GO into almost any community discussion about anti-social or anti-community activity and you can expect to hear many complaints about the quality of the police service. Clearly that criticism will very often be entirely justified. The North is a special example, given the many decades of bad policing, and clearly while a solid basis for accountable policing has been established it is still a work in progress. Free article

ROBERT DELANY, a 28-year-old postman who was shot in Tallaght on 24 October last year, remains in what's called a "vegetative state" in Tallaght Hospital. Robert was shot in the face at 6.30am one morning as he looked out the window of his apartment at Russell Rise, off Fortunestown Way, to see who was pressing the doorbell. It is believed that the shooting happened as an outcome of an incident in the summer of last year when Robert intervened to rescue someone who was being attacked outside a pub in Saggart. Free article

IT really takes something to get me angry these days. In a world of greed and corruption, the impropriety of John O Donoghue's expense claims or the political opportunism of the Green Party just seem so run of the mill. Even NAMA and its outrageous €50 billion risk to the taxpayer doesn't make me angry. What would you expect from a Fianna Fáil government? Free article

Barack Obama was, bizarrely, awarded the Nobel Peace Prize this week. John O'Donoghue became the first Ceann Comhairle in the history of the Southern state to be forced to resign by the level of outrage at his betrayal of the public trust. But the big story, the real 'can you feel the ground tremble beneath you news', was that Margaret Ritchie has announced her candidacy for the leader of the Stoop Down Low Party (SDLP). Free article

Mar a tharla sé bhí mé i nGlaschú le déanaí chun casadh le lucht na Gàidhlige agus ag deireadh an lae bhí am le spáráil agam chun siúl timpeall i lár na cathrach álainn agus blás den áit agus greim bhia a fháil. Tá níos mó ná milliún duine ina gcónaí i nGlaschú agus cé go maíonn na treoraithe aisti mar 'Dara Cathair an Impire' (mar a mhaíonn treoraithe i gcathracha eile is dócha) tá rian na hÉireann, nó rian na nÉireannach, le feiceáil uirthi go soiléir chomh maith. Free article

The county championships around the country are entering their final stages and there have been a number of surprises already. Crossmaglen earlier fell to Pearse Ógs in their bid to win a 14th title in succession. Their conquerors meet Armagh Harps in the final on Sunday, it being 17 and 18 years respectively since either won it. Free article

BY October 1974, internment without trial had been in operation in the Six Counties for over three years and there was no sign that the British Government was going to bring it to an end, despite widespread national and international condemnation. Most of the internees were held in Long Kesh where they were housed in Nissen huts within compounds surrounded by wire fences and known as 'the Cages'. Free article