By providing a benign shelter for conflicting identities, the European Union helped end the Troubles in the North. To forget this is to risk a return to the past. ‘Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it’ is a warning from history that should not be forgotten, says Roisin McAuley.

It is rutting season for deer this month. Hillwalkers and strollers in Glendalough Valley have been struck by the piercing sound of sika stags making a shrill triple-whistle sound as they collect their hinds (females) and hold them in a harem while they maintain dominance among their male counterparts during rutting season. A pregnant hind will give birth next June, 33 weeks after ‘unity-day’ in October!

WHILE President McAleese has apologised for her remark that “people in Northern Ireland transmitted to their children an irrational hatred of Catholics,” I believe she was not too wide of the mark.