Time to learn how to defend ourselves

THE Taoiseach confirmed this weekend that Santa Claus had been "cleared to enter Irish airspace" - but given the state of our military defences, we could hardly keep him out.

- JOE O'SHEA

Yes folks, even an elderly gent being pulled in a sleigh by reindeer can do pretty much what he wants over Irish sovereign territory and we're just lucky that Santa is too decent a lad to ever work for the Russians.

So as we celebrate this period of peace and goodwill to all, it's worth remembering that in these very dangerous times, most experts would agree that Ireland currently lacks the ability to protect itself. The fact that some crowd (the Russians) were able to zoom military grade drones around Dublin while Ukrainian president Zelensky was visiting us proves that.