On Friday 14 October a man bled to death while waiting to be transferred from Monaghan General Hospital to an intensive care unit elsewhere. The staff at Monaghan were more than willing to treat Patrick Walsh, but were unable to, due to the government's disastrous policy of hospital centralisation. Free article

The revelation that a senior Special Branch officer in the North kept files on an inquiry into the murder of a 15-year-old girl has sent shivers through the Six Counties. But while Eric Anderson's accidental admission to this and the fact that he kept many other documents to thwart Ombudsman Nuala O'Loan's investigations, has repulsed many, it has not surprised. Free article