WHEN he launched his famous libel action in 1997, Jonathan Aitken was proud, haughty and self-righteous: “If it falls to me to start a fight to cut out the cancer of bent and twisted journalism in our country with the simple sword of truth and the trusty shield of British fair play, so be it.”

There are certain well-meaning people who decry all talk of ‘a clash of civilisations’ where relations between Islam and the west are concerned.

THE news that Clonfert priest Fr Mossie Dillane fathered a child has “reignited the debate over celibacy” according to one of last weekend’s newspapers.

TODAY begins the annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity - a time when Jesus Christ’s wish that his followers ‘may all be one’ is the focus of Christian prayer both within individual denominations and at ecumenical gatherings.

“A STRAIGHT arrow guy,” is how one veteran US Sinn Féin sympathiser, Maureen McCullogh, continues to describe Denis Donaldson, the central figure in what must rank as Ireland’s most unusual spy story.

THE most surprising statistic of the last few days, for my money, came from the priests of St Teresa’s Church, Clarendon Street, in Dublin.

REMEMBER ‘A Few Good Men,’ starring Jack Nicholson and Tom Cruise?

I a recent television programme, the former US Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, paid tribute to Pope John Paul II.