The Sex Pistols were an English punk rock band that formed in London in 1975. They were responsible for initiating the punk movement in the United Kingdom and inspiring many punk and alternative rock musicians. Although their initial career lasted just two and a half years and produced only four singles and one studio album, Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols, they are regarded as one of the most influential acts in the history of popular music; the Sex Pistols comprised vocalist Johnny Rotten, guitarist Steve Jones, drummer Paul Cook and bassist Glen Matlock. Matlock was replaced by Sid Vicious in early 1977. Under the management of Malcolm McLaren, the band attracted controversies that both captivated and appalled Britain. Through an obscenity-laced television interview in December 1976 and their May 1977 single "God Save the Queen", attacking Britons' social conformity and deference to the Crown, they precipitated the punk rock movement. In January 1978, at the end of an over-hyped and turbulent tour of the United States, Rotten announced the band's break-up.

Over the next few months, the three remaining band members recorded songs for McLaren's film version of the Sex Pistols' story, The Great Rock'n' Roll Swindle. Vicious died of a heroin overdose in February 1979, following his arrest for the alleged murder of his girlfriend. Rotten, Jones and Matlock reunited for a concert tour in 1996. On 24 February 2006, the Sex Pistols—the four original members plus Vicious—were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but they refused to attend the ceremony, calling the museum "a piss stain"; the Sex Pistols evolved from the Strand, a London band formed in 1972 with working-class teenagers Steve Jones on vocals, Paul Cook on drums and Wally Nightingale on guitar. According to a account by Jones, both he and Cook played on instruments they had stolen. Early line-ups of the Strand—sometimes known as the Swankers—also included Jim Mackin on organ and Stephen Hayes on bass; the band members hung out at two clothing shops on the King's Road in Chelsea, London: John Krivine and Steph Raynor's Acme Attractions and Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood's Too Fast to Live, Too Young to Die.

McLaren's and Westwood's shop had opened in 1971 as Let It Rock, with a 1950s revival Teddy Boy theme. It had been renamed in 1972 to focus on another revival trend, the rocker look associated with Marlon Brando; as John Lydon observed, "Malcolm and Vivienne were a pair of shysters: they would sell anything to any trend that they could grab onto." The shop became a focal point of the punk rock scene, bringing together participants such as the future Sid Vicious, Marco Pirroni, Gene October, Mark Stewart, among many others. Jordan, the wildly styled shop assistant, is credited with "pretty well single-handedly paving the punk look". In early 1974, Jones asked McLaren to manage the Strand. Agreeing, McLaren paid for their first formal rehearsal space. Glen Matlock, an art student who worked at Too Fast to Live, Too Young to Die, was recruited as the band's regular bassist. In November, McLaren temporarily relocated to New York City. Before his departure, McLaren and Westwood had conceived a new identity for their shop: renamed Sex, it changed its focus from retro couture to S&M-inspired "anti-fashion", with a billing as "Specialists in rubberwear, glamourwear & stagewear".

After informally managing and promoting the New York Dolls for a few months, McLaren returned to London in May 1975. Inspired by the punk scene, emerging in Lower Manhattan—in particular by the radical visual style and attitude of Richard Hell with Television—McLaren began taking a greater interest in the Strand; the group had been rehearsing overseen by McLaren's friend Bernard Rhodes, had performed publicly for the first time. Soon after McLaren's return, Nightingale was kicked out of the band and Jones, uncomfortable as frontman, took over guitar duties. According to journalist and former McLaren employee Phil Strongman, around this time the band adopted the name QT Jones and the Sex Pistols. McLaren had been talking with the New York Dolls' Sylvain Sylvain about coming over to England to front the group; when those plans fell through, McLaren and the band began looking locally for a new member to assume the lead vocal duties. As described by Matlock, "Everyone had long hair even the milkman, so what we used to do was if someone had short hair we would stop them in the street and ask them if they fancied themselves as a singer.".

