Speaking at a picket outside Magherafelt British Army barracks, Vice-Chairperson of Magherafelt District Council Séamus O'Brien said this week that republican and nationalist anger at the slow pace of demilitarisation is growing. Free article

A former governor of Armagh jail, Tom Murtagh, has been fiercely criticised by the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee in a report published last Thursday into a disastrous raid last May at Blantyre House in Kent. A highly regarded and progressive resettlement prison, Blantyre House was brought to the brink of anarchy by the raid and trust and morale have since been permanently undermined. Free article

Just weeks after Louth County Council rejected the North East Regional Plan for waste by incineration, the County Council executive attempted, last Monday, to reactivate the discussion in the council meeting. Councillor Arthur Morgan sought legal opinion, and informed the council executive in writing that it would be illegal and a contravention of Standing Orders if the executive were to attempt to rescind the decision made on 25 October rejecting the plan. This action by Arthur Morgan stopped County Manager John Quinlivan in his tracks, preventing him returning to the issue or reversing the vote. Free article

As we gear up for the Christmas shopping season, are you one of the people who thinks we are all just going a bit too far and really something should be done about the huge amount of spending and consumption done not just in December but all year round? Then maybe tomorrow's Buy Nothing Day is for you. Free article

The Dublin North Inner City Folklore Project last Saturday (18 November) unveiled a plaque in memory of Dublin Brigade IRA Commandant Dick McKee and Vice Commandant Peadar Clancy. Free article

The EU took a major step towards the militarisation of Europe at last Monday's meeting of the defence and foreign ministers pledging conference held in Brussels. EU states were apparently falling over themselves to commit more than the requisite number of troops. EU member states pledged a 60,000-strong force with back-up troops, as the blurb goes for purely ``peace keeping, peace enforcing and humanitarian objectives''. Free article

Take 1,004 people from 100 locations around the country and ask them a series of questions on the politics of the day. What do you get? Well, apart from a lot of headlines and John Bruton facing an internal party heave, you also have an electorate that sees Sinn Féin in a different light from that articulated by the leaders of Leinster House political parties. These were just some of the consequences of a poll published by the Irish Independent this week. Free article

On Monday, when the 26-County government implemented the 1996 Refugee Act, it became the law that no media could publish the name of an asylum seeker without first obtaining the Minister of Justice's permission. Free article

June 27 last marked the 30th anniversary of the battle of St Matthews, when the fledgling Provisional IRA faced the crown forces in the first major military engagement of the war. Free article

It is only after 40 years of pollution and wholesale contamination that the British government is finally deciding to think about how to clean up the tonnes of radioactive waste spread across military facilities and nuclear power stations in Britain. Free article