Media

The judges on Dragon's Den choose whether or not to break the hearts of eager inventors, while in the strange world of The Honourable Scaffolder, being killed or spared depends on how much you're willing to pay

Perhaps it was Sam Smyth's treat to himself to have the Minister for Justice, Michael McDowell, on Today FM's Sunday Supplement on the day of his birthday. Smyth, McDowell and Mairéad McGuinness had some cosy chats, pretty much agreeing on immigration, identity cards, policing and prison services. They would though, wouldn't they?

The brutal killing of Gary Douch in Mountjoy Prison on 1 August turned the media's attention to the appalling state of Ireland's prisons. The following day, the Irish Times reported that Michael McDowell had ordered an independent report into the killing. Conor Lally predicted the inquiry would be likely to "expose major failings" in the system. He was able to make this prediction with confidence, since the problems in our prisons are well-known and have been repeatedly highlighted and faithfully ignored in recent years.

People are not suuposed criticise Islam as a religion but they can persecute radical Muslims. Meejit thinks that everyone has got it arseways.

Irish Press plc is still haunted by the ongoing row between its controlling editor, Eamon de Valera, grandson of the former president and taoiseach, and the company's shareholders. Frank Connolly attended this year's highly-charged AGM

There is a great joy in being able to speak Irish. My conversational Irish is still quite limited. But I try to learn a little bit every day. Even one word or a phrase. When I first started to try to make public remarks through the medium of Irish, I was ridiculed by many of my detractors. But I persevered. I'm still not proficient, but I get great satisfaction in the number of strangers who speak Irish to me. In west Belfast, which has its own thriving Gaeltacht quarter, it is possible to do business through the medium of Irish in local shops, pubs and other places.

Up from the row of grey subway steps, into the sunlight. I started walking a bit hastily, not quite sure which way to go. I was looking for Brooklyn College, but the area I came upon was a fairly rough-looking one. Small brownstones, shattered stoops, bent ironwork railings, mismatched curtains, radios propping open the windows. Music wafted out and seemed to hang in the air, then drop. Women sat on the steps, with the street-corner stare of those who have seen too much. They looked along a row of dented cars and broken fire hydrants.

The front pages on Tuesday 22 August announced that British police had charged 11 people with offences relating to the recent alleged bomb plot. The statement issued by the police described the discovery of "bomb-making equipment... chemicals, including hydrogen peroxide, electrical components, documents and other items... a number of video recordings – these are sometimes referred to as martyrdom videos".

Why does journalism appear to consider itself a secular pursuit? Is this syndrome especially a feature of Irish journalism and, if so, why? Writing in the foreword to the annual report of the Catholic Communications Office, Archbishop Sean Brady of Armagh, and Primate of All Ireland, strongly criticised, without naming names, several Irish Sunday newspapers, and urged his flock to use consumer power to effect change in the media.

A Channel 4 documentary about the Hitlers unearths some interesting skeletons in the dictator's family closet, while RTÉ finally moves its Shortscreen series of short films to a more deserving time slot