Well it was the most difficult year of An Taoiseach Brian Cowen’s political life to date, but how was it for you? Did you meet with triumph and/or disaster and, if so, did you treat those two impostors just the same - with your copy of the Law Reform Commission’s Report on Defences in Criminal Law and the lethal force of your shotgun?

The year gone by was supposed to be the year of new found hope, as the United States of America inaugurated their first mixed race president, but circumstances beyond, it seems, everyone’s control meant that it was a year when hope was quickly snuffed out to be replaced by all manner of negativity.

With Christmas almost upon us, most of us will be racing to finish up at work, get some last minute shopping done and get home in time for the festivities. However, one Galway charity is calling for a moment of pause amid the chaos. This year alone, Galway Samaritans has received approximately 40,000 contacts, including telephone contacts, letters, emails and people dropping in to its centre at Nuns Island.

If, like the gentleman on Prime Time Investigates on Monday night, you hung up your balaclava and crowbar years ago, you would have been delighted to read the Law Reform Commission's Report on Defences in Criminal Law earlier this week, which recommends that people should be allowed to use lethal force when defending their homes.

Local and national business representative groups have called on shoppers to think locally, as the country gears up for the busy Christmas season. However, the success of the various campaigns will depend, not just on whether they can tap into Irish people's sense of loyalty, but on whether local businesses can compete in such a competitive market.

If a private sector worker falls in the wood and a public sector worker isn't there to witness it, does the worker make a sound? Definitely not! Even if the entire public sector is on a team building exercise in Coole Park, the private worker falls silently into the night. Meanwhile, if a sole public sector worker more than stubs their toe on the way into the clearing, ten of their colleagues immediately down tools to join in the screams.

Frontline heckler Alan O'Brien has been berated and hailed in equal measure for his outburst on live television last Monday week, where he accused RTE presenter Pat Kenny of pontificating and moralising on social welfare while he earned €600,000 a year for 11 hours work a week. But, while Mr Kenny claims the programme gives everyone a voice, it is debatable whether people like Mr O'Brien are being heard, yet.

It seems the Smashing Pumpkins were right all along. The world is a vampire! That's why our Finance Minister is eating cloves of garlic while public sector workers complain that they are being 'held up to the flames'. And, what do we get, for their pain? Betrayed desires and a piece of the game! The general public looks likely to have their desires betrayed on Tuesday 24 November when they are dragged into the game that is union negotiations.

With the country in the grip of a recession, it seems we are getting desensitised to hearing bad news. Hundreds of jobs being lost, thousands of people on the Live Register, savage cutbacks to health and education...these are statements that a few years ago would have caused outrage and heated debate in sitting rooms around the country. However, things have changed dramatically and now they are part and parcel of everyday life, average fodder for the Six-One News.

Fine Gael Leader Enda Kenny's commitment to abolish the Seanad, among other political reform measures, has met with shock, primarily by those senators within the party who have been left defending their positions. However, the question on the vast majority of Irish citizens' lips on Saturday was 'What does the Seanad actually do?'

Dear Kermie,
Forgive my tardiness in getting back to you. It's been a while now since you famously sang 'Not easy being Green' on Sesame Street, lamenting your colour and people's propensity to overlook you because you so easily blend in with your background. While I and many generations before and after me felt your pain, it has come to my attention of late that you could be wrong.