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Archive 2007 | Archive 2006 | Archive 2005 | Archive 2004/2003

Ireland Calling with John Spain

Wild About the Jersey Shore
AFTER our week exploring Manhattan (see last week’s column), the Spain family wanted to hit the beach to recover after all the excitement of the Big Apple.

The Big Trip to the Big Apple

NEW Yorkers are rude and impatient and Dubliners are friendly and prepared to give visitors all the time in the world? Yeah, right.

Postcard From the Water’s Edge

IT’S been raining here now for 40 days and 40 nights. Not continuously, it is true. The downpour has stopped briefly now and then, and the sun has even peeped out tentatively for an hour or two, but only to torture us with false hope.

Brian of the 100 Days

YOU remember Anne of the Thousand Days? Anne Boleyn was the girl who bewitched Henry VIII but lasted only 1,000 days at his side before she had her head chopped off.

The French Connection

THE half-day visit by French President Nicolas Sarkozy to Dublin on Monday was a blast.

Going from Bad to Worse

LAST week, just when we thought things were so bad they could not possibly get any worse, they did exactly that. All week the Irish stock market sank like a stone.

From Boom to Doom and Gloom

THE speed with which Ireland’s boom has turned into absolute doom and gloom is truly frightening.

Immigration Honesty Is Best Policy

IT seems that I can’t take a holiday at all. I’m off for a couple of weeks and what happens? The whole country goes down the toilet, that’s what.

Lisbon Nightmare for Government?

THIS Thursday, June 12, Ireland goes to the polls in a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, and it looks like the first big test for our new Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Brian Cowen could turn into a nightmare.

New Book on Cowen Set

I’M only in the effin job a few effin weeks and already they want to do an effin book on me! That may well have been the reaction of new Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Brian Cowen to the news last week that the first book on him is already being written.

The Grade So Far on Cowen

OUR new Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Brian Cowen and his team have now settled in, and it’s time for his first school report. Of course it’s early days yet. It’s only a few weeks since he gave Bertie Ahern the heave-ho and took over as leader. But it’s