 15).

IN the rough and tumble of elections, and the current Presidential election is no exception, it is to be expected that the CVs of all candidates will be probed, parsed, analysed and scrutinised, not just to highlight their respective good points, but to expose their collective Achilles heels.

SOCCER fans in Liverpool, Manchester, Glasgow and London rate winning the local derby and holding the bragging rights as superior to winning the Premiership.

THE decision by Deputy Michael Healy-Rae to pay the cost of the premium-rate phone calls which were made in Leinster House in support of Mr Healy- Rae’s appearance on Celebrities Go Wild, is to be welcomed. However, it should not be an end to the issue.

ANTHONY WOODS (June 3) claims there is no need for a Presidential election as we already have the “creme de la creme” in office. Mr Woods also stated that “our beloved President should be offered the job for life”.

ALTHOUGH still unconfirmed, it is widely anticipated that Queen Elizabeth II will arrive in Ireland on May 17 to commence her state visit here.

THE Labour Party proposal for a constitutional convention should be supported. Just as Georges Clemenceau declared that “War is too important to be left to the generals“, politics is too important to be left to the politicians.

ARE our government ministers, and their spokesmen, trying to plumb the depths of our credulity?

GIVEN everything that is happening, it is easy to believe that politics in this state has become a quasi-criminal profession.

IN his column headlined ‘Where’s the Irish Mandela to lead us back into the Commonwealth?’ (September 29), Steven King performs a welcome volte-face in his apparent admiration for Nelson Mandela.

THE primary reason given for opposition to the Mater hospital site for the proposed National Children’s Hospital centres on traffic congestion in Dublin 7.

AFTER celebrating all that is positive about the Irish Horse industry at last week’s Dublin Horse Show, we ask Minister Brendan Smith to consider the tragic equine reality.

The stepchildren of a woman, who left her allegedly violent husband many years ago have denied they acted fraudulently in obtaining a death certificate for her.

EXPRESSING a preference for the “forthright integrity of British rule” above Irish self-rule, Niall Ginty (Letters, July 9) claims life in 19th century England and France was far worse for ordinary folk than it ever was for the Irish under British rule, “with the exception of the Great Famine years”.

I WELCOME the statement from Robin Bury (Letters, June 30) that the Reform Movement “has been working for better relations between Ireland and Britain for years”.

FÁILTE go hÉireann, your Serene Highness, Queen Elizabeth II.

BY any standards, what the Saville report said about the role of the British army in Derry on Bloody Sunday beggars belief.