The Irish Abroad

• The family of Christy McGrath (29) have been unable to establish the reason for the delay in repatriating him from a prison in England to a prison in this country. In 2001 the Carrick-on-Suir jockey was convicted of the murder of a man in Co. Durham, although he has always maintained his innocence. In July his application to be repatriated was approved but no one in authority is willing to explain why he remains in England.
• While in London on Monday Taoiseach Bertie Ahern attended a reception in his honour hosted by the mayor of Kensington and Chelsea Tim Ahern. While there he also met the mayoress, the mayor's daughter Roberta, who is known to her friends as "Bertie". Mayor Ahern's family came from Cork.
• The Irish Times reported in some detail on a story about Tipperary man Paul O'Sullivan, which is receiving considerable attention in South Africa. Mr O'Sullivan had been a successful head of security at the country's airports until he was suddenly dismissed after he terminated a security contract with a private company. He blames the dismissal on South African police chief Jackie Selebi who, he claims, had links with the company which lost the contract. Since then Mr O'Sullivan has made some apparently well-substantiated allegations about Mr Selebi's links with the criminal underworld. He recently accused one of Mr Selebi's acknowledged criminal friends of involvement in a high-profile murder and this man has been arrested by South Africa's elite Scorpions police force, which does not come under the control of Mr Selebi.
• Sligo men Vincent Sweeney (44), of Ballytivnan, and Robert McGowan (38), of the Cartron estate, have been jailed for 16 and 18 years respectively after being found guilty at Canterbury Crown Court of smuggling drugs worth some £2.6m into Britain. The pair were intercepted at Dover in March of this year, when 600kg of cannabis and 25kg of heroin were found concealed in the horsebox in which they were travelling. Sweeney, it seems, was drafted in as he was involved with horses. Minister for Justice Michael McDowell was impressed with the severity of the sentences – they are probably twice as long as would be imposed by the courts here – and called on judges here to "get real" when dealing with drug criminals.