I have been contacted by Ms Maeve Buckley, a young lady from Mercy Mounthawk secondary school in Tralee. She and her colleagues in transition year are concerned about the unending, ceaseless waves of negative information carried on our news services. They wanted to see something positive and they started looking for positive news items in their own area in order to give the stories publicity. This is an excellent idea and it shows the vitality of young people. They are now looking for a national positivity day. I am not keen on the word "positivity" because it has an American twang about it but I do understand the idea. These days there are good news stories - I know they are often spun from the other side of the House - such as financial, social and cultural stories covering our prowess in the film industry or in Hollywood or about our musicians. This is fantastic. Ireland is a wonderful country and we should take the lead from this young girl and her transition year colleagues in looking for the positive. As the song says, "Accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative".

Unfortunately good news does not sell newspapers.