DESPAIRING though the Northern Ireland peace process may be at the moment, the fact is that much progress has been achieved in the five years since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement.

A PROBLEM that will occupy the minds of a lot of people in this country today is not the state of the peace process in Northern Ireland, nor the future of Iraq.

ABOUT the only thing missing from the American triumphalism and razzmatazz in Baghdad was a press release saying that Hello! magazine had secured the photographic rights to Saddam’s numerous palaces.

IN launching a Patriot missile at the Progressive Democrats, the Fianna Fáil TD for Carlow-Kilkenny, John McGuinness, delved very deeply into the realm of incredulity.

KOFI ANNAN, the Secretary General of the UN, must have breathed a major sigh of relief when he heard the news from Dublin in the past 24 hours.

DESPITE the charade witnessed in the Dáil yesterday, Ireland officially supports the US-contrived war against Iraq, which was launched 24 hours ago.

IT WAS with a certain sardonic smile that I scanned the headline in one of the Sunday papers last weekend: “Bush to tell IRA it must renounce violence.”

PREPARING for a war in Iraq that most of the world does not want should be more than enough to occupy Tony Blair’s mind, without having to put up with David Trimble’s petulance.

THE TAOISEACH last night categorically denied rumours circulating in aviation circles that the Government intended to take on Ryanair’s almost total monopoly of the low-fares market.