For instance, former singer with boy band Slik and future Ultravox front man Midge Ure claims to have been approached by McLaren, but to have refused the offer. With the search going nowhere, McLaren made several calls to Richard Hell, who turned down the invitation. In August 1975, Rhodes spotted nineteen-year-old King's Road habitué John Lydon wearing a Pink Floyd T-shirt with the words I Hate handwritten above the band's name and holes scratched through the eyes. Reports vary at this point: the same day, or soon after, either Rhodes or McLaren asked Lydon to come to a nearby pub in the evening to meet Jones and Cook. According to Jones, "He came in with green hair. I thought he had a interesting face. I liked his look, he had his'I Hate Pink Floyd' T-shirt on, it was held together with safety pins. John had something special, but when he started talking he was a real arsehole—but smart." When the pub closed, the group moved on to Sex, where Lydon, who had given little thought to singing, was convinced to improvise along to Alice Cooper's "I'm Eighteen" on the shop jukebox.

Though the performance drove the band

Annadorn Dolmen is a dolmen sited at the Buck's Head near Loughinisland, in the townland of Annadorn. Nearby you can find the old Annadorn post office in County Down, Northern Ireland, it is on the north-east shore of Loughinisland Lake, on a hillock overlooking Loughinisland Churches, a group of three ruined churches. The site is a State Care Historic Monument at grid ref: J4289 4591. Co-ordinates: Latitude: 54° 20' 29.97" N Longitude: 5° 48' 8.72" W The dolmen has a large, low displaced capstone about 65 cm thick covering a rectangular chamber and supported by three stones about 60 cm high. An account of 1802 suggests that it was set beneath a large rectangular cairn 60 ft in diameter and approached by a lintelled passage, so it could be the remains of a passage grave. Another possible explanation could be that the supporting stones were upright supporting the capstone, representing a more typical tripod dolmen; the monument has not been excavated and closer examination would be required to interpret the site.

The capstone has many small solution pits on the upper surface, two of which appear to have been enlarged. The 1802 account says the chamber under the capstone contained ashes and a number of bones. In the 18th century, Thomas Russell, co-founder and leader of the United Irishmen, used this stone as a platform for his gatherings in Loughinisland. List of archaeological sites in County Down Irish Antiquities - Photographs of Annadorn Dolmen

The High Court of Justice in Ireland was the court created by the Supreme Court of Judicature Act 1877 to replace the existing court structure in Ireland. It mirrored the reform of the courts of England and Wales five years earlier under the Judicature Acts; the Act created a Supreme Court of Judicature, consisting of a High Court of Justice and a Court of Appeal. The High Court was created by the Supreme Court of Judicature Act 1877, through the amalgamation of a number of courts. Most the three superior common-law courts and the Court of Chancery were merged into the new court. Merged into it were the courts of Landed Estates, Matrimonial Causes and Bankruptcy. However, the right of appeal from Ireland to the House of Lords in England was preserved. An important consequence of the amalgamation of the superior common-law courts with the court of equity was that, for the first time, the separate systems of common law and equity were merged; the structure of the abolished courts was reflected in the divisions created for the new High Court.

These proved to be unnecessarily complex, the opportunity presented by the death and transfer of a number of the judges was taken to simplify the organisation of the divisions, so that by 1897 there were only two: Chancery, the Queen's Bench. Of the existing office holders, the Lord Chancellor of Ireland presided in the new Court of Appeal; the Master of the Rolls in Ireland and the Vice-Chancellor moved to the Chancery Division. The Chief Justice of the Irish Common Pleas retained his rank until 1887 when the incumbent became Lord Chief Justice of Ireland. Christopher Palles, the last Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer remained in office until 1916, acting as a judge both of the King's Bench Division and of the Court of Appeal; the Government of Ireland Act 1920 abolished the Supreme Court of Judicature created by the 1877 Act. It split the High Court into separate courts for Southern Ireland; the Court of Appeal was split into separate courts with a new overarching High Court of Appeal for Ireland.

Following the establishment of the Irish Free State in December 1922, the High Court of Justice in Southern Ireland remained in existence for two years, in accordance with the "carry-over" provisions in Article 75 of the Constitution of the Irish Free State. It was abolished by the Courts of Justice Act 1924. With only two exceptions, the judges of the old High Court were forcibly retired on a generous pension. In Northern Ireland a new Supreme Court of Judicature was created in 1978, although the basic court structure remained unchanged