Society

The nature of Opus Dei, and its activities, have hitherto been shrouded in mystery. Maurice Roche raises the blindson this secretive and influential organisation.

Colm Toibin listens to two supporters of the FitzGerald Amendment.

Colm Toibin got on the anti-abortion bandwagon and travelled with it to its candle-lit march.

Christmas day came and the usual group of idiots went swimming in freezing water, knowing they'd be on the TV news because there's no real news at Christmas. And the Pope, as usual, gave his seasonal blessing and he got his regular spot. What was unusual was the news of a riot in Limerick on Christmas Eve, with windows smashed, shops looted and a Libyan caught up in the fighting, stabbed and killed.

In this article from 1982, Gene Kerrigan writes that what is needed for Ballymun (then as now) is "a housing policy based on the needs of the tenants rather than an expedient policy based on the political and economic needs of the authorities. Then Ballymun could grow as a community."

"I'm not going to vote," she said. Brian Lenihan tut-tutted. "You must use your vote," he chided. "Vote for somebody. That's the democratic system." She leaned against the doorpost, head swathed in a towel. "It's your system," she said coldly as the children crawled in and out the door and her friend wheeled a pram full of old clothes into the hallway. "It's not my system. I'm not going to vote." By Olivia O'Leary

An excerpt, set in the 1930s, from Mollie Moran's unpublished memoirs of fifty years lived in the shadow of a large Midland's estate. By MOLLIE MORAN

THERE ARE SOME 450 IRISH PEOPLE IMPRISONED IN MOUNTJOY. These  people are robbed of their dignity, they enjoy no privacy and they are subjected to a petty authoritarian regime which hasn't changed essentially for over a century.  Pat Brennan has the inside story on Mounjoy.

Ten years ago, when the Commission for the Status of Women was formed, there was no equal pay legislation, no availability of contraceptives, glaring inequities in social welfare payments, no social welfare payments at all for unwed mothers or single uninsured young women, different pay scales for men and women in many jobs, as well as marriage bars used to discriminate against married women joining the workforce.

He claims to have at least 20 armed robberies to his credit, including banks, post offices, factories and shops. He is tall, fair haired and in his late twenties and lives in a corporation flat in North Dublin. He is married with one small daughter. Though he finds it difficult to put a figure on what he earns in a year he says that he probably has a turnover of around £1 0,000 a year, but that he probably spends more than that. He says he has done about six armed jobs this year, the largest one netting himself around £3,500.