Society

Roisin McDermott has been a leading light the in the campaign against domestic violence. But after 20 years she is giving it all up for the quiet life.

The murder of Veronica Guerin two years ago next month (June) was a heinous crime. It caused deep shock not just among the family and friends of Veronica, but throughout the country. This was because Veronica had become known nationally from the time of the previous attempt on her life in 1995 and because there seemed something especially awful about the calculated murder of a young, beautiful mother in the prime of her life and career.

“Paul Ward told me he was going to be arrested for the murder on the night. He told me this on the night I signed the blank passport forms”
“I gave a court official £40 or £50 to pull summonses”
“Long told me he already had a friend in the force”
Garda John O'Neill

By Liz Walsh 

"A bit of a PR job"

THE INITIAL HOPE OF A settlement to the Dunnes Stores strike would seem by now to have completely faded. The proposal to phase out South African goods sugggested by Minister for Labour Ruairi Quinn, has seemingly failed. This, despite Minister Quinn's suggestion that he is still in consultation with supermarket owners about the issue.

1. Larry Moves On

No MATTER HOW OFTEN HE RAISED THE subject and no matter what argument he used at family meetings, the verdict was always the same:  "You're going down, Larry." Still, thinking back to the hung jury in the April trial, wishful thinking won the battle with his common sense. Even Christy, the eldest brother and an indefatigable optimist, told him he was going to jail.

Vested interests have turned a manageable problem into a crisis. By Gene Kerrigan and Helen SHaw. Additional reporting by Mark Brennock

1977. Elvis Presley died and King Lear was on the LEaving Cert. Mark Twain on the Inter and Thin Lizzy played in Dalymount Park. Dublin won the All-Ireland and the Clash played in TCD. Punk music was just beginnning to take off with a bang. We had a general election as well and the Soldiers of Destiny got back with Jack.

INTO AMBIVALENCE, PREVARICATION, FANATIcism , when confronted with the nightmare of Ulster. Derek Mahon, however, speaks of it with a poignant candour "The Protestants are the problem, not the Brits. The Brits for all their bluster, will go when they have to. But the Protestants are a terrified people; terrified and maimed Most societies are pretty sick, but Northern Ireland is sick unto death, perhaps because at a deep level it knows it shouldn't exist. The Ulster Protestant must be saved from himself; he will have to rethink himself or quit.

How Brendan Flynn, property tycoon and prominent member of Fianna Fail, found himself lying backwards across a desk being interrogated by Spanish Police about the murder of his business partner. By Sam Smyth

Over THE LAST SIX MONTHS there HAVE been radical changes in the Dublin heroin trade. They are the result of three factors ~ a series of successful operatioas by the Garda Drugs Squad, the resultant disintegration of the Dunne family's heroin empire, and the determined action taken by comuunities to evict pushers from their areas.