The Parades Commission's decision to allow the 14 August Apprentice Boys' parade to go ahead along the nationalist Ormeau Road shows that it is yet again bending over backwards to accommodate the Loyal Orders and reward their unsatisfactory attempts at dialogue. Free article

Widespread disappointment has been expressed at the recommendation in the Report of the Victims Commission that an inquiry into the Dublin/Monaghan bombings of 1974 and the murder of Seamus Ludlow should be held in private. Angry relatives and victims of the Dublin and Monaghan bombings at the launch of the Report told John Wilson of the Victims Commission that a private inquiry was not acceptable. Free article

The thousands who walked from the Bobby Sands Memorial in Twinbrook to the City Hall in Belfast City Centre on Sunday, 8 August to mark the 29th anniversary of the introduction of internment, enjoyed their day in the sun. Free article

The Fianna Fáil Minister for the Environment and Local Government, Noel Dempsey, has called for the scrapping of the current Dáil electoral system in the 26 Counties and its replacement with a new system and a reduced number of TDs. Free article

An IRA statement released on Friday, 6 August, confirmed that the IRA cessation, in place since July 1997, is still intact. Free article

Eamann McMenamin, the solicitor of Republican prisoner Davy Adams, has called on the Six-County office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to clarify its decision not to prosecute any members of the RUC over a vicious assault on the 40-year-old cousin of Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams. Free article