LOCAL AUTHORITIES are struggling to maintain services such as housing, roads, water and sewerage because of reduced exchequer subventions and a failure to collect commercial rates and charges. Poor management and financial planning are part of the problem.

Venison in a chocolate sauce and a cherry tiramisu to tempt lovers of good food, writesDOMINI KEMP 

Pastel hues are everywhere for spring. Here’s how to wear them in a fresh, modern manner, writesDEIRDRE MCQUILLAN 

Shane Mullins’s world fell apart after a car crash seven years ago. Now that he has pieced his life back together, he tellsJOHN HEARNE , he wants to help other people face up to seemingly impossible challenges

. . . on ageing

‘BEAUTY IS TRUTH, TRUTH BEAUTY,” declared the poet John Keats, carried away by a glimpse of a Grecian urn. Nowadays our fount of truth is more likely to be scientific – and beauty often has precious little to do with it.

VIGGO MORTENSEN stacks his case and suit protector neatly in the corner of the room. The precision of the movement is entirely in keeping with an angular formation of razor cheekbones and sharp suit. We probably shouldn’t be surprised the Danish-American-Argentine has this travelling thing down.

THE COMPANY behind Ballymaloe House, the country house hotel and restaurant run by the Allen family, incurred a loss of €43,945 last year, down from just over €111,000 the previous year.

SOCCER: GIOVANNI TRAPATTONI yesterday reaffirmed his intention to bring a squad of established players to Poland this summer while resolving to hand opportunities to a new generation in the autumn when the World Cup campaign gets under way.

A new book sets Soviet popular art by ‘court’ cartoonists and their western counterparts in historical context rather than viewing them as charming icons of retro chic, writesJOHN BYRNE 

‘BEAUTY IS TRUTH, TRUTH BEAUTY,” declared the poet John Keats, carried away by a glimpse of a Grecian urn. Nowadays our fount of truth is more likely to be scientific – and beauty often has precious little to do with it.

ROAD TEST: OPEL ASTRA GTC2.0 CDTI The GTC proves that there remains some strong design pedigree at the Opel brand but the sporty Astra is up against some tasty rivals, writes Motoring EditorMICHAEL McALEER 

One of the striking things about the culture of 15th-century Ireland is what is not there. There is not, to any great extent, evidence of that great flowering of European intellectual and artistic life that is summed up in the term Renaissance. The magnificent set of 15th-century Benediction copes and Mass vestments that survives from Christ Church in Waterford stands out as a rare example of Renaissance art in Ireland. But it could not be other than a European import.

ON A BITTERLY cold night, several dozen London Irish, wrapped up in coats and scarves, have come to the Labour Party headquarters on Victoria Street. Over the next few hours they and others will make hundreds of calls on the phone bank, cold-calling voters around the city in search of votes for Ken Livingstone in the mayoral election in May.

As part of our week-long series Ireland’s Squeezed Middle,CONOR POPE presents the first of a series of survival guides: how to take control of your finances