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When someone is controlling and manipulating you they cut you off from everybody. It’s so difficult to get away but you don’t have to put up with it. It never gets better, they promise they’ll be good but two weeks later it’s ten times worse. The pattern will continue until it comes to the point that you think they’re going to kill you.

Susan Walmsley speaking in court after Muhammed Tajik pleaded guilty to assaulting her.

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It’s fair to say that the emergency is worse, people are dying, Apollo House is still empty for some bizarre reasons it stands there with people sleeping underneath it again.

Brendan Ogle, co-founder of the Irish Housing Network which was responsible for the occupation of Apollo House, on the situation now a year after the building was taken over by activists.

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For the time being, I’m not satisfied. I want more. I want all the belts.

Katie Taylor on retaining her world title after defeating Jessica McCaskill.

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Putting the needs of our customers first, and avoiding disruption to their Christmas flights, is the reason why we will now deal with our pilots through recognised national union structures.

Michael O’Leary on Ryanair’s decision to recognise pilot unions.

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We were campaigning for her release and were proud of Dublin’s recognition of her courage, and that of her colleagues, to bring about fledgling democracy against all odds… against one of the most brutal regimes of modern times. So it saddens us to be writing to you today as you discuss recent events in Myanmar and decide whether that merits the rescinding of the honour you bestowed on her. We believe it does.

U2 wrote to Dublin councillors urging them to remove the Freedom of the City from Aung San Suu Kyi.

When my daughter came back, she said: “Mam, he was crying.” He was crying because he was so cold, so miserable, so alone and he felt that nobody gave a damn about him, Minister. So I want you over Christmas to think about those children and every single person waiting to be housed in this State.

The words of Sinn Féin’s Imelda Munster during a Dáil debate on child homelessness.

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I was saying some of you Irish and I was replying to a series of abusive tweets which you can look up online calling me the C-word and a Brit and out of touch. People appeared to feel justified simply because I had challenged an Irish minister in this context. I felt that what they were saying was tedious, which is why I said I was bored now.

The response of Sky News presenter Adam Boulton to criticism of his “You Irish” tweet.

President of the United States of America Donald Trump was accused of ‘slut-shaming’.

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In some conversations I’ve got a sense of snobbery, hypocrisy and lack of understanding when it comes to some people in the 26 counties when they talk about ‘The North’ or ‘Northerners’. None so much summed up by the Wexford radio host Ivan Yates who recently expressed on his Dublin-based show: “We don’t actually like the Nordies”. A man who complains about the lack of progress and reconciliation there but goes on a smug filled rant attacking them.

James Cumiskey wrote about the Republic’s attitude towards Northern Ireland.