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David McWilliams: Life's a beach for Ireland's latest 'Generation Exodus'

Earlier this year I was working in Australia and spent some time at the famous Bondi Beach where it became obvious to me that there were two types of people there.

North and economic woes spelled end of Lynch reign

STATE papers released for public inspection under the 30-year rule show how Jack Lynch's government crumbled in the course of 1979 under the weight of North-related troubles, economic woes, electoral setbacks and pressure from the faction within his Fianna Fail Party which supported Charles J Haughey.

Where is the compassion in Muslim world?

By Robert Fisk

AKMAL Shaikh got a raw deal from his co-religionists. Not from the West, mark you. From the British Foreign Office down to the humblest humanitarian agency, the heirs of the Age of Enlightenment pleaded for the life of this 53-year-old mentally disturbed drug smuggler, whom the Chinese authorities cruelly executed by lethal injection yesterday morning.

Rockers want to be daddy cool in their middle-age

By Will Pavia in London

A SHORT statement announced the news to the world: the musician Van Morrison, the one they call Van The Man, is to become a father again at the age of 64.

Hollywood's hatred of big business is a rebel legacy

IF YOU are a parent, you will, over the next week or two, probably take the kids to see 'Avatar', this year's Christmas Hollywood blockbuster.

John Mullane is sent to the line during the coruscating 2004 Munster final
between Waterford and Cork ? one of the games of the decade

Vincent Hogan: Deise-Rebel rivalryone of pure poetry

By Vincent Hogan

It should go down as Waterford's decade, albeit the loudest thunder peeled around the story of Cork's strike and redemption.

Bishop Drennan, it's time to fall on your crozier and quit

By JOHN COONEY

AT a Mass in Dublin's St Michan's Church marking the opening of the law term, in October 2000, a Catholic bishop ascended the high moral ground in his sermon to the legal and judicial luminaries when he lambasted the British media tactic of "naming and shaming" convicted offenders.

Hard times for builders, homeowners and victims

THEY formed a queue, some 50 people in all -- mostly middle aged and elderly men -- to shake Danny Foley's hand.

Robert Fisk: Silent cleric holds the real key to nation's future

By Robert Fisk

WE like to believe -- and newspapers and television like us to believe -- that the battle for Iran is being fought on the streets of Tehran, of Isfahan, of Najafabad. Untrue.

Fionnan Sheahan: Lenihan's steady hand on the tiller will remain vital

By Fionnan Sheahan

IN drawing up a shortlist for Politician of the Year 2009, there would only really be one name in contention. Taoiseach Brian Cowen is still standing, Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny's claims to his throne are starting to look credible, Justice Minister Dermot Ahern is emerging as a reader of the mood and Fine Gael backbencher George Lee will potentially change the face of politics.