Irish Chiller Girls

"A politicians-versus-media debate that begun at an Opus Dei conference (the Cleraun Media conference) held over the weekend of 21-22 October, having raised a matter of critical importance, is serving us very badly. The point at issue is whether or not the Irish Times was right to run its story on Taoiseach Bertie Ahern’s finances based on a leak from the Mahon tribunal. At the conference Noel Dempsey, the Minister for Communications, attacked the Irish Times for publishing the story; and a week later on 28th October Ryle Dwyer of the Irish Examiner replied to that attack. Both contributions avoided the important issues and in different ways both reflect the degree to which the Irish Times has placed itself beyond criticism."

"Protestant politicians in Northern Ireland have lambasted Irish President Mary McAleese after she compared anti-Catholic prejudice in the province with the Nazi persecution of Jews. Leading figures in both the pro-British parties accused McAleese, a Belfast Catholic, of vilifying Protestants in an interview with Irish state broadcaster RTE on the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp."

"In ancient Ireland, riches consisted not in land but in the possession of cattle, sheep, pigs, goats and other goods. In the old epic – Tain Bo Cuailgne – we see the importance of cattle and everything was reckoned by its worth in cows : a slave woman would cost you three cows or five head of dry cattle. We read about St. Ciaran, as a boy, asking his mother to allow him to take a cow with him as a gift when he went to his first monastic school."