The problem for those within the British establishment who wish to attack China's undemocratic rule of Hong Kong is that, as the territory's former colonial masters, Britain's rule hardly differed in style or substance. And by the time Britain was due to vacate Hong Kong they had not, despite protestations to the contrary, shaped the territory into a paradigm of democratic governance. Free article

Faoi mar is eol d'aon duine a chónaíonn ann tá sochaí Shasana truaillithe le cioníochas. Is follasach an meon gránna ciníoch atá forleathan sa tír sin maidir le daoine de bhunadh an hAise, na hAfraice nó Mhuir Chairib ach go dtí le déanaí níor tugadh aird ceart ar an gciníochas frith-Eireannach atá chomh forleathan céanna. Free article

The unanswered question that has dogged me all week is what do you have to do to get on the front pages of an Irish newspaper's Monday morning sports supplement. OK, so there was a heavy weekend of sporting action with the football and hurling All-Ireland championships providing crunching challenges for provincial honours. Yes, Ireland was hosting a world class golf field at Druids Glen, Steve Collins was successfully defending his World Super-middleweight title, and the self proclaimed ``Lions'' were ending their South African tour. Free article

The Irish Holocaust, an artifical famine created by the English parliament's economic policy and their domination of Ireland was the greatest social catastrophe of 19th Century Europe. The reality of it is so appalling that there is no need for inflated statisitics. The Great Famine as it is popularly known began a process of depopulation which transformed the Irish physical, political, social and cultural landscape. The loss of three million people in five years 1845-'50 through death and emigration in effect removed an entire class - the landless rural labourer. Free article

This week our loyalist brethren in the North will be celebrating the victory in the 17th Century (1690) of the non-English speaking Protestant William of Orange from the Netherlands who, in alliance with the Pope, overthrew his Catholic father-in-law, the English king James II at the Battle of the Boyne. The Orange Order, which was founded 100 years later (1795), to defend Protestant sectarian interests under a unifying banner, will once again be organising this week's bonfires and marches. Free article

A Pocket History of the IRA and The French are in the Bay. The Expedition to Bantry Bay 1796 Free article

Readers over, say, 35, will remember Hall's Pictorial Weekly, a triumph of sophisticated satire that managed to treat its mainstream audience with warmth and respect. Nothing RTE has produced since has even come close to what Frank Hall created. Free article

An interesting lesson in the perils of journalism was given to The Irish Independent this week. On Monday they had a front page story in which they quoted ``Sinn Féin spokesman Gerry Kelly'' saying, ``There'll be no IRA ceasefire now. Those soldiers will have to pay for a start. It's been demonstrated clearly to us today that the only thing the British government understands is... Free article

This weeks news in brief... Free article