Last Friday, republican prisoners and their relatives celebrated outside Long Kesh as the vast bulk of POWs were released, also signalling the imminent closure of that hated institution. At Castlerea Prison in Roscommon, however, IRA POW Padraic Steenson emerged alone. He left behind five men who clearly qualified for release under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement. Free article

There's a row of newly built terrace houses, literally just a stone's throw away from the loyalist Tiger's Bay area in North Belfast. For the families who moved in just before last Christmas, it was like a dream come true. Free article

As fast as Tanaiste, Mary Harney, announces the opening of factories in the Dublin region, another factory closes down, usually in the West. Free article

This week, several more nails went into the coffin of Dublin Environmentminister Noel Dempsey's plans to meet the EU waste conditions through incineration and/or landfill, rather than by recycling waste. Free article

On 10 April 1999, members of the McBride family, along with a delegation of justice campaigners, travelled to London to deliver a letter to Prime Minister Tony Blair urging that the two guardsmen convicted of murdering Belfast teenager Peter McBride be dishonourably discharged from the army. Free article

A senior Labour Backbencher has called on the British government to ``get back in the driving seat on police reform'' in the Six Counties. Former Opposition Spokesperson Kevin McNamara has tabled more than 100 Parliamentary Questions asking for information to be made available on the progress towards implementation of the Patten Report. Free article