Fergus Black of an African elephant which was presented to him by President Julius Nyerere during a visit to Tanzania. for the charges to be paid. When the pachyderm duly arrived, Mr Hillery contacted Dublin Zoo in IRISH officials were left holding a "weighty baby" and the cost

Fergus Black AN ARCHAIC Irish law - that had been abolished in England for more than a century - landed Attorney General Declan Costello in hot water with women's groups. The law on "criminal conversation" - described as barbaric and blatantly discriminatory by the Council for t

THE Government privately opposed European enlargement four years after the State ended a 12-year battle to become a member, official state files reveal, writes Cohn Kelpie. A memo from the Department of Foreign Affairs, approved by the Government in December 1977, argued expansi

FORECASTED EXTREME WEATHER: PROTECT YOUR HOME FROM BURST PIPES!!! Do not turn off your heating if your house will be unoccupied (even for short periods). Leave it on for at least 30 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes in the evening. A simple timer can be bought in most DIY st

Colm Kelpie 011iathail insisted cargo docu- outside as to contents," the ments be marked "preserves or ambassador wrote to official furniture" to throw police off Billy Hawkes in Rome in Februthe scent, as Saudi officers were ary 1978. posted on security outside his "The shippin

diers are not allowed to open fire on unarmed prisoners attempting to escape. The army therefore consider that soldiers in towers do not provide a deterrent to potential escapees." It was noted that this would unite both loyalist and republi- can prisoners in a common cause and

Chris Parkin issues - such as the IRA murder, weeks earlier, of Lord Mountbatten and his fishing party - would not be possible. JACK LYNCH'S government ordered moves to beef up the standards of information provided to the foreign media. A confidential memo said afterwards it had

BRITISH Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher considered taking the vote from Irish citizens living in the UK. She told Northern Ireland Secretary Humphrey Atkins she did not believe there was hostility between the Irish Republic and the IRA during a tense meeting at Downing Street o

Edel Kennedy MORE than 12,000 worried people swamped the HSE's dedicated flu helpline with queries about swine flu in just one week. New figures show that the helpline received a record 104,000 calls between May 1 and Christmas Eve. The highest number was recorded in November wh