"Spooks, spies and failed politicians", is how Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams described the authors of the report issued by the self-proclaimed 'Independent Monitoring Commission' in the middle of last week. He might well have added 'spoofs' to complete the alliteration, because that is how republicans and many nationalists across Ireland, particularly in the North, will view the report and the IMC. Free article

While the bribery trial of media magnate and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi resumed on Friday week last, a somewhat revelatory nugget suggests that concerns about media ownership need to be voiced closer to home. Last week, this paper reported that the former owner of the Irish Times labelled one of his editors a "white nigger" due to the paper's coverage of events in the Six Counties in 1969. Free article

AN DRAOI RUA discusses some of the special powers that ordinary people possess in Irish lore; cures, blessings, curses, prophecies etc. Níl amhras ar bith ann ach go gcuirtear spéis ar leith sna cumhachtaí speisialta a chleachtann laochra béaloidis. Ní amháin go raibh na draoithe, na naoimh, na filí agus gaiscígh eile ábalta gníomhartha osnádúrtha a chur i gcrích ach is cosúil go raibh agus go bhfuil go fóill cumasaí fíor-spéisiúla ag cuid de ghnáthphobal na tíre. Free article

An Phoblacht's famous satirical weekly column. Read on... Free article

Few things frustrate me more in life than critics. I've often thought that it's far easier to make a negative criticism of somebody else's work than to actually create something yourself. For that reason, I generally stay away from the reviewing section in our paper. Occasionally, I will pick up a book we've been sent and have a look, but it's rarely for the purpose of a post mortem. Free article

BY STEPHEN MOORE - Those in search of neo-nazis rioting on the streets or hooligan "firms" orchestrating pre-arranged acts of violence should pop down to their local Eircom League game, if what has been laid down in print in the last couple of weeks is to be believed. No Eircom League ground is safe, it appears. Average football fans run the risk of being caught in the midst of sets of rival supporters going hell for leather at each other every time they attend a match. Free article