Being Bertie
 Exclusive interview with the Taoiseach by Katie Hannon What Bertie's peers really think of him Plus commentary by Vincent Browne ...
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The weasel tax
• VAT brings in more revenue that income tax, four times more than the capital gains tax levied on profits from trading shares or property, and twice as much as was paid by all the companies in the country
• It is paid by everyone and impacts disproportionately on the poor
• Our VAT rates are among the highest in the EU
• None of the political parties are proposing to cut VAT
By Sheila Killian...
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Tony O'Reilly's cash cow
O'Reilly alone took €110m in payments from Independent Newspapers since 2000, while jobs are being cut and outsourced to make way for even more largesse. By Martin Fitzpatrick
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How the deal was done
How Ian Paisley deserves credit for what happened, how Peter Hain lost the plot, how Martin McGuinness and Peter Robinson tied up the loose ends. Gerry Adams, the originator of the peace process, tells how the end game played out. By Gerry Adams
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The promises of greed
Vacuous pre-election debates ignore the really important social issues: inequality, healthcare, child poverty, education. By Vincent Browne ...
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'A most serious, tragic and alarming case'
 Adrian Hardiman (pictured), a judge of the Supreme Court, recently delivered the main judgment in an appeal on the issue of damages taken by Donegal nightclub owner, Frank Shortt, arising from his wrongful conviction on drug charges in 1995. Adrian Hardiman had been the presiding judge on the Court of Criminal Appeal in July 2002 when that court deemed Shortt's conviction a miscarriage of justice. In that judgment he had set out in detail the facts in the case, involving concerted perjury on the ...
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Super-hospital planned for Mid-West
The HSE has stated that plans for a super-hospital in the North East would not be rolled out nationwide. But a new tender asking for a review of hospital services in the Mid-West region puts those assurances in doubt
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Sizing up the competition
 Previously known only for her television work, Claire Byrne has emerged in the last few months as a formidable radio presenter. Emma Browne speaks to her about leaving TV3, the pressures of live radio and going head-to-head with Morning Ireland. Portrait by Eoghan Moylan...
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Gaybo exhumed, Pat Kenny lampooned, Ryan Tubridy marooned
Prime Time can be unfocused and all-over-the-place at times, very often when it tries to do two or three items in a half an hour. Prime Time Investigates has been superb and, in the run-up to the election, Prime Time itself may be excellent too, that is if its programme on sentencing on Tuesday 27 March is anything to go by.
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The queen of sorrows
Redmond O'Hanlon reviews 'Are You Somebody?', the memoirs of Nuala O'Faolain, an unheld child who wrenched an inspirational story from her pain...
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How we love the clash of knives
Dr Patrick Geoghegan looks at an indispensable guide to Irish politics and the leaders we've loved to hate from the Act of union to the present...
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Raiders of Ethiopia
Some historic manuscripts plundered by the British from Ethiopia in the 19th Century are now in the care of the Chester Beatty Library and Trinity College Dublin. It is time to consider sending them back to their country of origin, say Professor Richard Pankhurst and Dr Elene Negussie...
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Swimming against the tide
Four of Ireland's most senior officials in swimming have been convicted of crimes against children in the last few years, yet the state has done little to help the victims of this abuse or deal with the incidence of sex crime in Ireland. By Justine McCarthy ...
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Drowning the seamróg
‘When they wet their Seamar-oge, they often commit Excess in Liquor, which is not a right keeping of a Day to the Lord; Error generally leading to debauchery.”. By Matthew Jebb...
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In the wrong lane a memory of Ben Kiely
A small confession. I was home in Ireland from New York in September. All things told, it was a busy time. But on every occasion of coming home in the past I have tried to get in touch with my favourite Irish writer, Ben Kiely.
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A bright future
 Can you predict the weather from the colour of a frog's skin? Éanna Ní Lamhna investigates...
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The Green Planet
 This portrait of the planet Mars is the finest yet made of the Red Planet and will be an iconic image of human Mars exploration in these early decades of the 21st Century. It was taken at the end of February by Europe's Rosetta spacecraft as it swept towards Mars for a very close flyby before continuing on its way to rendezvous with a comet in 2014....
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Three Rock and Fairy Castle
 START AT the Blue Light pub near Lamb Doyle's to ramble the hills popular with generations of Dubliners. The poet Winifred M Letts (1882-1972) recalled the area in her lines, “At Barnacullia all the whins were bright to see as guinea gold”. Take the path near the quarry which supplied granite for city buildings.
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Spring Alive tracking nature
 Spring Alive is an exciting “citizen science” project organised by BirdWatch Ireland and its partners all across Europe. It is an ideal way to learn about the wonders of bird migration, and it allows you to make an important contribution to science while doing it....
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Crimes against humanity in Darfur
Two million people displaced and up to 400,000 people killed in the continuing conflict in Africa's largest country. By John Duggan...
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To the Abbey and beyond
There's a leading international playwright premiering work at the Peacock, while €750,000 is being spent redesigning the Abbey. Colin Murphy reports on goings-on at the national theatre...
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Black, white and grey Berlin
Superbly acted and beautifully shot, The Lives of Others is a tale of rebellion against the crushing fist of the state, while The Good German is as good a neo-noir as Chinatown, says Declan Burke...
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Looking beyond the obvious
Questioning Irish neutrality, scrutinising literature and finding the meaning of life. By Edward O'Hare...
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Tough ladies and gentle men
An ill-fated love story from ancient Greece is the subject of Michael Kane's latest exhibition at the Rubicon Gallery. For much of the artist's career, spanning some 40 years, his work has been largely figurative, expressionistic in style and marked by a unique amalgam of influences from Greek and Roman mythology, an intimacy with the architecture and nature of Dublin city, and personal admissions regarding socio-political stance and religious dogma. In keeping with these themes, the initial con...
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