AN PHOBLACHT has always had a unique place on the country's newsstands and, to its critics, it seemed to speak a different language, but nobody has ever claimed that language to be Polish . . . until now.

The Sinn Fein newspaper is poles apart from other Irish political publications, something clearly grasped by Timemagazine which has included An Phoblacht with newspapers such as Polski Express and Polska Gazeta as examples of Polish-language newspapers in Dublin.

In a six-page feature on Ireland, entitled appropriately enough 'The Irish Question', a recent edition of Time focused on the 150,000 Poles who have flocked to Ireland in just two years, noting that they now make up at least 5% of the country's workforce and are the largest group of non-natives.

"Publishers are exploiting that natural market, " Time reports and, in an accompanying photograph, displays copies of Polska Gazeta, Zycie and An Phoblacht as examples. An Phoblacht is included despite the giveaway banner headline on its front page: 'Huge crowds pay tribute to hunger strikers'.

This slight boo-boo aside, the feature is a thoughtful and well-researched analysis of the factors behind how "Ireland became the economic darling of Europe" and the question as to how long the celtic tiger can "keep its roar". The growth in employment and income has been "staggering to those who remember the recent past, the brain-drain era of the '70s and '80s, when anyone with talent fled Ireland as quickly as possible", the magazine reports. "Today, the streets of Dublin are clogged with tourists and well-to-do locals, who flock to shopping meccas like Henry Street or, on the edge of the capital, the Liffey Valley Shopping Centre, a 90-store mall. The brain drain has been reversed into a brain gain; many Irish emigrants to the US are returning, and so many Poles have moved here that it's common to hear Polish spoken in the local pub, " Time says. Particularly, no doubt, that age-old Polish saying, 'Tiocfaidh ar la'.

NI parties may be Browned off

THE money on offer as a carrot to Northern politicians to do a deal on restoring power-sharing is pretty startling. Remember how excited we all were in the South when Albert Reynolds pulled off that coup by landing IR£8bn for the Republic in EU structural funds? That was way back when £8bn was a lot of money. But even this figure is dwarfed by the 79bn being pledged by the British government to underpin the new agreement.

There is an irony in all of this, given that, for years, some unionist politicians rather sniffily used to attribute the economic miracle in the South to EU transfers. Hopefully, the money from the British exchequer will have a similarly positive impact on the Northern economy.

The meeting of the Northern parties last week with British chancellor Gordon Brown offered a fascinating insight into what life might be like after Tony Blair departs next year. The word is that the Northern parties wanted to go in separately to meet Brown, but that the heir apparent to 10 Downing Street was having none of it and basically told the parties to come in together or not at all.

While the British side would be anxious to portray this as her majesty's government simply making sure a consistent message was presented in the meeting, not everybody would be so convinced.

Rightly or wrongly, the perception is that, if and when Brown takes over as British PM, he won't have anything like the same time for, interest in, or patience with, the snail-like pace of Northern politics.

Was he laying down a marker with his 'all or nothing' stance at last week's meeting? If so, the Northern parties might be wise to conclude a deal while Blair is still in situ.

ARCTIC Monkeys they may not be, but the four Oireachtas contestants on 'Charity You're a Star' did raise a nice few quid for their chosen charity, the Irish Hospice Foundation.

According to figures released last week, Billy Kelleher, Dan Boyle (LEFT) and senators Michael McCarthy and Frank Feighan raised a total of /14,705.05 during their respectably long stay in the show. They were, however, a long way from matching the amount raised by Dublin North Central TD Finian McGrath the previous year. The Independent deputy made it all the way to final of that year's contest . . . before being beaten by David Mitchell of Fair City fame . . . in the process accumulating /76,784 for Down Syndrome Ireland. A CD McGrath released for Christmas added another /5,000 to that total.

Winner declared in 2007 dogfight

AFTER recent opinion polls (and notwithstanding Fine Gael's gallant effort last week to make the best of a bad lot) even the dogs on the street seem to know that Fianna Fail will be returned to power after the next general election.

We know that because Labour leader Pat Rabbitte told the Dail that he met a woman in Cork, who told him that every time social affairs minister Seamus Brennan gives a television interview, her dog licks the television set.

It's more difficult to read how the street hounds are calling the PDs' performance, as the same dog apparently barks uncontrollably when Michael McDowell appears. Is this because of McDowell's Rottweiler reputation or could it be a sign that the PDs' 'watchdog' role will continue after the next election?