Worried about al-Qaida? Make Shannon an issue

DECLASSIFIED US State Department documents showed al-Qaida cells to be operating in Ireland.

The usual law-and-order parties in the Dáil said this was “profoundly worrying” and will probably use it as an excuse sometime to push through even more restrictive legislation on civil liberties.

None of these potential restrictions though will have even the slightest impact on al-Qaida — but they will serve to make life increasingly oppressive for this democracy’s long-suffering citizens.