Search

The article provides information on the Irish Echo, an weekly based in New York City, which has printed 5,000 copies of its November 20, 2005 issue in Ireland for local distribution.

Reports on the libel case won by Proinsias De Rossa against the newspaper `Sunday Independent' concerning an article written by Eamon Dunphy. How much money was won in damages; What was De Rossa linked to in the article; Information on De Rossa's party.

County Wicklow, Ireland OUTSIDE Sinead O'Connor's whitewashed home here, on a windswept beachfront overlooking the misty Irish Sea, there are two talismans. One, a knee-high statue of the Virgin Mary stands with her arms beatifically spread, silently welcoming visitors. The other, a crudely taped-up sign, written so emphatically in ballpoint that the paper is almost torn through, is directed at the reporters who have besieged the singer, her four children, three dogs and a cat in recent weeks. It reads: ''Dearest loving hacks. This is your quote: Rock 'n' Roll!'' [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A masked gunman with a sawed-off shotgun thought he had spotted the man with the weekend takings of a luxury resort when he spied a man sitting in the rear seat of a chauffeured car in a hotel parking lot near Wicklow rifling through papers in a leather briefcase. But the man was Ireland's minister for European affairs, Dick Roche, 61, shuffling through government documents after a morning swim. Mr. Roche and several hotel staff members were briefly taken hostage, and the gunman and two accomplices made off with about $27,000 from the hotel safes. ''I didn't know what the heck was going on because I wouldn't be worth robbing,'' Mr. Roche said in a radio interview while recounting his experience. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article comments on issues concerning the use of plastic bags around the world. It is stated that San Francisco has become the first major city in the U.S. to start banning nonbiodegradable plastic bags in its larger grocery stores and pharmacies. The Swedish company Ikea AB in March 2007 brought its campaign "Bag the Plastic Bag" to America to decrease the use of plastic bags. It is informed that the use of plastic bags dropped by 90 percent when Ireland slapped a tax on plastic bags.

The article states that according to government papers released on December 29, 2006, in Dublin, Ireland, the country's authorities were aware of three separate death threats against former U.S. President John F. Kennedy when he visited Ireland in 1963. The threats came in anonymous telephone messages. Even though the police assumed the threats were hoaxes, it deployed nearly half of the country's police force on Kennedy's route from Dublin airport.