ICTU is to mark one month since the invasion of Ukraine with a solidarity protest at the Russian embassy at 5.00pm on Thursday (24th March), as the Fórsa appeal inches towards a quarter of a million Euro. Please do what you can today to encourage branches and others to chip in over the next couple of days.

Meanwhile, chilling weekend reports from that beleaguered land suggest women and children from Mariupol are being forcibly sent to Russia, where Putin has opened up a second front on his own people. Here's a round-up of the most recent developments,

The climate impact of public service mileage rates featured in the Indo over the weekend, along with the shockingly low wages paid to some Leinster House political staff.

Elsewhere, Covid's back in the headlines as a fourth vaccine is mooted, staff shortages have left 5,000 older people without a carer, and there's new funding to help close the higher education gap for Traveller students.

In sport, we celebrated a rugby Grand Slam for Ireland's under-20s over the long weekend, along with a more modest Triple Crown for the grown-ups.

And Zen marks the tenth early music day, which is being celebrated across Europe this morning. Here's forty voices-worth in Thomas Tallis's amazing Spem in Alium. Treat yourself to a tonic for these troubled times.

Bernard