Icelandic protests about the economic collapse were mobilised by the young through social networking websites in the IRISH TIMES December 29, 2009
 
ICELAND HAS been overwhelmed with civic action movements since its dramatic economic collapse in October of last year. In the beginning, my Icelandic friends went every Saturday afternoon to Austurvöllur Square in central Reykjavík. [...]

THE LAST RTÉ Radio One This Week programme of the decade on Sunday encapsulated much about Irish public life. Three of its four stories dealt with the consequences of secrecy, writes ELAINE BYRNE in the IRISH TIMES December 22, 2009
 
Tommie Gorman’s searching interview with Gerry Adams unveiled allegations of sexual abuse made by his niece [...]

THE ECONOMIST magazine recently described Ireland as a “sometimes inward-looking island nation”. Have we become more insular and parochial as a country since the onset of the recession? Has economic insecurity bred introspective short-term sectional thinking? asks ELAINE BYRNE in the IRISH TIMES December 15, 2009
 
For instance, the run-up to the Budget was dominated by [...]

Page of accounts from a well known public figure in the 1940s.
Can anybody explain what the purpose of the different figures/columns mean to someone without an accountancy background? In particular, I’m confused why there are two sets of figures. For example there is a dividend of £500 and then on the same line there is [...]

Endemic localism and our whip system ends up reducing budget day to a theatrical exercise in parliamentary voting, writes ELAINE BYRNE in the IRISH TIMES December 8, 2009
 
IT IS of course entirely coincidental that International Anti-Corruption Day falls tomorrow, the same day as budget day. By a quirky twist of fate, tomorrow is also the [...]

Our subservient way of thinking as a people bestows impunity on those in positions of power in the Irish Times December 1, 2009
 
‘IT IS the deaf people that create the lies.’ Irish proverbs are full of phrases about the power of silence.
 
Fr Donal Gallagher from the Dublin parish of St Peter’s in Phibsboro, horrifically exploited [...]