AN Irish Press reporter was watching a police water cannon vehicle moving into position. He had never seen one in action before.

You can’t deny the state — British or Irish — the exclusive right to use legitimate force and, at the same time, hold it to a higher standard than paramilitaries.

Venables and Thompson — and the fictional Jack — were lucky in the sense that the State intervened when they were at a very young age.

The SDLP were tonight warned any formal relationship with Fianna Fáil would damage relations with other parties in the Republic of Ireland.

Seán Kingston, the Miami-born, Jamaican-bred, teenage reggae singer, has a number one hit for the past five weeks in both Britain and Ireland with his debut single, Beautiful Girls. The record has now begun to spark controversy over its lyrics.

A BELFAST friend was murdered by paramilitaries a few years ago. He died an hour before we were due to meet for a drink. No-one was ever charged, let alone convicted. Nor will they be.

FOREIGN Affairs Minister Dermot Ahern last night defended his home town after Dundalk was branded “tough, dour and charmless” in the new Irish edition of the Lonely Planet guidebook.

RYLE DWYER writes that Pearse “had no authority from the Irish people for the Easter Rebellion” (Irish Examiner, July 30). How exactly does one obtain authority for a rebellion against an occupying force?

Today is the 25th anniversary of one of the bloodiest days of the Northern Troubles.

ALLEGATIONS relating to the fatal shooting of the first garda killed during the Northern Troubles raise the spectre of possible collusion by the State in terrorist activities as far back as the early ’70s.

THE late Captain James Kelly, who died during the week, seemed almost obsessed with clearing his name for having supposedly conspired to import arms illegally in 1970. He was cleared in court, along with Charlie Haughey and two others, but some people were never prepared to accept that verdict.