The Editor

WE SAY: Trump has let the Irish reunification genie out of the bottle

Taoiseach Micheál Martin must have thought he had succeeded once again in negotiating a tricky meeting with the mercurial President Trump when a British journalist lobbed a hand grenade.

WE SAY: If Mr Burnham can find £39bn to do up Houses of Parliament, then why's he shortchanging us?

Poor Andy Burnham must be pulling out his dyed hair trying to understand the barbarous Irish — and no doubt he brands both Planter and Gael as Paddies — after his first funding offer to the Executive was stamped 'return to sender' and dispatched back across the Irish Sea.

WE SAY: Garvaghy isn’t the biggest prize

ANYONE who believes for a second that the renewed focus on the Garvaghy Road is about religious freedom and inalienable rights needs to focus a little bit more on the dramatis personae of this bleak new production of a grim old drama.

WE SAY: Disturbing the ghosts of Drumcree

The glee among loyalism at this week's court decision on the Orange march down the Catholic Garvaghy Road in Portadown was more evidence, is such were needed, of the cul-de-sac of sectarianism in which the unionist parties now find themselves.

WE SAY: Mela means more than just fun

THIS weekend marks the start of Belfast Mela, our biggest celebration of diversity. The programme is once again full to bursting with exciting and fascinating events which underline the richness that our new communities bring.

WE SAY: Fleadh spirit of unity must prevail year-round

Hats off to those two momentous summer celebrations, the World Cup and Mayo's All-Ireland victory, branded by sports fans and media commentators alike as unsurpassed moments of unbridled joy.

WE SAY: For Fleadh's sake, let's keep hitting these high notes

One wag remarked, after the spectacular success of Sunday's Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann opening ceremony at City Hall that, "we should do this every week".

WE SAY: Take your places....Fest, Fleadh and Féile ring the changes

CS Lewis famously said that when living through change, it's all but invisible.

WE SAY: DUP Minister's latest broadside on Irish language will further undermine Executive

What gives with DUP Minister Paul Givan and the Irish language?

WE SAY: Taoiseach's belated word in the ear of IDA must usher in new economic era

Primary criticism of the Irish Government's Shared Island initiative is that cross-border projects approved for funding must pass, in the words of one Dublin diplomat, 'The Jeffrey Donaldson smell test'.

WE SAY: Spectre of MI5 makes normal policing all but impossible

Hardly a week passes now without representatives of the state having to appear before the courts in Belfast to apologise for past murderous misdemeanours and pay substantial damages to relatives and survivors of their 30-year campaign of collusion.

WE SAY: DUP take hypocrisy to a new level

The late Rev. Ian Paisley was fond of quoting Matthew 7:5 when accusing his political opponents of hypocrisy, "Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye."

WE SAY: Brexiteers' dream now a nightmare but restoring links to EU doesn't have to wait until unification

For those deluded souls who really believed Boris Johnson's encomium about the "sunlit uplands" of Brexit this really is the worst of times.

WE SAY: Why's the PSNI so shy about loyalist paramilitaries?

There is an old but perfectly apt Belfast aphorism which best captures the nationalist community's reaction to PSNI claims that loyalist paramilitaries were not behind attacks on our ethnic minorities over the past week: "Do you think I came up the Lagan in a bubble?"

WE SAY: Time to call on the Spirit of 1916 or risk a repeat of August '69

If you think a week is a long time in politics, then what can one make of the five days between our newcomer communities being feted at the Best of the West Awards on Friday past and black and brown people being burnt out of their homes last night?

Soccer: Cliftonville progress to quarter-finals after thrashing Knockbreda

CELTIC STORIES: Transfer deadline looms as Celtic lick their wounds

Antrim Intermediate Hurling Round-Up: St Gall's and St Paul's clinch major wins and Cushendun look to pave the way

Antrim Senior Championship Round-Up: The Johnnies earn a huge win whilst Loughgiel and Cushendall avoid major scares

EYE ON THE PAST: August 1985 – Church to sell land for 100 homes on Shaws Road

PLATING UP: Stuffed calamari tubes with curried orzo rice

HEALTHWISE: Take steps to reduce the cancer risk in your food

ANDRÉE MURPHY: Mike Nesbitt was never rewarded for his decency

The Editor

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