Last month's announcement by the Minister for Employment and Learning, Carmel Hanna, that her Department was seeking a review of the Springvale Campus in West Belfast, has attracted scathing criticism from community activists. Free article

Luiz Inacio 'Lula' da Silva, a poorly educated former lathe operator from the industrial heartland of Brazil, is on the brink of making history this weekend by becoming President of the eighth largest economy in the world. Lula -as he is universally known - came within three per cent of winning Sunday's 6 October first round outright. Elections officials said Silva finished with 46.6 percent, compared to government-backed candidate Jose Serra's 23.7 percent. Eliminated in the first round voting were former Rio state governor Anthony Garotinho with 16.7 percent, followed by former finance minister Ciro Gomes with 12.4 percent, according to the Supreme Electoral Tribunal. Free article

This week, AN DRAOI RUA relates some of the stories about the most famous craftsman of Irish legend, the greatest smith and builder that ever lived (the Taoiseach should have given him the contract for the Bertie Bowl). Free article

The life and times of the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley has been raked over and analysed a thousand times. But the story of his interest and intervention in Irish politics has been either ignored or downplayed by his countless biographers. Free article

"I hope you don't want violence in Northern Ireland and that would lead to violence...That would be a red flag to a bull as far as the loyalist paramilitaries and the unionist people are concerned."

John Taylor, in vintage threatening mode, in answer to RTE interviewer's question about the possibilty of Joint Authority, RTE Six One News, 8 October 2002