SATURDAY/SUNDAY
THE Minister for Finance accused the State's 26,000 nurses of making a "gross error" of judgment if they thought the Government could offer them more than the £59 million pay package they had rejected. While all four nursing unions had recommended acceptance of the package, their membership voted against it.
The SDLP decided at its annual conference in Cookstown, Co Tyrone, to let its leadership decide on a possible electoral pact with Sinn Fein in advance of next year's Westminster election.
A woman whose abuser had a five year jail sentence reduced to six months called for legal changes, including a right to legal representation for abuse victims from the time they make their statement. The woman had been abused by her uncle as a child.
The bail referendum was described as improperly thought out and potentially irresponsible by the Auxiliary Bishop of Dublin, Dr Eamonn Walsh.
MONDAY
Opposition parties redoubled their demands for the resignation of the Minister for Justice, Mrs Owen, after she revealed that she had not told the Dail about a letter from Judge Dominic Lynch inquiring about his position. Judge Lynch had continued to sit as a judge on the Special Criminal Court, despite being delisted at his own request, for over two months because no one had informed him of his removal. Mrs Owen said she had been shown the letter the previous week but had not informed the Dail because the letter was not dated.
The Irish aid agencies, Trocaire and Concern, faced major obstacles at the hands of the Rwandan army and Zairean rebels as they tried to bring food and medical supplies into Goma in eastern Zaire. No aid was distributed as a result.
The inquest into the deaths of Imelda Riney, her son, Liam, and Joseph Walsh in Co Clare in 1994 heard that the killings could be described as "the greatest tragedy of our time". Last April Brendan O'Donnell was jailed for life for the killings in the longest murder trial in the history of the State.
Mr Patrick Fahey, a Mayo man who co-owned a bar in New York, was found sexually mutilated and shot by a roadway in Queens, in what is believed to have been a revenge killing involving a Mafia family. Mr Fahey had been dating the wife of a member of the Luchese crime family while her husband was in prison.
TUESDAY
The Government proposed to strip the Department of Justice of half of its powers in the ongoing controversy over the Special Criminal Court. The administration of the courts and the prisons are to be removed from the Department and taken over by statutory boards.
Five of the prisoners who were released and then immediately rearrested because of the judge's delisting were given leave by the High Court to seek their release.
The Democratic Left leader, Mr Proinsias De Rossa, told the High Court that he made a bonfire of Workers' Party documents in his back garden in 1992. Mr De Rossa is taking a libel action arising from an article by Mr Eamon Dunphy in the Sunday In dependent in 1992, which associated Mr De Rossa with criminal activities.
Irish abortion figures would be considerably lower if antiabortion groups were not so anti-contraception, anti-information and anti-education, said Dr Jim Laughran, a director of the Marie Stopes Reproductive Choices Clinic. About 6,000 Irish women travel to Britain each year to terminate pregnancies.
WEDNESDAY
The inquiry began into the failure to inform Judge Dominic Lynch he had been removed from the Special Criminal Court. The inquiry team of Mr Sean Cromien and Dr Edmond Molloy began to interview Department of Justice officials. In the Dail, the Government won its confidence motion by 79 votes to 70.
Mr Proinsias De Rossa told the High Court he had concluded that a letter to the Soviet Communist Party bearing his signature and published in The Irish Times was forgery.
The Garda Commissioner agreed in principle to allow Esat Digifone, the private telephone company due to start in the new year, to use masts on Garda stations to extend its network. The Garda may be given use of Esat Digifone facilities in payment or part payment.
The Irish Commission for Justice and Peace strongly criticised the Government's proposal to change the bail laws. The Commission, which advises the Irish Hierarchy on justice issues said the proposed change would lead the people being interned without trial on the word of a senior Garda officer.
THURSDAY
The Taoiseach, Mr Bruton, announced that Ireland is prepared to participate in a proposed international humanitarian peacekeeping force in eastern Zaire. Ireland also called an EU ambassadors' meeting at the UN, with the intention of deploying a joint European peacekeeping force in the country.
An Algerian man was granted permission to return to Ireland after he had been deported from the State last month. Mr Madani Haouanoh, who had lived in Ireland for five years and has an Irish wife, was deported for not having a valid visa or work permit after he returned to Ireland from a visit to relatives in France.
A comprehensive £19 million review of air and sea search and rescue operations was announced by the Minister for Defence and the Marine, Mr Barrett, on the first anniversary of the deaths of seven fishermen off Howth and in Donegal.