Helping Britain's army marks end of 'social workers with guns' era.

KEVIN MYERS - Irish Independent.

FINALLY, finally, some sense has prevailed in the Army's relationship with the British army. The deployment of a handful of Army soldiers on a training mission in Mali with soldiers of the Royal Irish Regiment, a full 90 years after the two armies went their separate ways, is a long overdue recognition of political, cultural and geographical realities. Perhaps it is no coincidence that the Minister responsible is Jewish, and is therefore less beholden to the traditions of querulous deference to "republican" sensitivities, which has gravely undermined the willingness of our political classes to engage in any closer military co-operation with the British.
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A court in the United States will be asked to rule later that interviews with former terrorists should not be handed over to NI authorities. Last year, the PSNI launched a legal bid to gain access to interviews with former republicans and loyalists held by Boston College. They are being sought by detectives investigating cases of people murdered and secretly buried by the IRA. At the heart of the case is the 1972 IRA murder of Jean McConville. ...

By Mark Devenport, BBC Political editor, Northern Ireland

For those who didn't know Kader Asmal when he was a law lecturer at Trinity College in Dublin and the head of the Irish anti-apartheid movement, this lengthy autobiographical online interview on a Michigan State University website is worth a watch.

Recorded in 2004, it covers Kader Asmal's long career, but from 32 minutes in he starts talking about his time in Dublin and London.

His scholarly, urbane and avuncular character is obvious, and he talks engagingly about what he calls Ireland's "remarkable" contribution to South Africa's "liberation struggle".
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It was a year in which dissident republicans developed the expertise needed to detonate large-scale car bombs and the government warned of possible attacks in Great Britain.

BBC NI home affairs correspondent Vincent Kearney assesses the threat posed by Northern Ireland's terror groups. It was an easy target. There were no security barriers or checkpoints to negotiate as a car packed with around 250lbs of homemade explosives parked outside Newry courthouse on 22 February this year. A short time later, as police officers were still trying to clear the surrounding area, the bomb exploded. No-one was killed or injured, but the shockwaves could be felt more than 40 miles away in the headquarters of MI5 in Holywood and the PSNI in east Belfast. Two months later, shortly after midnight on 12 April, just minutes after policing and justice powers were transferred to the Stormont Assembly, a similar device exploded outside Palace Barracks, where MI5's huge new offices are located. Those explosions were described by senior security sources as "game-changing events". ...

A CRACK shot saved his Brit commander from two Taliban gunmen by shooting them dead from a world record MILE and a HALF away.

Hero sniper Craig Harrison, 35, nailed the killers with a rifle bullet each as the pair manned a machine gun - then for good measure let rip a third shot that took out their weapon.

His marksmanship was all the more amazing because the enemy were firing on his trapped troop leader from 3,000ft BEYOND his rifle's effective range.
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