DO you know what a rainbow is? Do you know that girls have been treated in the Sexual Assault Unit in the Rotunda Hospital in Dublin with the amount of alcohol in their systems that is normally found in the morgue?

IT was the words of a Protestant clergyman that really upset me this week.

SHOCKING? Awful? Reprehensible? Scandalous? Or just plain Silly Amateurish Ridiculous Shambles? Whatever way you look at SARS, it's been another bad week for the government, and especially for the increasingly hapless Minister for Health.

MORE aggressive policing? Did I understand that right? Reading my Irish Examiner yesterday, it was revealed that the gardaí, apparently with the support of Fine Gael, want stun guns to deal with “violent protests and public disorder”. These stun guns, it seems, are capable of causing temporary paralysis with a 50,000 volt electric shock.

SO, can Northern Ireland get on with the rest of its life?

SO, how’s the European Year of Disabilities going for you? I only ask because stuff seems to be happening in a lot of countries throughout Europe.

SO, it seems we’re a little bit divided about the Iraq war, but we have our minds made up about our own Government.

WHAT is the link between September 11 and the war now raging in Iraq?

By Fergus Finlay

IT can happen that the most cruel encounter in your life could be a brush with the law.