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It was second time around for the launch of proposals on the shape and contents of a Bill of Right's for the North. Hours before the official launch by the Human Rights Commissioner, Monica McWilliams, both unionist parties issued press statements, rubbishing its contents without ever having read them.

• This news feature is funded by the European United Left/Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL)

Some progress in Poznan climate talks, EU Parliament refuses to back Israel-EU deal, Homelessness exhibition in Dublin's City Hall and Lisbon Treaty: Smoke and mirrors

Media View

WE should brace ourselves for hysteria on a grand scale as the Lisbon Treaty referendum Mark II campaign gets into full swing. It actually started about five minutes after the 'No' vote last summer, getting into second gear in the following months as Irish people were warned that the 26 Counties risked being expelled into outer darkness unless we voted 'Yes' the next time. But the campaign that is about to be unleashed upon us will dwarf anything the state has seen since the days when Conor Cruise O'Brien and his censors blacked out rebel voices, thoughts and music from the airwaves and branded anybody with a republican outlook as a sectarian terrorist.

Cúlchaint

Bhuel, bhí mé céasta sna seachtainí roimh an Nollaig ag na gasúir agus iad ag iarraidh a litreacha a sheoladh chuig Daidí na Nollaig. Agus, ar ndóigh, ní raibh cead agam na litreacha a léamh agus greim an fhir bháite acu orthu go dtí gur gheall mé go gcuirfinn sa phost mé féin iad. Nuair a bhí mé óg ba ghnách linn na litreacha a chur suas an simléir agus is dócha gur éalaigh siad go gasta leis an aer te ag dul in airde. Ach ó chuir muid sorn téite sa seomra suite tá sé deacair a chur ina luí ar na páistí nach bhfuil a litreacha chun a bheith loiscthe chomh luath agus a dhúnaimid an doras. D'aontaigh mé, mar sin, go dtabharfainn na litreacha liom agus go gcuirfínn iad i mbosca poist ceart agus go bhfaigheadh Santa iad, neamh-ruadhóite, so-léite. Ah, sult na tuismitheoireachta.

Ag Cuimhniú ar Joe ag am Nollag

Cé gur mise an taon buachaill i mo chlann, bhí neart deartharacha agam nuair a bhí mé a tógadh sna '70aidí. Duine dóibh siúd ná Joe Donaghy ó Dún Geanainn.

More than a game BY MATT TREACY

One of the more curious notions proposed by well meaning folk - let us for the purposes of the argument term them the Care Bears - is that no-one ought ever to feel bad about themselves or to experience any disappointment in life.

Christmas traditions - The weird, the wonderful and the Irish

SO YOU THINK you know what makes a traditional Christmas? Well think again. Some of our deeply-held Christmas traditions are actually relatively new. Exhibit A: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer - created in 1939. Exhibit B: The idea of Christmas with "chestnuts roasting on an open fire" - written in 1944... during a sweltering July!

Remembering the Past: The last of the Invincibles

THE Irish National Invincibles were an off-shoot of the Irish Republican Brotherhood and were active in Dublin in the early 1880s. They were a conspiratorial group that sought to destabilise British rule in Ireland by assassinating leading figures in the Dublin Castle regime.

Fifth Column

An Phoblacht's famous weekly satirical column.

Shining a light in cultural darkness

POETRY REVIEW At Least for a While By Pearse Hutchinson The Gallery Press

Photo: Pearse Hutchinson

Fifth Column xmas quiz

THESE turkeys escaped the festive feast table so here's the doubtfully famous Fifth Column Christmas Quiz of the slim pickings of 2008 to mull over in your downtime during the merry mayhem. Ho, ho, ho?

Fifth Column xmas quiz answers

Ansews to the quiz

5th COLUMN XMAS QUIZ ANSWERS

Quiz answers

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