Barometer

Good week/ Bad week

Good week/ Bad week

Michael Noonan

Having mostly delivered bad news in recent years, this week Noonan was able to to reveal some positive news from the meeting of European finance ministers and then from Davos

Beyoncé

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Performing at the US presidential inauguration should have been a career highlight for Beyoncé, but instead she has been at the centre of a bizarre scandal over her lip-synched version of The Star-Spangled Banner

JJ Abrams

The creator of Lost has already rebooted one sci-fi franchise with Star Trek, and this week it was revealed he gets to do the same with the next Star Wars film. The man virtually owns outer space at this rate

Leinster

Last weekend the boys in blue lost out to Munster for a place in the next round of the Heineken Cup, a serious blow. Then to compound matters, Johnny Sexton announced his departure to France this summer

Danny Healy-Rae

The proposal in Kerry County Council that people in isolated areas be given a drink-driving dispensation was bad enough, but for many people, the unwelcome realisation that there was yet another Healy-Rae involved in Irish politics was the really bad news

Yair Lapid

Everybody expected an easy victory for Binyamin Netanyahu in Israel’s general election, but centrist Yesh Atid party led by ex-TV host took 19 seats, a big surprise