PLEASE LOOK CAREFULLY at the map of Cork. The field, marked Camp Field, is separated from the barracks by a very wide road. It is clear that there is no bridge or other connection between the two. To get to the barracks you have to cross the road; there are no two ways about it. By Colm Toibin
THE PRESIDENT came back from Moscow on Wednesday February 15. He flew from Moscow to Amsterdam by KLM jet. That's 568 roubles, and that's £630 on the offiicial exchange rate. He flew from Amsterdam to Dublin by Aer Lingus, Boeing 737, St Eunan. That's £164. Total £794.
THE SHAFTING of Ken Ryan has revealed hitherto unplumbed depths of gutlessness in Fianna Fail and hypoocrisy in other places. What did Ryan do wrong? He asked FF members to keep an eye out for wrongdoing and deviousness by opposition parties, to check out any stories they heard and send the results to HQ.
The Politics Of The Dolly Mixture
ALL ROADS LEAD TO THE Forum and all roads lead the refrom. It is the filter that will refine everything that nationalist politicians have been doing and saying for the past fifteen years. And at the SDLP Conference in Belfast last weekend, speakers exxpressed their gratitude to Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and Labour for joining them in the Forum, for spending time and energy in the search for peace and reconciliation among nationalists and mayybe, eventually, among all men and women in this country.
VOLUNTEERS, one step forward. Don't all rush. We are this month seeking volunnteers from among the ranks of Cabinet Ministers - or maybe even the Ceann Comhairle. It's in a worthy cause and the brave and generous one will have his or her picture printed on this page, three months running, with two hunndred words of the most obsequious drivel about how brave, generous, public-spirited and just plain nice he or she is.
VOTES: THE GOVERNMENT HAS announced that the local elecctions, due to be held on the same day as the European elections this year, are to be postponed. One of the reasons the government has given is that voters might find voting in two separate elections with separate voting systems confusing.
HUMAN RIGHTS: ON MONDAY NOVEMBER 28 a young fresh-faced soliicitor kept wandering in and out of the Magill offices wanting to see an article. The article was the story of Lyn Madden by June Levine and the young solicitor was acting for John Cullen who had been convicted on Lyn Madden's evidence of murdering Dolores Lynch. As Denis Mitchell, who acted for Magill in the subsequent court case, would later say: Magill does not hand out articles prior to publication to members of the public.
IT is shocking that not one voice has been raised in defence of the poor turkeys of Monaghan. This is the only species of bird that to our knowledge has been repressed by the full might of a modem army. Look at the poor, helpless creature:
Gay Mitchell: FOLLOWING his superb performance during the Papal visit, Brian Farrell again rose to poetic heights in his commentary on the Presidential inauguration. Herewith some short pieces from Decem ber 3.
THE firmest, clearest commitment was given to reopen the mills at about 2am on February 8 of this year by John Bruton. He did so as Fitz Gerald's representative. That night, at a meeting with the General Secretary of the ICTU, he accepted the commitments entered into by Albert Reynolds. He was in absolutely no doubt about what those commitments were, as he was handed- a copy of Reynolds's letter at the meeting. He wasn't happy about it, but he accepted it. That day' the government confirmed those commitments in.a statement.