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Tributes are being paid to former Irish Press journalist Ken Whelan (71), well-known for his work with the Evening Press in the 1980s, who has died.

As yet another sage economic warning risks being largely ignored, it is time to ask if the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (IFAC) is a sop to government conscience or a political white elephant.

PAUL Coghlan was not a household name nationally – but in politics and business he was well known and also very well liked.

At rush hour on a Friday evening in the summer of 1974, three car bombs exploded in Dublin’s city centre. They killed 26 people, including an unborn baby on Parnell Street, Talbot Street and South Leinster Street. Around an hour and a half later, a fourth car bomb went off in Co Monaghan where seven more people were killed.

It’s like those infamous fights in tunnels even before the teams get on the field. The Government signals a debate on national defence and one crowd cries “slippery slope to neutrality sell-out” – and the other demands “a pragmatic approach to a changing world”.