Sarah Harte: Today’s mood music may be more optimistic than you’d think

Sometimes focusing on the headlines can provoke the feeling that the human race is in terminal decline

One upbeat bulletin is that the Government has committed to spending €290m on walking and cycling infrastructure in 2023.

Last Saturday many of us opened our eyes, realised that he was gone, and felt a little flat.

There were one or two slightly churlish articles in the Irish press about our American visitor. And let’s not get started on the sour grapes in elements of the British media. Yet, the truth is that the majority of us, young and old, rural, and urban, threw our lot in behind Joe Biden’s visit.