In its New Year message, the leadership of Óglaigh na hÉireann outlines how the achievement of a comprehensive agreement to resolve "all outstanding issues" was prevented by a demand for humiliation. The IRA leadership also rejects, outright, recent attempts to criminalise IRA Volunteers and the republican struggle. Free article

As we enter 2005 I am disappointed that we were unable to see the reinstatement of the Political Institutions and the implementation of the outstanding elements of the Good Friday Agreement (GFA). But we should not lose sight of the tremendous progress that was made. Of course, we will always have the naysayers nitpicking through anything that they can't claim ownership of and in doing so undermine the good work that has been done. Free article

On 16 December, eight months after Niall Connolly, Jim Monaghan and Martin McCauley were found innocent by a Colombian judge, the verdict was overturned by an appeal court and they were handed down sentences of over 17 years each on trumped up charges of training left-wing FARC guerrillas. Free article

Colombian Attorney General Luis Camilo Osorio, the man who pursued the overturning of the acquittal of the Colombia Three, has a long and frightening record of human rights abuses in the Latin American country. Free article

On 11 August 2001, three Irishmen, Niall Connolly, Jim Monaghan and Martin McCauley, were arrested at El Dorado airport in Bogata, Colombia. They were charged with training left-wing FARC guerrillas in bomb-making techniques and holding false documentation. Within days, the men were being referred to as IRA members by the Colombian authorities and much of the international press, despite the fact the IRA stated early on that it had not sent any of its members to Colombia to engage in military cooperation with any group. Free article

With familiar resilience, one local Ballymurphy wit described the community's response to the Christmas Eve PSNI raid on a neighbour's home as "like a scene from Spartacus". As several hundred people gathered outside the house to demonstrate their solidarity with the family and curb the 'enthusiasm' of the raiding party, a single voice rang out from amongst the gathering. "It's under my mattress." The cry was enthusiastically taken up by other members of the crowd. Free article

Sinn Féin National Chairper-son Mitchel McLaughlin has urged the two governments to speedily refocus their efforts to build upon the progress already achieved last year and see the job of achieving a deal completed. Free article