Dublin has been left reeling by the frenzy of violence which swept through the city centre, tarnishing its international reputation for céad míle fáilte and bringing shame on Ireland.

Though there is huge relief that a truce has been brokered between Israel and Hamas, it is profoundly regrettable that both sides have not decided to end the bleak horror of their war entirely.

SINCE he stepped down from frontline politics at the start of 2016, Peter Robinson has carefully rationed his public pronouncements.

In an enmity that dates back to Brexit and the ill-starred negotiations over the UK's withdrawal from the European Union, there is something about taoiseach Leo Varadkar's interventions on northern politics that is almost guaranteed to set unionists on edge.

In another example of how the British government's cynical approach to the legacy of the Troubles is going against the wishes of victims' families, the Police Ombudsman will be unable to complete around 400 investigations linked to the past.

It was perhaps too good to be true. The faint glimmer of self-awareness that led the Orange Order to admit that events around its flagship parade in Belfast were, in its own words "abysmal and unacceptable", has been extinguished

It is impossible not to be deeply moved by the depthless heartbreak and frustration of Columba McVeigh's family.

Having a flagship policy deemed unlawful in emphatic terms by the Supreme Court should give any government – even one as hopeless as this dismal outfit – pause for thought.

HAS there ever been a more incompetent, callous, corrupt, economically illiterate and morally bankrupt administration than the current batch of Tories who have brought Britain to its knees over the last 13 years? This Conservative government has become a byword for chaos and ineptitude, staggering from scandal to crisis, the door of 10 Downing Street revolving for a new cabinet every few months, each minister succeeding only in heaping further ignominy and deepening the malaise.