Who said there was no progress being made at the Stormont Talks? Those close encounters of another kind appear to be arousing the Ulster Unionist Party from some kind of Rip Van Winkle slumber. Their spokesperson, Dermot Nesbitt, writing in the style of one who has just woken up after 70 years, has discovered that there is a United Nations Declaration on Human Rights and that the British government have not lived up to its commitment on human rights in respect of the North of Ireland. Free article

Brian Campbell argues that 1997 was a wonderful year for republicans Free article

Ned Kelly looks back at a year of concerted violence and attacks on the nationalist community of the Six Counties. Free article

IF BRITISH DIRECT RULER MARJORIE MOWLAM lived in Dublin she would I'm sure be familiar with the word slibhín - as bearla it means a sly person. Free article

Dara Mac Neil is not looking forward to a year of hypocrisy over human rights Free article

BA é David Pearlman an té ba chumhachtaí in Kyoto an tseachtain seo caite. Níos cumhachtaí ná Al Gore. Níos cumhachtaí ná príomheadránaí na Stát Aontaithe, Stuart Eizenstat. Níos cumhachtaí ná Príomh-Aire na Seapáine, Ryutaro Hashimoto. Free article

This is the time of year when the Brits go to war under the banner of ``Peace''. The leading actors in these charades of ``peace'' mongering are normally Brit Ministers, Church leaders, Peace People with heavy purses, and local ``respectable'' politicians greedily grasping for ``official'' recognition. Free article

Pity the Nation: Lebanon at War, Reading in the Dark, In the Heat of the Hurry, A Rage for Order: Poetry of the Northern Ireland Troubles, Dilbert and Dogbert, An Intelligent Person's Guide to Modern Ireland, The Scorching Wind , Boston! Boston! and The Decade of the United Irishmen - Contemporary Accounts 1791-1801. Free article

Neil Forde's guide through the yuletide film maze Free article

An Phoblacht's guide to family entertainment over the holiday period Free article