17 August 2006 Edition
Duirt Siad....
Why should an Irish speaker have to fight such a battle every time he or she has business with the state? Is this really what Irish freedom means? - Eoin Ó Murchú on the uphill battle Irish speakers face in getting their rights from state bodies and officials in the 26 Counties, Village, 10 August.
Like any good bully, he can instinctively sense where vulnerability and power lie, and skilfully employs the tools of stereotyping and cynicism to mock the weak. - Chekov Feeney, on boorish Charity You're a Star judge and reactionary Sunday Independent 'journalist' Brendan O'Connor, Village, 10 August.
In the mid-1970s the whole weight of British government strategy had one clear objective. Criminalise the prisoners and by extension criminalise their community. The objective of the British government was to crush the republican struggle by crushing the republican prisoners. The British government failed. - Brendan McFarlane, Daily Ireland, 11 August.
His report identified critical errors in the Garda handling of the siege that led to the "avoidable" death of Mr Carthy. It stated that the "negligence of those in command led to the tragedy" of Mr Carthy's death. - Conor Lally, quoting from the report of the tribunal investigating the death of John Carthy in Abbeylara on 20 April 2000, The Irish Times, 11 August.
If, as expected, she concludes that senior police officers allowed state agents to carry out more than a dozen murders with impunity, the implications for both the PSNI and the UUP will be immense. - Post reporter on Nuala O'Loan's impending report dealing with collusion between the Special Branch and the UVF in the murders of up to 12 people, Sunday Business Post, 13 August.
Israel was founded on the terrorising of the indigent Arab population of Palestine, the banishment of this population from their lands and their expulsion to refugee camps around the Middle East. - Vincent Browne, Sunday Business Post, 13 August.
If any other country did what Israel has done in Lebanon for the past 33 days, it would be labelled a terrorist state....What happened in Lebanon between 12 July and yesterday was not self-defence. It was mass murder. - Lara Marlowe, The Irish Times, 15 August.
Despite the economic success of the last decade, poverty appears to be the underlying cause behind most children being admitted into care. About half enter the care system because of neglect, family difficulties such as housing or finance, or parents' inability to cope. - Carl O'Brien, The Irish Times, 15 August.