2 October 1997 Edition
Editor's desk
Our old friend Stalingrad O'Neill has sent us this original cartoon:
I've been listening closely to the SDLP's Mark Durkan over the past few weeks and I've noticed that he's a bit of a lad for the one-liners. So that when the Unionists were blustering over their entry to talks, Durkan said, "It's time to stop the huff and stop the puff and stop the guff". He described the Unionists' indictment of Sinn Féin as being like "being hit over the head with a stick of celery". And, most scathing of all, the Forum is "a creche for political cry babies" with "ya boo politics from yahoo politicians". Like Oscar Wilde, Mark must spend his evenings working out his deadly put-downs.
And while we're on the subject of the Forum, congratulations to RTE's Six-One studio news team for a timely rebirth of the Dublin-based Forum for Peace & Reconciliation. The happy occasion was last Friday when they reported on some more Unionist male bonding at the Forum for Paisley & Recrimination in Belfast. The visual backdrop to this report? Why, the famous dove logo of the Forum for Peace & Reconciliation. Nothing to do with the Belfast Forum, of course.
Last Saturday the people of Markethill were woken from their beds and evacuated from their houses at three in the morning after a suspect device was discovered. Three hours later, after a controlled explosion, the good folk were allowed back to their beds. And who was responsible for this dastardly hoax? A 21-year old former Royal Irish Regiment soldier. And what happened to him? Beaten up in Gough Barracks, charged and remanded in custody to await a stiff sentence? Don't be silly. The man was released without charge, pending a report to the Director of Public Prosecutions. There's justice for you.
Poor old MI5. They have a great big, spanking new office building in the heart of London and thousands of spooks sitting round twiddling their thumbs now that the Cold War is over and the IRA is on ceasefire. So what they have been found to do? Part of their business is now to catch dole cheats. A likely story. What a good cover that is for snooping around erstwhile revolutionaries.
From yesterday motorists in the Six Counties are faced with a new penalty points system. On the face of it, it looks like a fair enough system. Speeding earns you from three to six points. Baldy tyres get you three points, and so on. If you clock up 12 penalty points in three years, you're disqualified from driving. It's fair enough until you realise that the system is administered by our friendly RUC. Alleged traffic violations have always been a notorious means to harass republicans or recruit informers. If you ask me, this new system is tailor-made for that type of abuse from our unionist enforcers. How long before we report the first example?
I've been listening closely to the SDLP's Mark Durkan over the past few weeks and I've noticed that he's a bit of a lad for the one-liners. So that when the Unionists were blustering over their entry to talks, Durkan said, "It's time to stop the huff and stop the puff and stop the guff". He described the Unionists' indictment of Sinn Féin as being like "being hit over the head with a stick of celery". And, most scathing of all, the Forum is "a creche for political cry babies" with "ya boo politics from yahoo politicians". Like Oscar Wilde, Mark must spend his evenings working out his deadly put-downs.
And while we're on the subject of the Forum, congratulations to RTE's Six-One studio news team for a timely rebirth of the Dublin-based Forum for Peace & Reconciliation. The happy occasion was last Friday when they reported on some more Unionist male bonding at the Forum for Paisley & Recrimination in Belfast. The visual backdrop to this report? Why, the famous dove logo of the Forum for Peace & Reconciliation. Nothing to do with the Belfast Forum, of course.
Last Saturday the people of Markethill were woken from their beds and evacuated from their houses at three in the morning after a suspect device was discovered. Three hours later, after a controlled explosion, the good folk were allowed back to their beds. And who was responsible for this dastardly hoax? A 21-year old former Royal Irish Regiment soldier. And what happened to him? Beaten up in Gough Barracks, charged and remanded in custody to await a stiff sentence? Don't be silly. The man was released without charge, pending a report to the Director of Public Prosecutions. There's justice for you.
Poor old MI5. They have a great big, spanking new office building in the heart of London and thousands of spooks sitting round twiddling their thumbs now that the Cold War is over and the IRA is on ceasefire. So what they have been found to do? Part of their business is now to catch dole cheats. A likely story. What a good cover that is for snooping around erstwhile revolutionaries.
From yesterday motorists in the Six Counties are faced with a new penalty points system. On the face of it, it looks like a fair enough system. Speeding earns you from three to six points. Baldy tyres get you three points, and so on. If you clock up 12 penalty points in three years, you're disqualified from driving. It's fair enough until you realise that the system is administered by our friendly RUC. Alleged traffic violations have always been a notorious means to harass republicans or recruit informers. If you ask me, this new system is tailor-made for that type of abuse from our unionist enforcers. How long before we report the first example?