Previous Day
I was not wrong on O'Flaherty
Four weeks ago, this column was publicised on the front page of the newspaper with the words "I was wrong about O'Flaherty". I was not wrong about Hugh O'Flaherty. p
APPRECIATION
Jim Troy
The death on September 7th of Jim Troy meant for many people, in different walks of life, the loss of a highly valued friend. Some had ties with Jim that went back to his college days in UCD, where he took a commerce degree before becoming a chartered accountant. On leaving college he became an active supporter of the college rugby club and helped to organise its activities and to solve - often with more than mere advice - many of the problems which arose from time to time. p
An Irishman's Diary
If ever there was a test of our sense of freedom, tobacco provides it. Cigarette-smoking is the most purposeless of vices. Cigarettes make you die, they make you smell, they make you poor: the drug of fools. p
Oaks in your kitchen
Yes, we're going to get plenty about trees in the next weeks and months. Crann has announced its Autumn Festival of Trees, Feile Shamhna na gCrann, for October/November and there will be ceremonies and plantings all over the place. With a copy of its magazine Releafing Ireland comes a supplement by John Feehan on "The Spirit of Trees", a fine, long essay. p
Germany celebrates
Germans celebrated 10 years of unification yesterday. It was an occasion to reflect on their own experiences over a momentous decade. The fact that they occurred under a European roof has determined many of these events, putting Germany at ease with its neighbours for the first time in its modern history. That is an immense achievement, as was recognised yesterday by many of the speakers at a formal ceremony in Dresden to mark the occasion. Germany was reunified as part of a wider European process of continental unification, which will continue for at least another generation. Whether seen from within Germany or from outside it, there is a clear relationship between them. pAIB pays the price
The payment by Allied Irish Banks of £90 million to the Revenue Commissioners to discharge its DIRT liabilities is the largest sum paid to date in a tax settlement in this State. The scale of the payment comes as little surprise. Reports of DIRT evasion in AIB initiated the entire saga and the bank was one of the main offenders in maintaining bogus non-resident accounts. It has now agreed a settlement with the Revenue Commissioners on the basis of an underlying tax liability of £34.58 million and interest and penalties of £55.46 million. AIB still argues that it agreed what was effectively an amnesty of its pre-1991 DIRT liabilities with the Revenue Commissioners in the early 1990s. However the Public Accounts Committee, which examined the issue in depth, agreed with the Revenue that there was no amnesty and the payment is the result of a subsequent 15-month audit of AIB's files by the tax authorities. p
