Low spending on primary education means many Irish schools must turn to competitions and other projects sponsored by multinationals. As schools – and advertisers – prepare for the new school year, Hilary Curley reports on children's increasing influence on their parents' shopping habits

Fr Patrick Ryan was charged with serious explosives offences in Britain in 1988. The British authorities sought his extradition from Ireland to Britain to face trial on those charges. The Irish Attorney General at the time considered the extradition request and concluded the extradition request should be refused on the grounds that Fr Ryan could not get a fair trial.

The Progressive Democrats could cause a major crisis in the coalition over the Colombia Three, writes Vincent Browne

Ratings fall as RTÉ struggles to cope with the post-Gaybo era.

New report will examine whether gardaí fabricated the confession of Dean Lyons to the murder of Sylvia Shiels and Mary Cullinan. By Vincent Browne

Sinn Féin wants to defuse the controversy over the Colombia Three before the political season resumes in early autumn. Hence the decision of the Three to make themselves available to gardaí. While on a personal basis Gerry Adams and the Sinn Féin leadership would have welcomed the return of James Monaghan and Martin McCauley – Niall Connolly would be unknown to most in the leadership – they would not have welcomed the political fall-out to their arrival back in Ireland.

The conduct of the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform on the Dean Lyons case beggars belief, given all that is now known about practices and culture within An Garda Síochána. For years now, the Department has been dodging and weaving central questions over the Dean Lyons case, thereby compounding the malaise within the Garda.

The acquittal of the Mayo farmer, Pádraig Nally, on the charge of the murder of John Ward, a Traveller, suggests there is not just a wicked and pervasive cultural prejudice against one of the most vulnerable groups in society generally, but that this prejudice has infected the legal system as well.

Short of disbandment and an apology for the deaths and hurt caused, the IRA statement could not have gone further and is a huge personal and political achievement for Gerry Adams. By Vincent Browne

The Sunday World of 24 July included several articles that exhibited deep prejudice against Travellers. Vincent Browne reports