IRISH REPUBLICAN NEWS: Archives

At one level, the north of Ireland has changed markedly over the past ten years. But for real change, you need to look deeper.

‘Clarified’ Lisbon Treaty the very same

Despite the predictable media hype, and bogus claims of doing down the Brits, nothing has changed in terms of the Lisbon Treaty, writes Aengus O Snodaigh, Sinn Féin Dail spokesman on European affairs.

Time for a realignment in Irish politics

Almost one-third-of-a-million people voted for Sinn Féin candidates across Ireland in the recent EU elections - the exact figure, 331,797 people.

Time for DUP to tell their people the truth

The current DUP position where they work with Sinn Féin, or profess to work alongside them, while saying they are smashing them, simply invites ridicule.

Electorate assesses value of its vote

This Thursday and Friday the people of Ireland go to the polls in a rare all-Ireland plebiscite - an election to the European parliament.

Consigning Irish children to a regime of torture

The Report of the Commission of Inquiry into Child Abuse, published this week, left no one in any doubt that children in the Twenty-Six County state were never treated equally

Elections - an exercise in participatory democracy

Members of the small republican political party eirigi agreed at its annual conference to 'tactically contest elections at a time of our choosing'.

Bobby Sands and Margaret Thatcher

Two personalities from opposite ends of the political spectrum, who helped shape their respective worlds and are inextricably linked through decisions they took over 30 years ago had anniversaries last week.

Give them absolutely nothing

Would society really be better off had Suzanne Breen not spoken to the Real IRA?

Supergrasses: They’re Back!

The British state is increasing its erosion of civil liberties for Irish citizens.

Pseudo groups are locked into political fantasy world

Three very distinct and separate voices were heard across the Irish media last weekend.

‘Get off our backs’

Veteran Derry republican Gerry McCartney argues that the recent killings of two British soldiers and a PSNI officer by dissident republican groups will do nothing to achieve Irish unity.

Easter Sunday in Duleek

It is difficult not to feel a surge of emotion racing through the veins when reflecting on what the men and women of 1916 gave up in order to make a stand against a malign foreign power.

Force of argument is way forward

The 1916 Rising was the end product of more than a century of protest, largely peaceful, since the brutal suppression by the British government of the 1798 Rebellion.

Can intelligence services be trusted?

There is a connection between the civil action brought by relatives of Omagh bomb victims and the arrests in relation to the killing of the two soldiers in Antrim and the PSNI officer in Lurgan.

Intimidation of Shell to Sea campaigners

Over the course of recent weeks the state has intensified its intimidation of Shell to Sea campaigners.

Who is McGuinness to talk of treachery?

Many years ago I looked up to Martin McGuinness. Most within the ranks of the Provisional IRA did likewise.

A quantum shift

Anyone who is surprised that “the dissidents” are still actively fighting will have had their head in the sand for the past number of years. And, of course, they are certainly not reading this.

Society needs to make decisions about core values

The partition of Ireland not only divided the territorial integrity of the nation and its people, it also led to the underdevelopment of politics on a left-right axis.

UVF/PSNI collusion sentences fail to convey horror

Last week’s case demanded deterrent custodial sentences and not someone jauntily walking free making contemptuous gestures to cameramen.

Finucane an indictment of British collusion

Armed only with his sharpened legal brain Pat Finucane was a formidable obstacle for those in the British government and military.

Spat between unionists completely meaningless

You probably didn’t notice the little spat between the DUP and UUP about meeting loyalists, but it’s worth examining as a perfect example of the parallel universe unionists live in.

Suspicions well grounded over collusion in report

So far the British government has managed to protect itself and its agencies from those seeking to probe deeper into this sinister world.

1919-2009 - Compare and Contrast

Those who paraded themselves in the Mansion House on Tuesday past have little right to claim the inheritance of the revolutionary republicans and socialists who established the First Dail.

Much to be optimistic about

In the face of this economic crisis the argument for stronger not weaker government intervention in the economy needs to be heard.

Christmas has ended - so should Gaza siege

The reoccupation by Israel of the Gaza Strip and the slaughter of its Palestinian inhabitants form one of the most shameful episodes, among a long list of others, for the international community since the state of Israel was set up in 1948.

Hunger strikers’ contribution will endure

It is the contribution of the hunger strikers which will endure and make the difference to peace, justice and freedom - not that offered up by Cruise O’Brien.

A Cabinet that keeps hitting the panic button

The Dublin government's reaction to recent challenges shows it may be out of its depth.

Vilifying the dead

If the current enquiries are anything to go by, truth is not part of Britain's agenda.

Assassinating Rosemary Nelson’s character

It now appears that just as she was attacked by them in life, Rosemary Nelson is now to be attacked in death.

Another corner turned on road to new Ireland

A Six-County Department of Justice could be functioning by the early months of the new year.

