Both A Tangled Web and the Northern Irish Magyar picked up on a story in the Times that Belfast City Council are to fund a St. Patrick's Day parade next year to the tune of £110,000 - on the proviso that no sectarian symbols or attire be allowed. Of course a similar story broke back in July, but I won't tell if you don't.

The Cross of St. Patrick will be the only flag allowed at the parade

Union Flags/Irish Tricolours will be banned, with only the St Patrick's Cross (which Liam Clarke at the Times for seems to have confused with Scotland's St Andrew's Cross) being allowed. It seems only rainbow coloured shamrocks will be permitted instead of green ones. I think the rainbow shamrocks are taking it a bit far though, and as a member of the straight community am personally offended at the... nah I can't be bothered. Seriously though, I'm not sure unionists would be that worried by green shamrocks - more the tricolours, celtic shirts and rebel slogans/songs that tend to permeate the day's festivities in Belfast, led by a mixture of culchie students and uneducated spides.

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A remeberance service was held last night, in the Church of the Holy Redeemer in Ballyholme, for Lisa Dorrian 9 months after she originally went missing. The church was filled to capacity as hundreds turned out to celebrate Lisa's life.

Lisa's mum, Patricia, said she hoped the service would focus people's attention on the case. I hope she's right.

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It's depressing the moronoic, inbred animals that pass for citizens of this country. If those lowlife pondscum get kicks out of attacking the emergency services (this time with fireworks, poles and stones), it's time they got a bit more than a kick. This seems to happen on at least a weekly basis and it's not good enough - something needs to be done. If there are "civillian" casualties, so be it.

No mention in the press that the attacks were in a nationalist area. Hmmm.. apparently that would be too much investigation for the local press.

It's been the guts of a year but a man appeared in court today charged with taking part in the £26m robbery of the Northern Bank. Dominic McEvoy, 23, of Mullandra Park, Kilcoo is one of 5 men arrested in recent days but denied the charges of posessing a firearm with intent and of false imprisonment, and also denied membership of the IRA.

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Sitting in work I heard a discussion regarding the new stadium. Many of you will already know it's one of my pet peeves. Another thing that riles me is people stating as fact their opinions and conjecture regarding issues they know nothing about. Oh this was going to be fun.

"You know they're going to call it something like Queen Elizabeth Stadium or Windsor Stadium!"

I did not know that. I've been following the farce that is the Maze stadium for months now and had never even considered the possibility that they might call it that. Why? Because I'm not a prejudiced, clueless, paranoid MOPE (at least that's what I like to think). Is it any wonder the country's the way it is when people rely on their prejudice instead of facts and common sense? If this guy wasn't a nationalist he could be a DUP candidate with scaremongering like that.

Leaving aside the fact that Windsor Park got its name before the House of Windsor due to its location in the Windsor area of Belfast, there is no way any project designed with political correctness at its core would come within a country mile of a name so contentious. This is especially true when the the powers that have demonstrated they will do everything they can to kiss up to the GAA in order to get them on board.

The SDLP warned the government today that they could end up repartitioning Ulster if they opted for the 7-council plan when they reduced the number of local government districts in Northern Ireland. This in itself seems like a reasonable statement, with the SDLP stating that it would result in 3 Unionist councils, 3 nationalist councils and Belfast City Council.

All fairly reasonable so far. Then comes this paragraph in the UTV report:

Mr Gallagher said the greatest concern for nationalists was a carve-up of councils would play right into the hands of unionists who prefer to settle for a new form of partition rather than take part in the institutions the people of Ireland have endorsed.

What on earth makes Mr Gallagher think Unionists want re-partition or that such a move would 'play into our hands'? Perhaps I'm being paranoid but personally I feel repartition would only serve as a stepping-stone to a united Ireland as what's left of British Ulster slowly receded towards the Irish Sea.

I'd rather see Northern Ireland work, as a place where regardless of your national and/or cultural affiliation(s), we can all live our lives and get along with those around us. It's quite simple: for Unionists Northern Ireland has to work, and repartition would be a step towards admitting defeat.

Am I wrong in what I say (is it me who doesn't get Unionists?), or is this just evidence of how little we in Northern Ireland understand each other? And is there any way (looking at the potential boundaries) to avoid a sectarian carve up?

The forensic expert investigating the 'Dissapeared' is to be made available to detectives investigating the disappearance of Lisa Dorrian. North Down MP Lady Sylvia Hermon said "common sense had prevailed" after she received the news in a letter from Peter Hain.

I just hope it helps so that Lisa's family and friends can finally get some closure on the matter.

As the dogs cower and hide under the bed and you turn all your lights out (to avoid Trick or Treaters obviously) you might want to have a look at "How Halloween Works"

Thanks to maca for highlighting that How Stuff Works has an article on How Zombies Work (looking at Haitian Zombie rumours). Maybe that'll help me get through the rest of Resident Evil 4 (Gamecube, not PS2) if I ever get back to it!

As of midnight last night, the LVF has ordered its "Military Units" to stand down, allegedly in response to the IRA statement and actions of late and the result that they believe there is no threat of a renewed IRA campaign.

I'll leave you to speculate over whether their standing down caused the end of the UVF-LVF feud, or whether the feud caused the standing down - I'm sure everyone will have their suspicions.

The important thing is that another paramilitary group appears to have gone away. With any luck the others will follow.

Fair play to Sinead McCavana at the Sunday Life for pointing out that despite thousands turning out in the bad weather, yesterday's Love Ulster rally passed off peacefully, something the BBC failed to mention in their report, and which UTV tucked away at the bottom.

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