GARDAÍ will maintain a strong visible presence in Dublin today as part of a large security operation for this evening’s historic Six Nations rugby match between Ireland and England at Croke Park.

THERE could hardly be a more eloquent intervention than Michael Hogan’s hand of friendship gesture in the simmering controversy over the singing of God Save the Queen at today’s historic Six Nation’s rugby match between Ireland and England at Croke Park, the symbolic heartland of Gaelic sport.

THE security clampdown for US President George W Bush’s stopover at Shannon Airport in the early hours of yesterday morning was in stark contrast with the garda presence at the Love Ulster march which sparked vicious riots in Dublin.

Gardaí in Dublin have arrested three more people in connection with the riots that accompanied last weekend's loyalist march in the capital.

THE Government’s insistence that gardaí had no reason to expect the kind of violence seen in Dublin last Saturday gives credence to the widely-held perception of deficient intelligence gathering.

The Democratic Unionist Party has tabled a motion in the British parliament condemning Saturday's rioting in Dublin.

JUSTICE MINISTER Michael McDowell is merely being pragmatic in ruling out any question of a public inquiry into the riot in Dublin on Saturday because it would largely confirm an outcome of which we are already aware.

Sinn Féin has blamed loyalists returning from the abandoned Love Ulster march in Dublin for riots in Portadown, Co Armagh, early yesterday morning.

LET there be no equivocation: those who orchestrated the rabid intolerance witnessed in the centre of Dublin on Saturday can only be considered as implacable enemies of this State.

THE radio was bleating warnings about the route of the Love Ulster march as I headed to work on Saturday morning in Dublin.