BAROMETER
GOOD WEEK
Marina Carr: The Irish playwright was this week named as the winner of one of the world's most prestigious and lucrative literary honours, the Windham-Campbell Prize, which is worth a handsome $165,000 (€155,000)
Snap: It's telling that Snapchat still requires a handy guide explaining exactly what it is (instant photo messaging with built-in evanescence . . . and fun filters!) but it's the very youthfulness of its avid user base that saw the parent company float at $24 a share for a $29 billion valuation on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday.
BAD WEEK
Brian Cullinan: By handing Warren Beatty the wrong envelope for Best Picture, leading to the La La Land/Moonlight mix-up, the PWC partner singlehandedly destroyed accountants' hard-earned reputation for sober reliability.
Jeff Sessions: Those friendly chats between Trump officials and senior Russians just keep coming out of the woodwork, and this week it's the folksy attorney general from Alabama in the spotlight, for lying about his contacts with the very people who interfered in last year's election.
SOUNDBITES
Her treatment was a disgrace to us as a country
Taoiseach Enda Kenny reacts to questions on the abuse of ‘Grace’ in a care home over a 20-year period.
Every lie told before this tribunal will be a waste of what ordinary men and women have paid for through their unremitting efforts. Every action of obfuscation, of diversion of focus, and of non-cooperation is unwelcome for that reason.
Mr Justice Peter Charleton opens the tribunal investigating the accusations made by Maurice McCabe of Garda corruption.
Nobody knew health care could be so complicated
US president Donald Trump, literally the last person in elected office on the planet who didn't know health care could be so complicated.
Despite the Holy Father approving all the recommendations made to him by the commission, there have been constant setbacks
Marie Collins resigns from a Vatican panel to address clerical sex abuse
SEVEN DAYS IN NUMBERS
102
Number of votes by which the House of Lords voted to amend Theresa May’s Brexit Bill in order to guarantee the rights of EU citizens living in the UK
$185m
Amount the US travel industry is estimated to have lost due to the so-called “Trump slump”, with visitor numbers sharply declining
5,000
Number of Irish people who became millionaires last year, according to Knight Frank’s wealth report
£363m
Payment Sir Philip Green claims he will make to fill the pensions hole for workers at defunct retail chain BHS
$60m
Reputed value of the book deal Barack and Michelle Obama signed with Penguin Random House
$5.2m
Amount racehorse owner and gambler JP McManus was seeking to recover in a US legal action to recover in tax withheld from his winnings on a three-day backgammon match