V Day

The triumphalism of the British Army regiment on public display in the heart of Belfast punched yet another gaping hole in the approved narrative of the peace process.

Crucial that DPP role be scrutinised

As the families of those murdered on Bloody Sunday deal with the news that they must wait another full year to learn the outcome of the Saville Inquiry, the family of Robert Hamill must be bracing themselves for the start of the long-delayed inquiry into events surrounding his murder.

Army parade cannot airbrush murder legacy

The consequences for the people of this island - nationalist, unionist, republican and loyalist - of English interference in our affairs was the backdrop against which the centre of Belfast became a contested space last Sunday morning.

Idea that SF could ignore march is absurd

The idea that Sinn Féin could ignore a march through Belfast city centre by a regiment in the British army is patently absurd.

British soldiers not welcome on Irish streets

The Royal Irish Regiment’s mercenaries from the war against Afghanistan arrived in Belfast this month to a chorus of approval from their supporters in Ireland.

Hiding behind the police

The presumption of innocence until proven guilty has never applied to Republicans and the Northern Bank robbery suspects were no exceptions.

Time for October 5th

The main trigger of the 1968 Civil Rights demands, equality, has still to be resolved.

PDs go down with the system they lauded

They were Ireland's nasty party but their arrogance prevented them ever listening to the electorate beyond their own narrow sectional interest group.

SDLP must stop selling nationalist rights

Nationalists must have viewed with dismay, disbelief and anger last week’s press conference with SDLP minister Margaret Ritchie sandwiched between two unionist ministers

Threats to DUP leadership coming from fringes

Allister is challenging the leadership of the DUP not from a solid, assured position but from the sidelines, from the fringes of unionism and he is causing them to lose their nerve.

Durkan ensured SDLP will never share power

Did he really say that? After initial disbelief, that was the first question a lot of people asked when they read reports of Mark Durkan’s weekend speech to the British-Irish Association (BIA).

Allister has the DUP running scared

The current impasse at Stormont is the price everyone here has to pay for the DUP’s exercise in political dishonesty in spring 2007.

British human rights record still among worst

Every three years members of the United Nations are required to submit a report on human rights in their state.

Whose Law?

The stalemate politics that has characterised the Six County assembly since its inception following the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 has continued during the recent spate of ‘functionality’ since the St Andrews Agreement.

Teaching Bush a bloody lesson

There’s an uncanny symmetry in the history of Russia’s treatment of Georgia and Britain’s treatment of Ireland over the centuries.

Sarkosy proved ‘No’ voters were right

When Mr Sarkozy the French President said Irish people must vote again on the Lisbon Treaty, he underlined how right Irish people were to vote against it.

Lost lives

No matter the motives for the current politically engineered Historic Enquiry, it will lack any credibility while the British continue to suppress the Stephens reports and while those who added to the pain and suffering of the bereaved, are not held to account.

Truth and lies

Evidence is now emerging that the bombing of McGurks Bar, like many atrocities in the early years of the conflict, may have been part of a policy of assassination by British intelligence services.

PSNI is failing to protect vulnerable Catholics

Inaction has thus far characterised the PSNI’s policing operation in defending Catholics in Stoneyford and in other parts.

Who should pay for the recession?

Why is the most objectively fair response to our economic difficulties the least acceptable to the economic and political establishment?

What price the Orange Card?

Are the people of the Six Counties to be again left high and dry due to the selfish interests of yet another British politician?

All is not well at Stormont

The £6 million for Irish language broadcasting is the clearest signal yet that all is not well with the power-sharing arrangements at Stormont.

Crisis? What crisis?

There is an obvious and simple way that the EU can respond to Ireland’s rejection of the Lisbon Treaty: continue as it was.

Ireland can once more save Europe from the Dark Ages

Welcome to the most surreal week in the history of Irish politics.

‘Nasty party’ is Paisley’s legacy

He’s gone, the oul curmudgeon, and good riddance.

Britain firing blanks at loyalists

The British administration intends to do nothing to recover weapons held by unionist paramilitaries.

Arrogance, smugness and the Brits

Nobody knows for certain how much misery and bother has been caused through the ages by the insufferable smugness of the British ruling class.

Irish government is unionism's new best friend

Paisley's big hearty handshake with Bertie at Farmleigh House last year was the beginning of what will inevitably be a lengthy dalliance.

A split’s not always first thing on agenda

When friends and comrades disagree the fall-out is always specially painful, even terrible. But never hopeless.

Ex-prisoners should enjoy same rights as others

It is time former prisoners from the conflict took their place in society with the same rights and entitlements as everyone else.

What is Peter Robinson’s vision?

There is no clue yet about how the DUP leader-designate sees the future of unionism or even if he sees a future for unionism.

US investment will build a sustainable future

May's investment conference is crucial as we seek to deliver on the wider objectives of equality and sustainability.

Does a Bill of Rights need us?

