A vital step forward in the full implementation of the Good Friday Agreement was made on Tuesday when the All-Ireland Ministerial Council met in Armagh for the first time since 2002. This week's meeting was only the fifth since the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 but it was the first to be held in a political climate where further progress is anticipated with Sinn Féin and the DUP sharing Executive power in the Six Counties. Free article

"It's like an alcoholic", said a colleague trying to shape his thoughts around this year's Orange Marching Season. "The first step to recovery is admitting there's a problem, and that's what's missing", he said. Free article

The campaign of lies and smears against Sinn Féin in the organs of Tony O'Reilly's Independent News and Media did not end with the General Election. This is a long-term project fuelled by the reactionary politics of the Independent group and carried out in garish and increasingly sleazy style in the Sunday World which exploits public fear and public fascination with the world of Ireland's criminal gangsters. Free article

Women prisoners in the Six Counties are routinely isolated, ignored, abused and mistreated, according to a report by the Human Rights Commission. The failure to provide adequate, female-centred places of detention leaves women prisoners particularly vulnerable. Incarceration in male dominated institutions results in women enduring restricted facilities and inadequate care while at the same time being subjected to open hostility and the constant threat of sexual violence. Free article

Sinn Féin is positive about the prospect of electing Pearse Doherty as the party's first ever member of the Seanad in Leinster House. The party has contested the election for the first time on the basis of its strong performance in the local elections of 2004. County and city councillors as well as TDs vote in the election. Free article

Olivia Agbanlahor and her six year old twins Great and Melissa are a Nigerian family facing deportation on this Thursday 19 July unless Minister Brian Lenihan intervenes to allow them to remain in Ireland. In March 2003 the young mother and her children moved to Ireland and were allocated accommodation in a reception centre for asylum seekers in Clonakility, Co Cork. Over time they integrated themselves into the local community, gaining the support and esteem of their neighbours. Free article