MY FRIEND had occasion to visit the Vehicle Testing Centre in Derry. When asked his name and address he naturally used Derry, the vernacular of Doire, the name first given by the Celts to the oak grove that was the origins of the City, and the name that has survived to the present day. You can imagine his surprise when the young female clerk returned the form on which she had written his name, the name of the street where he lived and beneath it in place of Derry, she had written "Unknown". Free article

The RDS, Dublin 9.30am, Saturday 3 October and the omens aren't great. Proinsias de Rossa was right behind me in the queue for coffee when, by dint of some devious side-stepping move, he suddenly skips the queue and appears in front of me. I'm speechless. Over at the barrier, doing the tally, there's an overture of four Tás before the first Níl appears. It's not looking good at all. "We never win anything," quips one smart-assed comedian before psyching himself up for the inevitable. It was becoming apparent that we'd shortly be all Tá-d out. Free article

STEREOTYPICAL attitudes about drugs include images of people 'shooting up' in dark, secluded side-streets or popping pills in the nightclubs of big cities like Dublin. Now we see the signs in rural towns throughout the country and, if anything, there's a level of complacency amongst the users and their suppliers and even the general public. You'll see dealers hanging around post offices and social welfare premises on dole day or at street corners marketing their supplies. Merchants Quay Ireland, a Dublin-based organisation that provides a broad range of supports for drug users, last week launched a report that presents a poor prognosis. Free article

SO HERE'S how the media works. On Tuesday morning, Gilmore and Kenny are wandering around and throwing shapes about our expense-account-loving Ceann Comhairle John O'Donoghue. The former wants a meeting of all the party leaders in the Dáil. Kenny is planning on meeting with the Fine Gael members of the Oireachtas Commission to demand cutbacks in the Ceann Comhairle's office. Free article

On 15 September, Justice Richard Goldstone delivered a searing indictment of the conduct of the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF), during their murderous assault on Gaza, which left some 1400 Palestinians dead. And the indictment - contained in his investigation into the war - is one that directly implicates the Israeli state and, by extension, its longstanding campaign to prevent the emergence of a viable Palestinian state. Free article

Bhí scéal (den genre miotas uirbeach, b'fhéidir) ag cara liom an tseachtain seo faoi dhuine a raibh aithne ag duine eile a bhí ag aonach capall i rith an tsamhraidh. Bhí sé ag díol capaillín agus fad a's go raibh sé ina sheasamh lena chapall tháinig fear eile chuige agus capaillín leis, á tharraing le rópa gorm. Bhí sé ag teacht ar 3.30, bhí an t-aonach beagnach thart agus ní raibh mórán díol ná ceannach ar siúl cé go raibh daoine ag spaisteoireacht timpeall, ó sheastán go seastán, ó mangaire go mangaire. Free article

I HAVE been struck from an early age at the difference between the official nicknames given to county teams and the more usual expressions applied by fans. Dublin are still referred to in programmes as 'The Metropolitans', which has a decidedly Batmanesque ring to it. In actual fact, it refers to the original hurling club established in the city by GAA founder member Michael Cusack. Free article

THE year 1984 saw the British government of Margaret Thatcher step up its war in Ireland with greater repression on the streets of the Six Counties, the use of paid perjurers to round up and jail citizens in a form of internment, and the continued murder campaign by Britain's counter-gangs, the unionist paramilitaries. In March of that year, Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams and three other republicans were ambushed and shot in their car as they were driving from Belfast Magistrates' Court. They had been facing charges relating to the attempted seizure by the RUC of a Tricolour carried in a car cavalcade celebrating Gerry Adams's election as West Belfast MP the previous summer. Free article