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Bishop Donal Murray decided to resign on December 1, but it took another 16 days for the public to discover this

David Quinn: More prelates must go to restore trust in Church

ONE bishop has gone. How many more will follow? As many as it takes to restore some measure of trust and confidence in the Catholic Church in Ireland, as many as it takes for reasonable people to be able to say, justice has been done.

Sheila Nunan: Unions have no option but to fight back after cuts

By Sheila Nunan

EARLIER this week I said the Government had crashed social partnership by ending talks with its own employees and the Budget torched the wreckage.

Lise Hand: Happy Christmas me arse... festive banter fails to lift battle-weary Brian's spirits

By Lise Hand

It may have been the last day of term before the prolonged festivities began, but the Taoiseach was more of a mind to commune with his inner Grinch during the final Order of Business of the year.

John Cooney: Bishop's long farewell only deepens public's alienation

By John Cooney

IT was inevitable that Donal Murray would become the first episcopal casualty of the Murphy report revealing the scandalous top-level cover-ups of paedophile priests in the Archdiocese of Dublin. But what remains a mystery is why this humane and intelligent man lost public esteem by appearing to avoid the inevitable for three tortuous weeks.

Kevin Myers: Northern Ireland is like a crocodile at the door; no one wants to deal with its excrement

By Kevin Myers

Probably like you, I no longer know what is going on in the Northern Executive, or what is the state of play between the Shinners and the Dupers. For, frankly, I'm bored by tribal disagreements that I know I will never understand -- but this doesn't mean that we shouldn't be afraid of the whole thing going ker-platt! again.

How birthday hug turned into an unforgivable act

By Edel Kennedy

IT began as a friendly birthday hug and ended in a horrific sexual assault. The victim -- who was 22 at the time -- met Danny Foley in a nightclub in Listowel on June 15, 2008, and gave him a hug to wish him a happy 34th birthday.

Ian O'Doherty: Forget the battering we got in the last year and just indulge yourself

By Ian O'Doherty

Are you left feeling battered, reeling and on the ropes after the worst year in living memory? Or are you gearing up to Christmas with a grim determination that, feck it, if ever there was a year that you deserved to kick out the jams just that little bit more, then this is the one?

Judge had good reason to impose this 'harsh' sentence

By Dearbhail McDonald, Legal editor

NORMALLY, when a sexual assault case leads to the type of public outcry generated by the Danny Foley case, the target of people’s ire is the judge for imposing what is perceived to be a lenient or unjust sentence.