THERE’S A Groundhog Day quality to watching European summits: a repetition, it seems, almost word for word of previous declarations and unchanging orthodox economic mantras, a sense of glacial progress, endless talk of “last ditch” efforts, of German obstacles, and if any movement, “just enough, just in time”.

Nikolay Khozyainov was a more than worthy winner of the Dublin International Piano Competition, but what factors can influence the decisions of music-competition juries, asksMICHAEL DERVAN 

The newly designated ‘pillar banks’ are back to their old ways and charging significant transaction fees – even though taxpaying customers are the pillars the banks rest upon, writesKEVIN CASEY 

Think you're well travelled? How many of these achingly hip cities have you been to?

I REMEMBER HOW I would feel when there was a revelation about sexual abuse of children by clergy, here in the US where I have lived for the past 19 years, in Ireland or anywhere else. I would rail at the smug complacency of lace-bedecked monsignori or their mitred higher-ups. I could only imagine the plight of the children.

ROADTEST KIA OPTIMA: AS TWO HOODIE-CLAD teenagers approached the Kia in the rain-sodden Quickpark car park at Dublin airport, my first thoughts were not that this was going to be a discussion about the growing popularity of the Korean brand. It was a dirty, wet night and, with my luggage in the boot I resorted to the usual middle-aged response: frantically look for the central locking switch.

A DISPUTE between a solicitor and Bank of Ireland over the ownership and value of art, antiques, furniture and other contents of luxury homes in Dublin and London has come before the Commercial Court as part of the bank’s efforts to enforce a €75 million judgment.

RUGBY/IRELAND TOUR OF NEW ZEALAND: WITH A precarious world ranking of eight in a year of a World Cup draw and an unprecedented three-Test tour away to the world champions, Declan Kidney and his fellow coaches are obliged to put Ireland’s best foot forward. Hence there is a predictably familiar look to the 29-man squad for this little jaunt in the 11th month of a World Cup season.

1,500 women who underwent a controversial childbirth procedure want closure, writesCARL O'BRIEN 

You don’t have to wait until school’s out to plan what to do. Whether you’re into film-making or football, science or surfing, there’s a summer camp for you, writesGRAINNE FALLER 

In the throes of recession, new eateries are turning up all over Dublin, as restaurateurs streamline their offerings and people spend their nights out at the table rather than the bar

Lismore Castle Arts wants to position itself on the international arts scene – it’s latest show moves it closer

ANOTHER LIFE: THERE COMES A DAY in May – not, surely, always the same one – when a calm blue sea beneath a sunny sky conjures a lone white triangle of sail, slowly tracking north. This year it coincided with a chorusing cuckoo, for extra promise that summer was at least beginning to inch in.

DEIRDRE MCQUILLAN meets artist, illustrator and fashion designer, the mysterious, elusive and inimitable Kitty Moss, creator of Maud Minet