THE media has been dominated over recent months and weeks with the issue of child sex abuse in institutions controlled by the Catholic Church. I totally agree with the demands being made by voices from every walk of life and from all persuasions for not just those who were guilty of these vile crimes to be exposed and prosecuted but for those in the Hierarchy who turned a blind eye to also be held to account. Free article

IN his February 2009 Ard Fheis speech, Gerry Adams called for an, 'egalitarian alternative to the politics of greed, inefficiency, waste and corruption.' He called for realignment in Irish politics to end "the dominance' of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. "The Labour Party" argued Adams "has a duty not to prop up either Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael. Instead Labour should explore with us and others the potential for co-operation in the future." Free article

Tagann litreacha bagartha tríd an phost chugam ó am go ham - billí leictreachas, cuimhneachán faoi cheadúnas teilifíse (ah, na seanlaethanta órga roimh TG4 agus deireadh Alt 31 nuair a bhíodh leithscéal breá, polaitiúil agam gan an diabhal bille ceadúnas a íoc), agus an tseachtain seo, nóta ón fhiaclóir ag cur i gcuimhne domh go raibh dhá bhliain imithe le sruth ó thug mé mo chuairt deireanach air. Dhá bhliain. Níor mhothaigh mé uaim é, ach an bhfuil a fhios agaibh seo, chomh luath agus a fuair mé an litir thosaigh mé ag cuimhneamh ar m'fhiacla. Barr mo theangan ag fiosrú poillín anseo, ag aimsiú líonadh briste ansin agus ag comhaireamh (go brónach) go bhfuil níos mó bearnaí ann ná mar atá fiacail - (caillte, tá a fhios agaibh, ar son na cúise sa Crum agus sa Cheis...) Free article

TREMBLE at the sound of their approach, my Northern brothers and sisters, for Fianna Fáil is on the march. The Boys of the Brown Envelope Brigade (never quite made it as a rebel song but available to buy online at www.fiannafail.ie) are wandering up for reasons vaguely defined but linked in part to a sense of embarrassment at having abandoned the Fourth Green Field for eight decades. Free article

THIS WEEK saw yet another attempt by the GAA to revamp football and hurling by introducing a series of experimental rule changes that will be tested after Christmas before being voted on at Congress. Some of the football ones are interesting. The hand pass, which was such a prominent feature of the game in the 1970s and early 1980s, is effectively being reintroduced, probably to get around the current difficulty many referees seem to have applying the rule as it stands. A more controversial change is the introduction of a 'mark' similar to Aussie rules where a player catching the ball between the two 45-metre lines will now be allowed a free-kick. While devotees of high fielding may welcome this, I can see it contributing mainly to further delays and time wasting. Free article

THE month between 16 November and 17 December 1984 saw the deaths of a Sinn Féin member at the hands of unionist gunmen and of five IRA Volunteers in action against the British crown forces in Counties Antrim, Fermanagh, Derry and Armagh. It was one of the most intense and tragic months of the conflict. Paddy Brady was a Sinn Féin activist in the St James's area of west Belfast. A tireless worker for the republican prisoners and their families, he was also extremely active in his local community. He worked as a milk roundsman and on 16 November he was shot dead outside Kennedy's Dairy on the Boucher Road. His UDA assassins escaped in a car towards the nearby loyalist Village. In the early hours of 2 December, IRA Volunteers in Belleek, County Fermanagh, were waiting with a landmine to ambush British military forces. They were surprised by an undercover unit of the British Army's SAS (Special Air Service). Volunteer Antoine Mac Giolla Bhrighde was with another Volunteer in a van, which was to be used to leave the ambush site, when the SAS car approached. Mac Giolla Bhrighde walked towards the car to investigate and it is believed he was then captured by the British soldiers, beaten and shot dead. Free article