The republican paper Saoirse in its current issue recalls that in 1956 a decade of the rosary was recited before the traditional oration was delivered. With all the national chestbeating, it's nice to see that wrapping the tricolour around yourself may not necessarily be a profitable exercise. On RT�? radio last week, Vincent Browne asked, "What was the civil war all about?" Sinn Féin councillor Dessie Ellis thought he had the answer.

"It was about achieving a united Ireland, " Ellis declared. Thankfully, Garret FitzGerald was in studio to deliver a masterful lesson to the SF man. "That's rubbish. You know no history at all. Only two speeches in the treaty debate mentioned the North. It was a dead issue.

Partition had taken place two years earlier. Read your history."