PAT COX has taken time off from his busy schedule as a high-powered and well-paid, Brussels-based corporate lobbyist to lead the pro-Lisbon campaign group, Ireland for Europe. Launching their campaign in August, Pat Cox and his able assistant, UCD luminary Brigid Laffan, called on the Referendum Commission to introduce a yellow card and red card system for Lisbon Treaty liars. Free article

THE Carers' Association is a national voluntary body founded in 1987 to provide training and emotional support for family carers while at the same time highlighting the immense contribution carers make to Irish society. These people's contribution, in terms of providing high-standard care to elderly, ill or disabled family members is notoriously undervalued, and was even less recognised before the establishment of the Carers' Association. NUNCIE MURPHY is Centre manager for the Waterford branch of the association. She talks to ELLA O'DWYER about the background of the organisation and the battle to have carers properly acknowledged and supported. Free article

THE professional victims' gravy train was at Downing Street on Tuesday morning to ensure that Gordon Brown doesn't do another U-turn on the promised compensation desert trek to Libya where they hope Colonel Gaddafi will cough up the necessary millions to secure their future in the hierarchy of victims they have created. These are the people who have made a career out of being victims. They turn up at every meeting to state their case, which is about demonising and labelling those they believe are responsible and attacking anyone who do not share their particular viewpoint. Thus they talk of the IRA as the only protagonists of the conflict and demand their pound of flesh, which is not about truth or concern for suffering but more and more is being seen as the grubby money-making exercise it is. Free article

WHETHER on the political, hurling or any other battleground, Tipperary has always been a main player, as witnessed in last Sunday's hurling final. Steady progress, patience and keeping the eye on the ball are characteristics that contributed to breakthroughs, both in hurling and politics, in a county that this year sees Sinn Féin take its first county council seat in Tipp North in over 50 years and the county almost seize the Sam McGuire Cup. Sinn Féin North Tipperary Councillor SÉAMUS 'SÉAMIE' MORRIS talks to Tipperary woman ELLA O'DWYER. Free article

Tráthnóna Dé Chéadaoin seo chuaigh thart chruinnigh na sluaite mná tí in Ostán Chois Fharraige sna Forbacha, Co na Gaillimhe lena míshástacht a léiriú ar cheist na gciorrúchán atá molta i dTuairisc Bhord Snip Mhic Chárthaigh. 'Slógadh' a bhí ann le breis agus 500 i láthair agus is fíric í gur chruinnigh siad agus gur thaistil siad ó gach cearn den tír a bheith páirteach san agóid. Free article

'GENERATION YES', a collection of smug baby activists from some of the pro-Lisbon political parties, is currently promoting a 'lie-buster' site against the more dubious claims of Cóir, who are now suggesting that the EU is going to execute Santa. But Generation Yes have more in common with Cóir than they might like to think. They recently launched a YouTube video arguing that the only way to start the fight against human trafficking was to vote for Lisbon. Start? Free article

HARD to tell who was the most unpopular Offaly man in Croke Park last Sunday, Brian Cowen or referee Diarmuid Kirwan! Probably Cowen might have shaded it given that he is currently out of favour across the board, whereas Kirwan had at least the Cats supporters and their admirers on his side. The reasons for Cowen's unpopularity - mainly his presiding over an attempt to rescue a tiny band of parasites at the expense of the rest of us and our posterity - don't need to be expanded upon. Kirwan's was based on two key decisions: the sending off of Benny Dunne for a wild pull across Tommy Walsh's head and the awarding of a penalty to Kilkenny which, some argue, changed the destination of the match. Free article

WHEN three IRA prisoners dramatically escaped from Dublin's Mountjoy Jail in a helicopter in 1973, a comrade wrote from the prison: "One shamefaced screw apologised to the Governor and said he thought it was the Minister for Defence arriving. I told him it was our Minister for Defence leaving." "Our Minister for Defence" was one of the three escapers: Séamus Twomey of Belfast who served twice as IRA Chief of Staff in the 1970s, playing a key role in the reorganisation of the Army both after the split of 1969 and from 1975 when it was restructured more effectively to conduct guerrilla warfare. Free article