``Loose talk costs lives''. Remember that old slogan which used to be written on walls all over nationalist areas? It's true that language and its relationship to the war in the North has profoundly affected our perceptions of events over the past 30 years. Certain words and phrases have become familiar only to those of us who live here, words like clarification, decommissioning, phrases like shoot-to-kill, the wrong place at the wrong time, loose talk. Free article

`They seek him here, they seek him there, Le Tigre Vert'. Pardon my French, but that is what the elusive Celtic Tiger is called in the Paris papers. Free article

In Chile, evidence continues to emerge of war crimes committed by the regime of General Augusto Pinochet during his 17 years of military rule. Free article

Bhí taispeántas i Leabharlann Lárnach Bhardas Bhaile Atha Cliath ar na mallaibh agus é ag díriú aire ar fadhbanna na daoine siúd atá ag iarraidh tearmainn in Éirinn. Free article

Take a succession of ignorant, uncaring British governments and mix carefully with the failed EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), the BSE crisis, ongoing international currency turmoil, Larry Goodman and Tesco Supermarkets. Where do you end up? Free article

Much has been made and said about the £20 million allocation to the GAA by Charlie McCreevy in the 26-County Budget. Fair enough, the derisory amount given to disability organisations is an absolute disgrace. And the welfare increases were a disgrace and in all other fields it proved to a budget for the wealthy and advantaged in our society. Free article

On 8 December 1922 IRA Volunteers Rory O'Connor, Dick Barrett and Joe McKelvey were taken from their cells in Mountjoy Jail and executed by a Free State firing squad in reprisal for the IRA's assassination of government member Sean Hales and the injuring of his colleague Pádraig O'Maille the previous day. Free article

One of Fine Gael's certainties for an important cabinet position in a forthcoming coalition government is the Kildare deputy Alan Dukes, who has been presented as one of the party's bright young intellectuals since entering Leinster House last year. Free article

Irish Almanac and Yearbook of Facts 1998 and Michael Collins and The Brotherhood Free article

This week sees the passing of International Human Rights Day, 10 December and a rush by TV stations to highlight many worthy international injustices, though for some strange reason this doesn't include Plastic Bullets, Shoot to Kill etc etc, as that might upset the Unionists. Free article