Howdy Doody from Cork,

Finally back home after a pretty long and intensive 3 day course. I checked out of the hotel at 7am yesterday morning for the course and didn't get back home until 11pm, ready for another early start this morning. When I was driving homefrom the train station last night, on passing the Cork City Garda Station (Police station) I saw that a lot of satellite trucks and live news crews from around the world were gathered on the street and blocking up all the traffic. (in Cork thats a pretty unusual event as its normally a pretty quiet place on the news front). When I eventually made my way through all the traffic and got home, I turned on the tv to check out what was going on.

In what is probably the most dramatic political news story of the last few years, significant members of a political party called Sinn Fein (irish for "ourselves") with ties to the IRA, were arrested in cork on charges of money laundering to the tune of €2.6 million in Northern Ireland bank notes.

Last month, a Bank in Northern Ireland was robbed of €26 million and involvement was infactically denied by the IRA and Sinn Fein. What makes this significant is that if the alligations prove to be true, it will mean that Sinn Fein will lose all credibilty and will probably eventually result in Sinn Fein/IRA being excluded from peace talks in Northern Ireland, causing the peace process to either stall or fall down completely. Hopefully it wont come to that but the signs dont look good at the moment. I really hope the IRA and company don't go back to their old ways and that this will scare them into realising that peace is the only way forward. No one wants an Ireland free from british influence more than me , but I just don't see the sense in what they have done to risk so much for so little.....

I added some more Dublin pictures onto buzznet, Click here to see.