• What does Cowen believe in?

  A speech made by the otherwise opaque Brian Cowen last year seems to indicate the new Taoiseach's desire to move towards a fairer society, with equality of opportunity for all - but is this commitment realistic or just rhetorical? asks Fintan O'Toole . p
  

• The changing face of faith

  In the first of a five-part series exploring the role of the major religions in 21st-century Ireland, Patsy McGarry , Religious Affairs Correspondent, examines the quiet revolution taking place among the faiths p
  

• Be careful with that baton, Taoiseach - it's slippery

  PRESENT TENSE: THIS WEEK, at last, the baton was passed on. The man whose famed charisma made him an electoral phenomenon, who oversaw a transformation in his country's fortunes and who inspired passionate loyalty and withering criticism in equal measure, came to the end of his remarkable time in power, writes Davin O'Dwyer . p
  

• Four wheels bad, 46A wheels good

  Proposals to ban private cars from travelling along one of Dublin's busiest routes could transform the city centre within less than a year. But have the implications of the plan been properly thought through? asks Rosita Boland . p
  

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