So at last the Americans admitted that they have used a form of chemical weapon in the fight to free Iraq. After all the talk about the original reason for going to war, namely that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction that could be used against not only its own people but also other foreign powers the double standards employed by the Americans is really startling. The American view

So what of the IAEA being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. I am in in two minds about it, on the one hand you have the feeling that the Nobel Foundation is trying to appease the IAEA over the war in Iraq. For it was them under the guidance of Dr ElBaradei along with Dr Blix that stated there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and yet despite their assurances the Americans and the British

Monday is German unity day, but will it be ? Will the two main political parties come to some form of agreement over how and who should govern one of the largest economies in Europe after the recent election. The stalemate and recent impasse by both sides has lead to confusion not only in Germany but also in the whole of Europe as well as with the leading financial institutions. Hence the value

The UN Convention states that a refugee child has the same economic, social, cultural, civil and political rights as other children living in the same area. An unaccompanied child refugee, as a general rule, should not be returned to their country of origin after their asylum claim has been rejected, unless it is in the child’s best interests. However once these child refugees have reached the

So Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir Ian Blair has decided to launch an investigation into the alleged cocaine abuse of Kate Moss after being swayed by the fear that the pictures of Ms Moss taking cocaine could have a damaging effect on "impressionable young people". So from this we can take the fact that the images of the Metropolitan police shooting an innocent Brazilian man dead on a tube

There has been a lot of talk in the English press recent;y about racial tension and the way that ethnic groups have integrated or not into English society. A lot has been written by people of all denominations about the lack of structure which has led to parts of some UK cities becoming almost no go zones or zones that are predominately comprised of one colour or another. I read this morning of

A year of transition faced Asylum seekers in Irelandwith the deportation of Nigerian Student Olenkunle Eluhanla. Kunle had been in Ireland since he was 15, had made Ireland his home, been through the Irish education system but as soon as he had become an aged out-minor he was forcibly removed to his native country, Nigeria , eventually returning to Ireland after strong protests. Green Party

"Bloody well get on and do it, otherwise I'll head-butt you!" overheard talking to Sinn Fein's Gerry Adams at talks running up to the Good Friday Agreement. Mo Mowlem who died 19 August 2005 So we loose another great politician of our time. One of the unsung heroes on Modern Day politics yet someone who achieved so much. She was the leading figure in the Good Friday Agreement, she stood up for

60 years ago tomorrow 100,000 people lost their lives in a second. The World entered a new phase of development and world war two was over. Was it right to drop the worlds first atomic bomb? what did this signal? As we approach the worlds first nuclear terrorist bomb, which will surely happen within the next few months or years what can we say about the decision to use nuclear weapons. Firstly

In the course of my work I get to meet some truly unique people. This was certainly the case on Thursday when I went to take photographs for the MAST project on Mayfield Park. Mayfield park is a mobile home park in South Dublin near Clondalkin and is the home to around 35 families. At the moment South Dublin Council are in the process of building permanent houses for the residents to move into

Die you bastard scum terrorists, just fuck off and die. I know we might not be the best people in the World but we are a dam site better than you who just kill and mane for the sake of it. Do you get some perverse sense of pleasure out of killing innocent people going about their daily lives? What is it with you some kind of sick joke that you get off on, well just fuck off and leave the fucking

So the President of the USA does not believe that man contributes to global warming? The facts that all the research points to the fact that greenhouse gas emissions is a major contributing factor to global warming seems to go unnoticed and the US continues to reject claims that by not having any policy in place to reduce emissions it is adding to the destruction of the planet. It also emerges

So they made it, just but they made it. A significantly reduced majority and hopefully a wake up call to the heads of the party that they cannot treat the public as they have done over the past 5 years, and I say just the past 5 years for these seem to stick in the mind more than any other. I don't think that Howard ever really got to grips with what we were thinking or that Kennedy has the

I give up.... Just when things seemed to be going the right way for once, just when we were starting to think that we could get somewhere its all gone. We might as well reappoint Rix, drop to the conference and get it all over and done with. We are just a joke. I had a lot of time for Kassam for all he did for the club but the time has come when he has to get real. We had a manager who could take

A Rant What if that had been an English club? who I hear you ask,Inter Milan is the reply. The punishment that has been handed out by UEFA is a disgrace. A six match ban on spectators, of which 2 are on probation, I ask you, and that is all they get for hitting a player with a flare and getting a game abandoned. Now I ask you what if that had been an English club? we already had a five year ban

