DID British Prime Minister David Cameron really think the report by Sir Desmond de Silva QC into the killing of Belfast defence lawyer Pat Finucane on Sunday 12 February 1989 would satisfy the family’s demand for the independent, public inquiry they have sought throughout the two decades since his murder by agents of the RUC Special Branch and the British Army? Premium service article

Masked gangs are erecting flags outside Catholic churches. And interface areas where people have worked so hard to make life better for the inhabitants are now being marked out as ‘unionist areas’ as flag after flag (including UVF flags) is strung up. Premium service article

Women’s Aid’s latest figures show that 13,000 people called the organisation’s helpline last year. Some 2,000 of those calls disclosed emotional, physical and sexual abuse of children in their homes and this represented a 25% increase on the previous year. Some 3,000 callers said that children were witnessing first-hand the abuse and violence perpetrated against their mothers. Premium service article

TÁ AMHRAS orm go bhfuil creach níos mó na ariamh dhá dhéanamh ar acmhainní nádurtha na hÉireann ar son comhlachtaí agus daoine príobháideacha agus níl fhios ag daoine go bhfuil sé ag tarlú fiú. Premium service article

IT WAS a proud moment for Francie Molloy when he was selected by Sinn Féin as the party’s candidate to contest the by-election for the soon-to-be vacant Mid-Ulster Westminster seat. Free article

PLANS to plant an oil rig near Dalkey Island in scenic Dublin Bay are being energetically opposed by a raft of campaigners ranging from residents to fishermen, environmentalists and local elected politicians. Premium service article

MICHAEL MANSFIELD QC is Britain’s top international human rights lawyer. Born in 1941 into a staunchly Tory family in Margaret Thatcher’s heartland in the north London suburb of Finchley (as a teenager, Michael even delivered leaflets for Thatcher!), his mother’s innate sense of justice and his own education and experiences led to him becoming a radical defender in that most conservative and repressive bastion of the Establishment, the courts. Premium service article

MÁS MAITH is mithid gan dabht go bhfuil an tAire Oideachais, Ruairí Quinn, ag iarraidh go gcuirfeadh an Eaglais Chaitliceach roinnt mhaith dena scoileanna atá faoina gcúram ar fáil le haghaidh oideachas gan creideamh i bhfianaise an líon tuismitheóirí a bhíonn ag iarraidh a leithéid. Premium service article

NEW MEASURES to help schools combat bullying have been put to the Dáil and Education Minister Ruairí Quinn by Sinn Féin Education spokesperson Jonathan O’Brien TD. Free article

COLM KEAVENEY’S action in voting against the Government and his own party’s role in creating a Budget that is rightly condemned as unfair and unjust reveals that perhaps not all Labour TDs can be tarred with the same ‘right-wing, unprincipled’ brush. Premium service article