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Gerard O’Regan Opinion Day I pretended not to see the great Con Houlihan in the street

The last time. This is the saddest phrase in any language, said Con Houlihan, who passed away 10 years ago this month.

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Gerard O'Regan Opinion Wartime tunnels of Jersey hide a million secrets

A visit to the Channel Islands last week provided an unlikely insight into a double conundrum that besets the times we live in.

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Gerard O’Regan Opinion Don’t let sun blind us to Vladimir Putin’s darkest ambitions

These sunny August days are fooling us – it is a summertime delusion that things are not as bad as they seem. Of course, blue skies are not a complete antidote to the ways of the world. The hum of background news is a constant reminder we live in troubled times.

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Gerard O'Regan Opinion Kerry’s golden wonder David Clifford can learn from Boris Johnson’s downfall

David Clifford, in his post All-Ireland victory downtime, could do worse than read up on the life and times of Boris Johnson.

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Gerard O'Regan Opinion Biden bumps fists with Saudi crown prince but sups with the devil

Jamal Khashoggi’s chopped-off fingers were sent back to the Saudi Arabian authorities to prove he had been tortured and murdered. This is just one of the more gruesome allegations surrounding the killing of the journalist and high-profile critic of the Saudi government.

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Gerard O'Regan Opinion Things could get dirty in the battle to succeed Boris Johnson as Tory leader

The old adage that everybody has a public life, a private life and a secret life simmers beneath the surface as the battle to succeed Boris Johnson reaches fever pitch.

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Gerard O’Regan Opinion Midsummer mix of sporting and political intrigue

Midsummer is upon us. How do we know? Well, those hours of TG4 commentary, recounting the deeds of mighty men on bikes traversing the French countryside, is a sign.

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Gerard O'Regan Opinion Boris Johnson is still a chancer – but has now lost his charm

Chancers with charm. That’s what we might dub them. They will always be with us. If truth be told, they often lighten up an otherwise drab day.

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Gerard O'Regan Opinion Battle of hurling’s master and pupil had us transfixed

That handshake, between the lion of so many hurling summers and his one-time silver-winged protege, has transfixed many who follow the ancient game.

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Gerard O'Regan Opinion Anglo-Irish relations can no longer be based on trust

“They are a rotten crowd.” Somehow, that line from The Great Gatsby comes to mind as Boris Johnson and his cabal bring pompous hypocrisy to yet another level.

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Gerard O'Regan Opinion Watt could become real force for healthcare change

It’s a Katherine Zappone-type scenario all over again. The fact the Tony Holohan affair exploded so soon after the controversy that almost derailed Simon Coveney’s career is a reminder of the minefields that litter public life.

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Gerard O'Regan Opinion When guns fall silent, Europe will be utterly changed

An unforgiving struggle between Russian firepower and Ukrainian self-belief is masking a growing ferment in European politics.

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Gerard O'Regan Opinion My cappuccino break companion reads the tea leaves

“House prices are going to hit a wall. Now is the time for anybody thinking of buying to hold their nerve. Wait a while and I’ll bet you prices will start to drop.”

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Gerard O'Regan Opinion Ivana Bacik needs a revolutionary streak to rescue Labour

Hyper-worried Labour TDs did the dirty on their leader. Dismal poll ratings served as judge and jury. Alan Kelly’s Dáil colleagues did the executioner bit.

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Gerard O’Regan Opinion It’s finally time for Biden to square up to bully Putin

Many of us have come up against the type in our early years. The school bully. What should one do if confronted with the risk of a punch in the face?

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Gerard O'Regan Opinion Daly and Wallace badly misread the mood on invasion

Clare Daly and Mick Wallace are in a bind – a hell of a bind. They have backed themselves into a tight corner and it could mark a watershed in their political fortunes.

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Gerard O'Regan Opinion Even as a neutral state, Ireland has always taken sides

Vladimir Putin is frontrunner for the label of “baddest man on the planet”. He continues to provoke human suffering on a mass scale in a quagmire of death, displacement and suffering.

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Gerard O’Regan Opinion Absolute power corrupts as EU bonds to battle Vladimir Putin

We hope for a miracle, that righteousness will prevail. In the gloom, a diminutive, pale and unshaven former comedian calls upon the conscience of the world.

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Gerard O'Regan Opinion Ukraine may be risk too far for master-gambler Putin

‘That smile is really a smirk. “I bet if he ever manages the tiniest laugh it would send chills up your spine.” The man in the barber shop was giving it full throttle. What he has seen of that “Putin chap” on the telly gives him the heebie-jeebies.

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Gerard O'Regan Opinion UUP leader and former soldier Doug Beattie marching to a different beat

He is a former soldier. He has seen the dead and dying in combat. He has told how he killed a man in face-to-face fighting as battle raged.

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Gerard O’Regan Opinion If health mandarin Robert Watt is worth his hefty salary, we all stand to gain

The Begrudgery Brigade are out in force. Always primed on the precipice of outrage, a certain Robert Watt has plunged them into paroxysms of self-righteous anger.

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Gerard O'Regan Opinion Rayner and Johnson share traumatic path to power

British Labour Party deputy leader Angela Rayner and prime minister Boris Johnson reflect the sharp edge dividing the haves and have-nots in British life.

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Gerard O’Regan Opinion Picking the right creche is a high-stakes call for parents

Last week’s court case where a creche owner was fined €4,000 for the “rough” handling of a toddler stirred a gnawing fear in the heart of many parents.

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Gerard O’Regan Opinion Paschal, the calm voice of reason, rises above the fray

If there were a competition to choose The Most Reasonable Man in Ireland – politics-wise – there’s surely a likely winner in the current Government.

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Gerard O’Regan Opinion Thank BBC Radio for a century of magic moments

I remember. I remember. During my late childhood and early teenage years it was ever present. Through the mists of time I can see it as kind of life-enhancing. And somewhere in the deeper mind its legacy endures.

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Gerard O'Regan Opinion Can the North trust Truss with Brexit portfolio?

Her extra-marital affair is a salacious backdrop to the story of Liz Truss – widely fancied as the most likely successor to Boris Johnson should he stumble and fall.

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Gerard O'Regan Opinion Let’s grab the best the coming days have to offer

‘And all the air a solemn stillness holds.” That line from Thomas Gray’s Elegy Written In A Country Churchyard whispered in the evening darkness, even though the gaiety of Christmas is upon us.

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Gerard O'Regan Opinion Soap opera at No 10 threatens Boris’s domestic bliss

An unlikely victim of the current hurricane engulfing Boris Johnson is his wife, Carrie Symonds. There are mutterings that the British prime minister “listens to her too much” when it comes to the bearpit that is Downing Street politics.

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Gerard O’Regan Opinion Bon-bons from Harrods sharpened the taste for freedom

Maybe it was the sombre winter gloom of a late London evening, but standing outside 22 Hans Place on Monday, one could touch a thread in our history from 100 years ago.

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Gerard O'Regan Opinion Hand-in-the-till Haughey poisoned Irish politics

He had his hand in the till for such a long time. No wonder he couldn’t stop. When he wanted the good things in life – buying an island or those infamous Charvet shirts – he just took another wad of cash.