Wolfe Tone Square,

Europe correspondent, Ann Cahill, delivers her weekly briefing on Euro affairs from the European Parliament.

Tens of thousands of Basques held hands yesterday to form a 123km chain stretching across the northern Spanish region calling for the right to hold a vote on independence.

Nobody has done it now for almost three-and-a-half years, not since a Frenchman who just happens to be appearing in Dublin this weekend on European semi-final business.

All great sports careers come to an end and that time is drawing near for world handball champion Paul Brady, who attempts to retain his title at a record-breaking renewal of the event this week in CityWest, Dublin.

Irish football is closer to Giovanni Trapattoni’s vision of how the game should be played than the Italian realises

Thursday night football may be second-best but there is a lot to anticipate from the tie between Manchester United and Athletic Bilbao.

Another week in Spain, another Barca-Madrid showdown, another post-match spat.

BASQUES digesting the apparent end of separatist group ETA’s armed campaign are taking it with quiet, careful relief.

Basque separatists have launched a new political party they say rejects violence by the armed group ETA.

JOB done. Well, more or less.

THE HEINEKEN Cup may be all about furthering wider European ambitions but Andrew Trimble will be partly motivated by local realities when Ulster face Biarritz today in the province's biggest game for a dozen years.

AS I eye the copious vittles being prepared for Christmas, I remember reading that our jaw muscles are much weaker than those of our ancestors.

A FEW decades ago, whale sightings were rare events.

RUGBY bosses should not have become involved in politics in the way they did by holding a press conference to oppose plans to show matches on free-to-air TV, according to Fine Gael leader, Enda Kenny.

FIFTEEN months after celebrating the greatest spending spree in football history, Real Madrid fans are having to face the fact their club will almost certainly have nothing to show for it.

IT IS still safe to travel to Majorca, the Government last night advised holidaymakers, despite bomb attacks on the island on Sunday.

A powerful bomb exploded today near the Basque city of Bilbao, killing a policeman in an attack blamed on the separatist group Eta.

BASQUE voters were choosing a new government yesterday in Spain’s most turbulent region, and for the first time the ruling Basque Nationalist Party is seeing a strong challenge from the socialists.

Around 1.7 million Basques were urged to vote in elections today for the government in Spain’s most turbulent region.

In light of its disastrous performance in the last election, Sinn Féin cannot afford anymore setbacks in its quest for political success here, writes Political Correspondent Paul O’Brien

THERE was a sixfold rise in the number of terrorism-related arrests in Ireland last year, according to an EU report.

THE reaction of our newspapers to the declaration of independence by Kosovo has been almost uniformly positive. The attitude seems to be that as a small nation, we should welcome the emergence of this new ‘state’.

Glasgow 9 Biarritz 6

A senior member of the Basque separatist movement said the arrest of 23 of his fellow party members amounted to a “declaration of war” by the Spanish government.

Gerry Adams today urged the Spanish government and the Basques to do everything in their power to put their peace process back on track.

Yellow and white lollipops. Yellow and white ice cream. It’s a papal party!

Catalonia gained sweeping powers to run its affairs after voters overwhelmingly approved a new blueprint for the region.

Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams will today embark on a three-day trip to Spain in a bid to support the peace process there involving the Basques.

FOREVER more, they’ll be spoken of in the same awed tones as the Munster team that defeated the All Blacks in 1978.

Munster captain Anthony Foley has paid tribute to the team's fans following their Heineken Cup victory in Cardiff yesterday.

THIS is the day when the 16th man will REALLY make his presence felt!

The violent Basque separatist group ETA today called for peace negotiations with Spain and France, warning them not to miss a historic chance for peace and said its permanent ceasefire will go into effect just after midnight.

BASQUE separatist group ETA yesterday declared a permanent ceasefire after almost four decades of bombings and shootings in Spain during its campaign for independence.

The Spanish Government was urged by Gerry Adams today to respond creatively and positively to Basque separatist group Eta’s ceasefire declaration.

SPANISH league leaders Barcelona stretched their advantage at the top of the table to 10 points with a comfortable 2-0 win over bottom club Alaves last night.

The Basque parliament has approved a proposal for virtual independence from Spain, with last-minute support from a formerly-banned party seen as the political wing of the separatist group ETA.

The Basque parliament tonight approved a proposal for virtual independence from Spain, with last-minute support from a formerly banned party seen as the political wing of the separatist group ETA.

IRELAND’S handball ‘compromise rules’ squad head to a major tournament in the Basque town of Azkoitia in Spain today.

Written off in recent months as possibly moribund after a string of arrests and thwarted attacks, the Basque separatist group Eta demonstrated today it’s still capable of spectacular violence.

Lance Armstrong fought off a brave attack from Alexander Vinokourov of Kazakhstan to retain the leader‘s yellow jersey in what remains one of the closest races ever in the 100-year history of the Tour de France.

A HOME win over Athletic Bilbao tomorrow will secure Real Madrid their 29th league title and ensure there are no recriminations over the timing of David Beckham’s transfer announcement.

Hundreds of supporters of Basque nationalists barred from running in an upcoming election staged an unauthorised rally today and said Spain was not a democracy.

JUVENTUS coach Marcello Lippi believes his newly-crowned Italian champions have nothing to fear when they take on European champions Real Madrid on Wednesday.