Responding to a Dáil ruling that an emergency debate on the UN Resolution on Iraq prior to the Security Council vote was not a matter of 'national importance', Aengus ó Snodaigh TD said that "not only is this an issue of national importance considering Ireland's role on the UN Security Council it is also a matter of urgent international importance." He said the government's decision to prevent a debate prior to the vote was a "disgrace considering the international ramifications of any rush to war in the Middle East". Free article

Dundalk Sinn Féin Councillor Sean Kenna's historic term as the first ever Sinn Féin chair of Dundalk Town Council was marked at a function in the town earlier this month organised by the Worthington/Watters Gerry Halpenny cumann. Free article

Last year, the then Minister of Justice, John O'Donoghue, cobbled up an Agreement with Nigeria to regularise the deportation of asylum seekers to that country. The government didn't seem to know or care that under Sharia law a woman may be stoned to death in punishment of sex out of wedlock, be it rape or otherwise. Free article

Sinn Féin spokesperson on the Environment and Local Government, Arthur Morgan, has described reports that the Minister for the Environment, Martin Cullen, intends to give in to his backbenchers on local government reform as "a massive u-turn" and an "incredibly retrograde step". Free article