By granting an amnesty, a pardon and an apology to those Irish soldiers who abandoned their posts and their oath-pledged duty to Ireland during the Second World War and enlisted in the British army, Defence Minister Alan Shatter has held the Irish Defences Forces up to public ridicule and humiliation.

THE Lisbon treaty poses no threat to Ireland’s neutrality, and any claim to the contrary is a blatant lie, Labour’s Eamon Gilmore has said.