Chum was a British boy's weekly which at the end of the year was bound into a single huge book and the following Christmas parents bought it as Christmas presents for male children.

No men and women of the Irish race we shall not fight for England. We shall fight for the destruction of the British Empire and the construction of an Irish republic.

When the British came to Ibo land for instance at the beginning of the 20th century and defeated the men in pitched battles in different places and set up their administrations the men surrendered. And it was the women who led the first revolt.

The British Red Cross asked me to help them spearhead a fundraising campaign for the victims of the war in Nicaragua. It was a turning point in my life. It began my commitment to justice and human rights issues.

However much we may sympathize with a small nation confronted by a big and powerful neighbours we cannot in all circumstances undertake to involve the whole British Empire in a war simply on her account.

The west has a great deal to answer for in the Middle East from Britain's belated empire-building after the First World War to the US and British policy that condemns modern Iraq to the material and social squalor of a half-century ago.

The British soldier can stand up to anything except the British War Office.

This sympathy is not translated into force against the British government because it is not like the anti- apartheid movement which had a high profile here and Mandela is a more engaging figure than Yasser Arafat.

The first condition of success for the League of Nations is therefore a firm understanding between the British Empire and the United States of America and France and Italy that there will be no competitive building up of fleets or armies between them.

The problem with being British... I don't know if it's me being British or being raised a strict Catholic but you never really enjoy success.