This week 35 years ago, on 17 January 1972, seven republican internees escaped from the British prison ship, HMS Maidstone, moored at the coal wharf in Belfast docks, and swam to freedom. They achieved fame in news headlines across the world as 'The Magnificent Seven'. Free article

Imagine that Bertie Ahern was in the middle of negotiations to form a government with, let's say, Labour leader, Pat Rabbitte; imagine also that one side provoked a crisis by failing to release a statement, agreed by both sides at a critical juncture in the talks. In this scenario, the hottest story, from any media perspective, would be production of that statement by one party to illustrate the duplicity of the other. Free article

An Phoblacht's famous weekly satirical column. Free article

Were you pleased at the outcome of the Great Southern Hotel meeting? Really? I am a bit concerned that people like Hugh Orde are a bit too quick to offer political commentary. He said something about "money sucking enquiries" which is a bit of an intrusion that would need to be watched. Free article