AS I SEE IT BY MARIANNE HERON The Swedes, always ahead when it comes to social provisions, have just introduced paid grandparental leave for three months of the grandchild’s first year. Not quite the same thing as actually paying grandparents, whether working or not, for minding their grandchildren but still a step in that direction. …

BY JOHN FITZGERALD Visit any city in Ireland and you’ll find people preaching in the streets, predicting doom and gloom, and, more often than not, the end of the world. But alarmist visions of the future are nothing new. Quite a few ancient prophesies concern our neck of the woods. Fifteen centuries ago, St. Columcille foretold that …

THE FACT OF THE MATTER BY PAUL HOPKINS Twelve years ago, I found myself dancing  with a young woman in Durban by the Indian Ocean. It was a typical balmy African night as I endeavoured to keep pace with her beguiling Zulu rhythms, moving to the music of Mafikizolo, when the deejay stopped himself in …

BY JOHN ELLIS, FINANCIAL ADVISOR Tánaiste Micheál Martin has announced that reform of inheritance tax will be “on the agenda” for Budget 2025. While he ruled out the prospect of abolishing the tax on family homes, the potential changes could have significant financial ramifications for families across Ireland. In a recent statement he highlighted the …

FURTHERMORE  By Gerry Moran The Olympics always remind me of the Waterbarrack where I got my first taste of competitive running and jumping. It was in the Waterbarrack that I got my first serious rush of adrenaline when, as a youngster of nine or 10, I lined up, taut and tense, to run the 100 …

THE LAST WORD By Pat Coughlan When I first dipped my toes into the murky waters of political ideology, I quickly realised that navigating between the ‘far left’ and ‘far right’ was like trying to find a sensible middle ground between a roller coaster and a merry-go-round. You see, the far-left dreams of a Utopian …