THERE has been an angry reaction across the 26 Counties to the recommendations to government of 'An Bord Snip Nua' published on 16 July. €5.3 billion of spending cuts, mainly affecting health, education and social welfare, and thousands of job losses have been recommended by the report of the Special Group on Public Service Numbers and Expenditure Programmes chaired by economist Colm McCarthy. Free article

CUTS in social welfare payments, health services, higher medical care costs, fewer gardaí on the streets, half of rural Garda stations closed, fewer teachers, 1,000 less schools in rural Ireland, less public transport, more expensive school buses in rural areas, the end of any strategy for rural and regional development in Ireland, less local democracy. These are just some of the possible outcomes that could drastically change the social landscape in Ireland for the worse if the proposals unveiled in the publication of the reports of the Special Group on Public Service Numbers and Expenditure Programmes ('An Bord Snip Nua') are implemented in Budget 2010. Free article

ORANGE ORDER Grand Secretary Drew Nelson stood in front of the camera and demanded an apology, but what he was really offering was little more than a lame excuse. Nelson was responding to an offer by Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams of dialogue as a means to resolve the outstanding matter of contentious Orange parades. Republicans would have to apologise for "the IRA murder of the 275 Orangemen murdered during the Troubles" before he could even contemplate any dialogue with Sinn Féin, Nelson told the media. Free article

SINN FÉIN Dáil leader and Health & Children spokesperson Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin described Wednesday 22 July 2009 as a terrible day for public health services as the axe finally fell on all acute medical services at Monaghan General Hospital, the blueprint for the removal of services from similar hospitals across the state. Free article

SINN FÉIN Health & Children spokesperson Caoimhghín Ó Caolain has described as "cynical in the extreme" the decision of the Health Minister Mary Harney to publish the report on the Leas Cross nursing home on the same day as the publication of the 'Bord Snip' report. Free article

MY abiding memory of the events in west Belfast on Thursday night, 14 August 1969, was of standing in the grounds of Clonard Monastery, watching in sheer disbelief nationalist homes in neighbouring Cupar Street, Norfolk Street, David Street and Conway Street burning. This was my introduction to naked sectarian hatred and the true nature of the Orange State. Growing up in Clonard, we always sensed that we were trapped within a hostile statelet, whose flag was not our flag, whose police force treated us with suspicion and contempt, but nothing could prepare us for what was unfolding before our very eyes that evening. Free article

A MEMBER of the North's Policing Board, Foyle Sinn Féin MLA Martina Anderson, is calling on the PSNI to investigate under incitement legislation a Derry UDA magazine which she branded "a blatant and sinister incitement to hatred". "I have been given a copy of the UDA magazine, Warrior, by a concerned constituent after it was distributed in mixed areas of the Waterside this week," Martina Anderson said. Free article