What the papers say

Journalist Malachi O'Doherty takes a look at Tuesday's morning newspapers.

The most prominent running story this morning is the follow on from the death of the Queen Mother.

The Daily Mail has a supplement with photographs of her at different stages of her life, and the Mirror and the Daily Telegraph lead on Prince Charles saying she was the "most magical grandmother".

The Mirror publishes a picture of the Queen out riding yesterday and permitting herself a smile in the midst of her grief.

Some of the media is rebounding already from the surfeit of royal death coverage.

The Independent front page concentrates on the hard news, leading with a report by Robert Fisk that West Bank Palestinians slaughtered collaborators as the Israeli tanks came rolling in.

'Tank's gun'

The Guardian's front page has also moved on - "Bush stands back as Israel tightens siege".

The paper describes the rolling invasion of Palestinian territory.

And the supplement asks: "How did it come to this?" - with a cover picture of a tank's gun pointing at Palestinian men lying on the ground with their hands on their heads.

David Grossman says constant fear and anger have robbed a nation of reason.

He writes: "Sharon will not succeed, even if he confiscates all the weapons that Palestinians possess, because he will not excise from their hearts the thing that makes them do what they do."

The News Letter leads with the ironic story of loyalists who dressed in Celtic tops to accost Catholics, stopped a young Protestant to demand his religion, scared him into saying he was a Catholic, and then stabbed him three times in the head.

'Inquiry call'

The editorial says that the future of the monarchy looks secure and meaningful, both from the merits of what it calls the constitutional democratic perspective and as a tourist attraction.

The resignation of Bishop Brendan Comiskey and subsequent calls for an inquiry into the latitude granted to the paedophile priest Sean Fortune, make the lead in the Irish News and the Irish Times this morning.

Breda O'Brien in the Irish Times suggests that the church should not leave it to the government to order an inquiry, but should itself appoint a reputable ombudsman.

Fintan O'Toole says that the responses of Archbishop Brady and Cardinal Connell imply that "the wilful blindness that left children at the mercy of predators has not been cured. They didn't want to know, and they still don't".

And you will recall the touching story of the Kenyan lionness who adopted a deer, a baby oryx, brought it to the watering hole, turned her back and it was eaten by her mates.

She went on to adopt another oryx, says the Guardian this morning, and another, and is even allowing its natural mother to feed it.

Apparently looking after this one a little better.