“Any society, any nation, is judged on the basis of how it treats its weakest members – the last, the least, the littlest” – Cardinal Roger Mahony, in a 1998 letter, Creating a Culture of Life

MORE than 700 people queued outside a Dublin friary yesterday for free food parcels — double the numbers the centre normally feeds.

WITH less than a week to go before Finance Minister Brian Lenihan throws the dice one more time to try to turn the tide threatening to swamp us all, the pot is beginning to simmer nicely.