Seán Ó Muireagáin, the Belfast man wrongly arrested in Israel on suspicion of being a 'Real IRA' member training Palestinian militants, was finally released yesterday when Israeli security officials admitted it was a case of mistaken identity. Free article

The newspaper headlines read "Sunshine greets 12th Marchers" and "A peaceful but intensely political event". There were full colour, front page photos of Orange marches with the occasional special pull-out section several pages long. Marchers were "blessed" with blue skies, and there were pictures of smiling children dressed in Orange regalia marching proudly beside their fathers and grandfathers. Free article

It only seems like yesterday that Johnny Adair and his cohorts were strutting around outside Drumcree Church, while young loyalists hurled stones and fireworks at the lines of police and soldiers drawn up below. How often did Orangemen portray Drumcree as their Alamo, a last stand in which their whole tradition was at stake? Today, that bluster has been replaced by farce. If Drumcree was the Orange Order's chosen battleground, it has turned out not their Alamo, but their Waterloo. Free article

Two malicious fires have left children in the New Lodge/Duncairn area of North Belfast without a playground. Free article

Sinn Féin must play a key role in the emerging global movement for change to secure a global context for our national agenda for change and ensure that national independence does not arrive in a context that reduces it to corporate subservience, argues COUNCILLOR EOIN Ó BROIN Free article

Responding to a written comment from British Secretary of State Paul Murphy in the House of Commons, revealing a limited summary of the Chilcot report into the raid on the Special Branch offices at Castlereagh, Sinn Féin Policing spokesperson Gerry Kelly said "this summary sheds no light on who was responsible. Free article

It has been a bad few weeks for those within the British Intelligence and military community who are sympathetic to the unionist/loyalist/British Army cause. The activities of the UDA and its political masters have, at last, been subjected to a degree of media scrutiny; the Orange Order has been daily revealing itself in all its unpleasantness on Channel 4; while in Iraq the occupying British Army has been repeating all the vile behaviour it displayed in Ireland. Also on Channel 4, the criminality of many British soldiers, and the tolerance of it by the authorities, was revealed in a damning documentary about the horrific murder of Danish tour guide Louise Jensen by three drunken soldiers in Cyprus. Free article

Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams has welcomed the news that John Spellar is to meet with the family of Peter McBride, the teenager shot dead by two British soldiers. Free article

A five-year-old Protestant boy sustained serious eye injuries in a sectarian attack at the weekend. In a separate incident, there was an arson attack on a Presbyterian hall in County Donegal. Free article

Sinn Féin Councillors Alex Maskey and John O'Dowd last week launched an anti-racist charter for local councils and their members to sign up to. This initiative follows an increasing number of violent racist attacks in recent times and is an attempt to present a united political front to challenge those involved in these attacks. Free article

Sinn Féin Dáil spokesperson on Housing, Arthur Morgan, has accused the Auctioneers and Valuers Institute (IAVI) of having no sense of social responsibility. Free article

Irish banks have failed to pass on European Central Bank interest rate cuts and people with loans, overdrafts and credit cards are being ripped off as a result. This was clearly exposed at the Oireachtas Committee on Finance and the Public Service last week, which met all the main banks and the senior state official charged with looking after the consumer's interest. The special meeting was held on the proposal of Sinn Féin Dáil Finance spokesperson, Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin. Free article