Free Republic

It says much about humanity’s basic urge to be ruled by dynasties that Teddy Kennedy came anywhere near being elected president in 1980. Whatever his other qualities, his behaviour at Chappaquiddick eleven years earlier, where he might have been able to save Mary Jo Kopechne’s life but instead chose to save his own career by waiting until his blood/alcohol level reached a legal level, would have ruled out anyone else from becoming local rat catcher, let alone leader of the greatest nation on earth.But after the murder of his brothers John and Bobby, Teddy became America’s atheling – until the...

Earlier this week, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said his country would end four decades of self-imposed isolation and return to Nato's military command. Here, the BBC's Allan Little reflects on France's long journey to reconcile itself with one of the darkest chapters in its history and its difficult relationship with the US and the UK. There is a story about a conversation between General de Gaulle, who, as president of the French Republic, telephoned his American counterpart Lyndon B Johnson, to inform him that France had decided to withdraw from the North Atlantic Treaty alliance. Since its foundation nearly two...

Security sources in Northern Ireland fear the next attack by Republican dissidents is likely to involve a bomb, Sky News has confirmed. It follows reports that the Real IRA has smuggled a large device into the province from the South. Sky's Home Affairs correspondent Mark White says the focus of investigations is now on a 300lb car bomb left at Castelwellen at the end of January. That bomb was diffused after a warning call was received. It caused a security alert outside the town for five days. Security sources suggest that whoever put the "sophisticated" device together was an experienced...

IF the Mafia were handed power in New York, would anyone expect them to go straight? It’s the same with the IRA and Northern Ireland. The price of Tony Blair’s appeasement of the IRA was that terrorists were allowed to share power. And now the terrorists have fallen out among themselves. That’s why two British soldiers have been murdered. We’ve all been worrying about Islamic attacks. Yet suddenly we face a renewed terror campaign on our own soil. It must come as a shock to anyone who doesn’t remember how Ulster violence dominated the news for decades. Blair’s Ulster peace...