THE decision by the UDA to declare its war is over and to disband its cover group, the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF), was long overdue. Its announcement was followed by the assertion of a former UDA killer, Kenny McClinton, that “people in loyalist circles are driven by ideals and the defence of their country” and that the only reason the UDA ever existed was “to defend the loyalist community”.

SOME of the TDs who contributed to a debate in the Dáil last week on the introduction of the Criminal Law (Human Trafficking) Bill, while rightly decrying the exploitation of vulnerable women, got very nostalgic for the old days.

Had Irish emigrants been entitled to vote, and if even a small fraction of them had exercised that right, undoubtedly they could have been the deciding factor in general elections here given the size of the country and the closeness of election results.

THERE’S a justifiable anger in the air about the untimely and unnecessary death of Susie Long from bowel cancer due to the seven-month delay in getting a colonoscopy because she could not afford private healthcare.

HAD he called a snap general election this week and lost the key marginal constituencies in Britain in November, Gordon Brown could have destroyed his premiership.

LAST week witnessed the death of Fr Daniel Dargan, the Jesuit who directed the Pioneer Total Abstinence Association (PTAA) from 1957-’77.

It is a bleak, emotionally intense and absorbing film, with superb performances from Colm Meaney, Brendan Conroy and Donal O’Kelly.

THERE were plenty of things to complain about during the last few months, but there was much to celebrate too, including those things that can generate a great deal of pride in being Irish.

THE television programme on RTÉ on Monday night At Home with the Clearys was a reminder of the megalomania of the late Fr Michael Cleary, a man who was always happy to be in the limelight as long as he was telling other people what to do.

DURING the postmortems on his time as leader of the Labour Party, Pat Rabbitte has made much of the quest to be in government, his belief that such a quest needs to remain central to the party and his opinion that “lust for office” is the way forward. He’s wrong about that.