The police intelligence unit in London that monitors football hooligans said that it had been in contact with the gardai before the match and had been expecting trouble from the England fans.The England manager, Terry Venables, said: “It was terrible. Police used truncheons as they came under attack, several people were injured and further arrests were made.Politicians and sports authorities on both sides of the Irish sea swiftly condemned the “shameful” scenes at Lansdowne Road, which immediately raised doubts over England’s role in international football and the European Championships which are due to be staged in England in 1996.However, questions were being raised last night over the security precautions at the ground. Some fans, including a young boy, were taken to hospital, others were given first- aid at the scene.The referee took the teams off the pitch, but the hail of missiles intensified and, after 12 minutes it was announced that the match had been abandoned.The 4,500 English fans were kept in the stadium while the rest of the crowd left, but then fresh violence broke out when riot police moved in to escort the England supporters from the ground. The trouble erupted when Ireland took a 1-0 lead and sections of the English crowd in the Upper West tier ripped up seats and benches to hurl missiles at supporters below, injuring several people.
Hundreds of fans fled on to the pitch as police and stewards struggled to control the violence At least 12 people were arrested. English football was plunged into a fresh crisis yesterday when rioting fans forced the abandonment of a friendly match with the Republic of Ireland in Dublin.

In other offences, such as manslaughter, actual bodily harm and rape, intoxication generally cannot be used as a defence. It is held that if the defendant would have known the crime was a crime when he was sober, being drunk would not be a justification. If the defendant has been intoxicated against his will, or unknowingly, it can be part of a defence to any offence.The Law Commission argues that the law, based on cases and interpretations, is obscure and confusing. It does not recommend changing the basic principles of using intoxication as a defence, but includes in its report a draft Bill which the Home Office could enact to make the law more straightforward.The proposals would not affect the offence of driving while intoxicated, but would have a bearing on offences committed under the influence of drink or drugs, such as deliberately or recklessly causing injury while driving.Recommendations of the Law Commission are enacted at the discretion of the Government.n `Intoxication and Criminal Liability’, HMSO, £14.95. Quite apart from the contemporary importance of crimes committed under the influence of alcohol, the subject is of increasing practical importance, with the availability of hallucinogenic drugs whose ingestion in very small quantities can lead to behaviour which is bizarre, unpredictable and violent.”
As the law stands, intoxication can be used as a defence to crimes where the prosecution has to prove intention, including murder or deliberately causing grievous bodily harm. The Law Commission said: “The area of law examined in this report is of enormous significance.

Into the former come such notions as attractive, interesting and lucid presentation and objective discussion and appraisal of the company’s performance, financial position and prospects. Among the latter are poor legibility from the use of small print or poor colour contrasts and inadequate links between the accounts section and the rest of the report.Funny how there is no mention of glossy photographs.. Advisers to the Government recommended yesterday that the law be changed to make it clearer when drunkenness can be used as part of a defence to criminal offences. But he was especially impressed by the extent to which Graseby and BP made use of the Operational and Financial Review, a voluntary statement to help communication.All of this may well be true, but there are still many accounts being scrutinised by the ASB’s sister body, the Financial Reporting Review Panel, with some having publicly to change their accounts as a result.Perhaps the best hope is for next year’s panel – selected from the investment community, accountancy and law – to pick a less well-known main award winner with the intention of encouraging greater efforts on the part of the great swathe of companies in the middle ground.Richard Sykes, the prominent commercial QC who chaired the judging panel, pointed out that BP, which yesterday reported profits for the latest financial year, had been chosen on the strength of, chiefly, devoting a full page to corporate governance, good and highly relevant accounting, and relevant figures adjusted in an intelligible way to give US shareholders the information they needed.But, helpful as this is, it is perhaps more useful to the aspirant company to study the respective lists of “positive qualities” and “features to be avoided”. It met the reasonable expectations of shareholders without being over- elaborate, he believed.Guest speaker Sir David Tweedie, the chairman of the Accounting Standards Board, added that financial reporting in Britain had moved back into the international mainstream. Whether the measure is quality of management, leadership skills, innovation, stock market performance or financial reporting, the same names crop up because they are the few in the reckoning.At last week’s event at the Mansion House in the City of London, John Kemp-Welch commented on the better balance being seen in financial reporting. Certainly, those involved have detected an improvement in the financial reporting of smaller companies.Little known as this year’s small company winner, Graseby, and its predecessors may be, the list of main award winners since the competition began in 1991 reads a little like the great and the good of British business – BOC, J Sainsbury, Cadbury-Schweppes, Coats Viyella and now BP.Though predictable, this serves to underscore an important lesson: there are very few top-notch companies in Britain.