Writer and Irish Examiner book reviewer, Mary Leland, wrote an informative article for a Sunday newspaper recently, reflecting on the media reports about the mother-and-baby home in Tuam, Co Galway.

It is 382 years this week since the Jun 20, 1631, raid on the thriving Cork fishing village of Baltimore by pirates from Algiers in Morocco.

The debate is ongoing in the Department of Transport on whether or not to close or greatly downgrade the coast guard stations at Valentia Island, Co Kerry, and maybe the one at Malin Head at the northern tip of Co Donegal too.