Groups representing natural mothers and adopted people have called for an investigation into the scale of forced and illegal adoptions in Ireland.

THE attempt of members of Athlone Town Council to remove an exhibit from a local gallery should not be dismissed as an isolated case of parochial philistinism and should alert the public to the dangers of the Government’s plan to merge the boards of the National Library and National Museum

Ryle Dwyer examines the highly selective way in which state archives have been withheld and released over the years

Christy Cooney believes it will be up to ‘other people and history’ to adjudicate on his leadership of the GAA which ends when he hands over the reins to incoming President Liam O’Neill in Portlaoise next month.

ÁRAS archives — the stories that made the news in past presidential elections.

NOTHING I saw during that league could have prepared us for this.

FOR more than 50 years the Irish public had no right to see official documents. The civil servants were effectively our masters — not public servants.

CONDITIONS in Portlaoise Prison became a volatile issue in early 1977 with leading republicans, including current TD Martin Ferris, staging a hunger strike.

THE year 1977 was not a great one from the standpoint of the state papers. Historically, the most important events were related to that year’s general election. As the civil servants were not formally involved, the elections were glossed over in the state papers.

The death on hunger strike of Frank Stagg caused a major crisis for the then government, writes Caroline O’Doherty.

ONE of the first books on Irish neutrality was a 1969 collection of essays in RTÉ’s Thomas Davis lecture series. It was published in time to exploit the 25th anniversary of the end of World War II.

Athline IT 43 UL 32.

ON Saturday, January 10, Labour party leader Pat Rabbitte called on Justice Minister Michael McDowell to “stop delaying” the appointment of a Garda ombudsman — a statement which I tend to agree with despite the fact that I am neither a Labour supporter nor a fan of Pat Rabbitte’s.

JUSTIN KEATING, Minister for Industry and Commerce in Liam Cosgrave’s coalition, accepts the findings of the Barron report (Irish Examiner, Dec 30).