"Pure mistake and human error." Write these words down. This was how AIB explained away eight years of overcharging foreign exchange clients that culminated in at least €25 million being fraudulently taken from the bank's customers. Free article

13 May 2004 Free article

There is to be a new probe into the 1997 murder of GAA official Seán Brown. A unionist paramilitary gang abducted the 61-year-old County Derry official as he was locking premises of the Bellaghy GAA Club. His body was later discovered beside his burnt out car in Randalstown. Free article

Could a tragedy similar to the one that occurred on Dublin's Wellington Quay last 21 February, which claimed the lives of five people, happen again? The answer, according to the recently formed Independent Workers' Union, is yes. The new union has reacted angrily to recent news stories claiming that the accident at Wellington Quay was caused by human error. The union members say that the stories were based on a report that has not investigated all the possible causes of the accident. Free article

In a week which has seen an increase in sectarian attacks across the Six Counties, unionist paramilitary bombers targeted Catholics in Randalstown in County Antrim and Maghera, County Derry and a Catholic man was lucky to escape alive after a machete attack in North Belfast. Free article

The record of the upper echelons of the Catholic Church in Ireland as defenders of nationalist community in the Six Counties is not, with a few exceptions, a glorious one. Throughout the conflict, the hierarchy all but ignored the injustice of the Stormont regime and the atrocities committed by agents of the British state, whilst consistently directing most of its spiritual firepower at republicanism. Free article

South Belfast Sinn Féin Assembly member Alex Maskey has expressed serious concerns that elements within unionist paramilitaries are attempting raise tensions in the McClure Street area in advance of the marching season. Maskey's comments come after a group of 40 masked men drove into the area at 10pm on Tuesday night and threatened local residents. The PSNI in riot gear were present at the scene. Free article

Kerry TD Martin Ferris was in Clare on Saturday, where Sinn Féin is running four candidates for six seats for the first time. Ferris arrived in Killimer, where he met with 16 workers fighting for their jobs with the Clare Local Employment Service, whose employment was terminated on 31 January. Ferris said he was impressed with their determination to secure their jobs to get back to providing an outreach service to those most in need. Free article

Sinn Féin TD Seán Crowe has called for the campaign to bring home the Colombia Three to be intensified in the coming days. Free article

Sinn Féin Vice President Joe Cahill was awarded £30,000 compensation in the Belfast High Court on Tuesday, his solicitor, Michael Flanigan, announced. Cahill suffers from a serious lung disease as a result of coming into contact with asbestos while working as a joiner converting troop carriers into passenger ships. The money was in settlement of his claim for personal injury arising out of his employment at Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast between 1949 and 1951. Free article