No matter how much you yet to wipe it out, certainly in the united kingdom, bullying is going to happen. It is a fine line between who is the perpetrator and the abused, and it is an abuse, make no mistake about it, it is one of the worst experiences that one can go through, and trust me I know I was. Now people might look at me and think him but he is huge how could someone like that get bullied

Jose Mourinho was hailed as the savour of English football when he arrived from European Champions Porto back in the summer, his style was a breath of fresh air and he was hailed by all, including the media who treated him as a God. But how things have changed, he has brought or should that be bought, Chelsea's first silver-wear, he is on top of the English Premiership, in the last eight of the

The dream is over, the fame and the glory that was to be theirs is no longer. The dream has been. Torn up and the directions burnt any left to smolder in the grate. Its not often that the north and south suffer such events in common, but after this weekend the dram of the grab d slam lies thee destroyed as much as sunn feins hopes of a good patricks day in their usual hunting grounds across the

Ireland it seems could descend into chaos, the IRA last night all but suspended the peace process after comments by the Irish and British governments blaming them for the bank raid in the North late last year along with other comments calling into question their decommissioning acts and the need for photographic evidence as requested by the loyalists. This might be a good time to leave this

There is to be a general election in Saudi Arabia in the near future. Nothing surprising there you might think, one of the dominant states in the middle east holding an election. I mean we have just had the mother of all elections in Iraq where anyone who was old enough to vote was eligible to vote to as to produce an elected government that could take Iraq forward to the next level of

Has the world gone image mad? Labour have withdrawn their posters of the Tory leadership, firstly portrayed as flying pigs because it was deemed to be anti-Semitic, which i guess on reflection it might be although I am sure that the old adage was not considered so at the time. So we have to be careful when we are thinking in the future when someone says that they can move the world for us that

Will the violence really stop? Now the Iraqi people have voted in a an election so contrived by the United States and we wait for the result will the shooting stop, will the suicide bombers stop, the hostage taking, the beheading of foreign nationals. Now come on what do you think. One side has to win, no matter how Democratic the result might be one side will always assume that it has had a raw

Two things today stand out from the paper. The first that there is to be a musical being made about the life and times of David Blunkett the ex home secretary of the United Kingdom, The producers of the show stated that following Mr Blunkett's rise and fall, no doubt similar to that of the infamous Reginald Perrin, would provide "huge entertainment potential" (Daily Telegraph - Friday 28 January

Tonight there is a concert in the Convento do Bom Sucesso in Lisbon. How do I know this, well two weeks ago I finished the invites for it here in Dublin. The concert is by Anuna an Irish group who specialise in traditional Irish music. They were part of the Riverdane revolution that swept the world back in the late 1990's and to some extent still exists today. Not that I was ever a great fan

Cricket is a strange game. I have played it for years since I was a young lad and still I find it hard to explain the game to anyone who has never seen it. I mean how can you describe a game that goes on for days, days in which there is the possibility of the game ending with no result and yet it is still as enthralling on day 5 as it was on day 1. A game that lasts for 90 overs per day in test

Throughout art history there has been the idea of “feminine stereotype” of decorative arts and crafts and a “masculine stereotype” of high art. This idea was steeped in the ideals of European academic theory and helped to undermine the status of decorative arts and crafts in relation to high art. Chicago has addressed this idea of separation in the “Dinner Party” with the inclusion of ceramic

Today will be remember for one thing, President George W. Bush was inaugurated as President of the United States of America, and quite frankly that's exactly where he should stay, the United States of America. How can one man, almost single handily cause so much tension and anxiety in the world is beyond comprehension and at the same time feel that he is bringing peace and stability to

The centuries-old hill village of Collodi has existed since the end of the XIIth. Century. Its origin stems from its strategic location, which forced the inhabitants living in the valley, where even today there are traces of the small ancient settlement of Debbia, to set up a fortified settlement on the hill that towered above, known as Odo or Odolo's Peak. Although situated in an excellent

Today's paper The Guardian carries a story just tucked away on one of the inside pages about the Tsunami and those who were so unfortunate to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. The short article covers a story about an Islamic leader in Indonesia stating that those who died deserved to die for they were not true to the Islamic religion and had allowed "foreigners" to dictate their lives

Today is for me the last day of the New Year and Christmas holiday. I wont miss it, least of all the idea of making sure that each time I type Christmas I get Christmas and not chrstmas or chirstmas or any other such variable, the only problem now is that when I put this through the spell checker and I forget which of the Christmas's I didn't mean to change then it will look a bit stupid on the