WITH the textile industry and other sectors of traditional employment having all but disappeared in the north-west, a radical approach to the development of the further and higher education sector could hold the key to the economic regeneration of this region. Free article

With less than 40 days to go until the crucial United Nations climate summit in Copenhagen in December, political divisions between the global North and South over a new emissions reduction deal are hardening. The Copenhagen climate conference aims to formulate a global climate treaty to reduce carbon emissions to replace the Kyoto Protocol. Kyoto, which was signed in 1997 and came into effect in 2005, commits signatories to an overall reduction target of five per cent on baseline 1990 levels by 2012, when the agreement expires. Free article

What now for Hamid Karzai? He was the poster-boy of 'new democracy' and the icon of 'nation-building', that most patronising of Western projects, wherein 'nations' in certain parts of the world only become nations when they have been reconstructed in the image of their creators. There is only one possible model and no deviations are acceptable. If nothing else this recent, great folly is clear evidence that the big powers rarely learn anything from history. Free article

An tseachtain seo caite labhair Caitríona Ruane, Aire Oideachais an Tuaiscirt sa Titanic Pump-House le grúpa ón earnáil oideachas inar phléigh sí ceisteanna oideachas iarbhunscoile, réamhscoile, an Teist Aistrithe agus oideachas trí Ghaeilge. San alt seo déantar achoimre ar na pointí is tábhachtach as óráid a bhí, gan amhras, tábhachtach agus ceannródaíoch do thodhchaí an rochtain do sholáthar an oideachais amach anseo. Free article

WATCHING the Dublin City Marathon always reminds me of how old I am getting. I did it in 1999, in just over three-and-a-half hours, but doubt that I would get as far as ten miles now. The idea then that others can complete in around two hours and ten minutes puts one's own paltry achievements into perspective. Finishing in that time means that a person is running an average of one mile every five minutes for 26 miles. Running one mile in five minutes, not to say three miles in 15 minutes, is something that a relatively small number of people who run are capable of. Free article

CUMANN Lúthchleas Gael, the Gaelic Athletic Association, was founded 125 years ago and in that century and a quarter it has played a central role in Irish life as an organisation promoting national games and national identity. The GAA was often crucial in the struggle for independence and counted among its members many of those who fought and died for Irish freedom. Free article