The heavy RUC presence during this year's Sean South and Fergal O'Hanlon commemoration at Altawalk, near Brookeborough in County Fermanagh was ``designed to intimidate and to disrupt the ceremony'', according to Sinn Féin councillor Brian McCaffrey, from Roslea. Free article

The `Northern Ireland' Tourist Board and its chairman Roy Bailie were again in the hot seat last week after a highly critical report was published by the head of the Six-County audit office. Free article

``I am ashamed about it and feel dirty.'' This is just one of the comments made by a young person in a study carried out for Women's Aid into young people's experience and responses to violence and abuse. Free article

Sinn Féin councillors Seán Crowe and Mark Daly led an angry protest at Greenhills Road in Tallaght, Dublin on Saturday after a recent fatality again highlighted the issue of road safety in the area. Free article

Belfast City Council has proved it would rather waste thousands of pounds of ratepayers' money on legal costs to defend its refusal to fund Belfast's St. Patrick's Day celebrations than fund what it sees as a nationalist celebration. Free article

It seems that hardly a week goes by without the fascist tendencies of a significant portion of the British Army being exposed. This week it is the turn of the second battalion of the Parachute Regiment, now based in Colchester, whose members have been photographed indulging themselves in neo-nazi rituals and activities. Free article

Last week, the 26-County Department of Justice announced that 222 people, who had sought asylum in this state, had been deported since July 1999, when the Immigration Act came into force. Six had been deported in 1999, 187 last year, and 29 so far this year. The figure went up to 30 on Thursday, when the Department whisked an asylum seeker away just before his solicitor was due to apply for leave to review the Tribunal's rejection of his plea for asylum. Free article

The story of one of the bloodiest engagements of the War of Independence will be recreated by local historians as part of the commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the Cúl na Cathrach Ambush, east of Baile Mhic Íre (Ballymakeera), Co. Cork this Sunday, 25 February. Free article

The Union of Students in Ireland (USI) launched a campaign this week to raise awareness about drug rape in colleges nationwide. Free article

``Something for everyone'' was how children's festival organiser Carol Jackson described this year's Draíocht Féile programme: ``We have the usual mix of arts workshops, mask-making, mime, music, jewellery craft as well as painting workshops with two top Irish artists Jim Fitzpatrick and John Kennedy.'' Free article