Haughey: The Final Years
 Charlie Haughey's last five years were a steady and sad progression towards death. During that time, Vincent Browne visited him frequently at his home in Kinsealy. Here he writes about those visits and those conversations
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Health risks of runway not assessed
There has been no independent assessment into the health impacts of the new runway at Dublin airport. The only assessment that has been carried out is an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) by Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) and this used out-of-date information when assessing the runway's impact on public health, according to Dr Anthony Staines, Professor of Epidemiology at University College Dublin.
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One small step for Irish school kids...
Having clocked up 6,000 flying hours and 900 hours in space, astronaut Eileen Collins is in Ireland to inspire the next generation of Irish engineers and scientists. Colin Murphy reports
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Shock and awe at the New York Daily News
An execution photograph hangs on her office wall. Appropriate, for she has conducted several executions in this office as the toughest woman editor in New York daily journalism. Orla Healy of Foxrock, Dublin, talks to Ailbhe Jordan
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Devil's dictation
We think it's the underpants that did it. While other dictators have maintained, in death, their air of menace and evil, the carefully orchestrated shots of Saddam Hussein in his jockeys were as effective and emasculating as the US administration intended.
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Fighting Fodder
As fast food outlets colonise the world, there is even a McDonalds in Guantanamo Bay. 'Chew on This' chronicles the growth of this industry, the tactics it uses to attract children and the detrimental effects it has on the world's health. Rosita Sweetman reviews Eric Schlooser's latest critique of the fast food industry.
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Let's not forget
Now that the dust has settled on this year's Bisto Book of the Year awards I thought that it might be a good time to make my own list of books that didn't win and which should not be forgotten, as can so often happen when awards are handed out. So here is my aide memoir, in no particular order.
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Boom or gloom?
As Bertie Ahern claims the 'prophets of doom' have got it wrong about the future of the Irish economy, John Byrne asks four leading Irish economists if, and how, Ireland's economic success will continue.
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Some sons do 'ave 'em
Teenage rebels ain't what they used to be. By applying a victim template to the recent fuss about the boys barred from sitting their Junior Cert because their hair was too short, the media undermined both authority and rebellion – the latter because it is impossible to be at once a rebel and a victim. The treatment of the story was a reversal of what might have been expected a generation ago, when, if they had become involved at all, the media would have sided with the Tullamore headmaster.
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What ish my nation?
A friend, a Clareman and a New York-based professor, tells the following story: just two weeks ago he arrived in Florence in charge of a number of American college students on an extended academic lark. The professor is in his mid-30s, tall, shy, smart, charming, the sort of man who has his finger on the pulse of what's going on around him. But he also happens to be a tad absent-minded, not the sort who has yet bowed down to the intricacies of bureaucracy. Scattered, or jetlagged, or both, he had to visit the local Italian labour authorities in order to register.
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Why farmers' markets work
Farmers' markets boost local economies, help the environment, remove the need for excessive packaging and most of all, the food tastes better
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A colossus of Irish politics
This is not an appropriate occasion for a comprehensive review of Charlie Haughey's contribution to public life. But one thing is sure: he made a substantial contribution, to the economy, to the Northern peace processes, towards social stability and to the care of the elderly.
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New law discriminates and victimises children
Emily Logan talks to Emma Browne about how the Irish Government has failed children by rushing through legislation that discriminates between girls and boys and that allows child victims of abuse to be cross-examined in court
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Not so affordable housing
Housing, and specifically measures to boost the provision of social housing, has been a key factor in the final stages of putting a new national partnership agreement together. The spiralling cost of housing has put house ownership out of the reach of thousands of people on average wages, leaving such people at the mercy of greed-inspired private landlord renters or waiting hopelessly on a growing local authority housing list.
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Google on the goggle
Google are gearing up to get inside inside your livingroom. In a research paper, two Google researchers, Michele Covell and Shumeet Baluja, propose using ambient-audio identification technology, via your computer, to watch television with you and deliver personalised internet content at the same time.
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Villagers: Letters to the Editor 2006-06-15
The driving testers are not the best people to come up with a solution to the driving-test problems – as one of Orla Barry's listeners on Today FM suggested – because the testers have a selfish, monopolist mindset, which rejects any competition against them.
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The History paper
There was a time, believe it or not, when I was a quiet, behind-the-scenes kind of guy, putting together more of the Irish Times' education supplements than I care to think about counting.
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Indo group have 80% of Irish paper sales
The World Association of Newspapers held its annual conference in Moscow last week, during which Gavin O'Reilly was re-elected president. O'Reilly's re-election and his opening speech were covered by several of the papers within the Independent News and Media (INM) group – of which he is chief operating officer. His speech concentrated on criticising the excessive state control of the media in Russia.
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