WATCHING this week’s RTÉ programme on the beginning of the Troubles in 1969, I was struck by the similarity of what happened then and what has been happening in the past year.

The Government's revenue collection and spending for 2007 has been criticised by the Comptroller and Auditor General in his annual report for that year.

A committee on police reform in Northern Ireland was urged 35 years ago by some officers to change the name of the force in a bid to attract more Catholic support, it was claimed today.