A bill of rights in any shape or form must be viewed as a progressive thing.

Flying the flag

Don't assume you can trust a British politician any more than a DUP one.

More than two sides to the story

What Jonathan Powell has said about Bloody Sunday is revealing, not what he claims Martin McGuinness said.

Confident unionism is showing signs of stress

Unionists are trying to perpetuate the old hostile relationship between nationalists and the police.

Symbolism at heart of DUP stadium turnaround

The signals that the DUP has got cold feet about a sports stadium at Long Kesh are evidence of a wider malaise in unionism.

Paisley walks

Ian Paisley could not have imagined being pushed out of power after just a year in office.

Spain could learn lessons from Irish conflict

If the conflict in Ireland can be brought to a just end so can the conflict in the Basque country.

Existence of informers is unpalatable fact of life

Informers, agents and spies have been a part of Irish society for as long as the British government have been occupying Ireland.

Just who drafts MI5’s agenda?

Does anyone believe that even when justice and policing are devolved to Stormont that local politicians will have any control over agencies such as MI5?

The ache that still hurts

I don’t need any British Judge to tell me what happened on Bloody Sunday.

The real priorities

Behind the scenes, the political parties in the North have other matters on their minds.

Ian Og gets his come-uppance at long last

They say the Paisleys come as a package - if you get one, you get both.

The trouble with war

Don’t mention the war. Don’t mention the fact that thousands of British soldiers occupied the highways and byways of this wee place for over thirty years and that all of them had a licence to kill.

Unionists in pool can’t let go of the sides

Fascinating to watch unionists of all shades tying themselves in knots about human rights and devolution of justice and policing

Papers show cooperation got us further faster

The one clear lesson which emerges from the documents allowed to be released this year is that any time Irish officials managed to persuade the British to follow a line of action it was a success.

When language dies

Language analysts have estimated that there are more than 6,000 languages spoken in the world today and one minority language dies every two weeks.

A courtesy from Pope and Queen

If Pope Benedict and Queen Elizabeth visit Ireland each of them will have a chance to offer us a courtesy which has been too long delayed.

Abuse of privilege should be ended

Unionists are still naming people in the British House of Commons or Lords, accusing them of crime. This is an abuse.

Access to report crucial in quest for justice

The public exposure of the de Menezes case stands in marked contrast to the secrecy surrounding multiple killings by the Crown forces during the conflict in Ireland.

Finally on a path towards a new Ireland

For a new administration on a learning curve its six months in office has been surprisingly impressive.

Stunt will not make UDA disappear

It is depressing how many media outlets bought the NIO spin about the UDA standing down its ‘military wing’.

Tourists discover north’s deep-seated prejudices

Next time someone tells you that our commissions for equality and human rights are just money wasted on political correctness, consider the case of Frank Kakopa.

Chance for commission to show courage

On Saturday, November 24, Orangemen intend to march into the centre of Belfast to intimidate both an individual and a community.

Fianna Fail can become a 32-county organisation

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern delivered the graveside oration at Fianna Fail's annual Wolfe Tone Commemoration on Sunday. We present the text of his address.

FF is real beneficiary of Brown’s dithering

All the parties in the North exhaled a big sigh of relief when Gordon Brown bottled out of holding the election he had been threatening since August.

Irish language being used as political football

Attacks by unionists on the Irish language or the education department expose their wider attitude and lack of educational policies especially for their working-class supporters.

‘Whataboutery’ is classic avoidance technique

The wheedling and hand-wringing Margaret Ritchie faces until next Tuesday's deadline for UDA decommissioning is going to be epic.

SDLP will be devoured

It will be FF’s aim to become the dominant party in the North.

Right time for Paisley to step off

It was time for Paisley to step off the vehicle which he built and which gave him the respectability and momentum to take him to where he is today.

Consequences of the Flight of the Earls

Nationalists have never sought to undo the Plantation of Ulster which next year will be four centuries old.

Jumping to conclusions over ‘unity’ talk

The one contribution that stood out in this year's summer schools was Sir Kenneth Bloomfield’s talk to the Merriman School.

Taking pride in our cultures

The message is harsh and says, written hugely on a wall where the visitor can read it in great letters, “This is not Spain”.

A decade of injustice

Our leaders contrive ever more elaborate ways to get us into prison, and outsourcing seems to be one of them.

Withdrawal? What withdrawal?

It is not a withdrawal, the British garrisons are still there to try to hold the northeast of Ireland militarily and economically. And they have been given new extra oppressive powers to do it.

Omagh Civil Case - Justice or Stitch-Up?

Reviewing the ongoing Omagh civil case saga, one is left with an abiding sense of uneasiness at the immense inequality being applied to one of the defendants, Michael McKevitt.

Kid-glove treatment of UDA disgraceful

In one of the most scandalous uses of public money in the north, and that's saying something, successive proconsuls have been advised to try to bribe the UDA out of racketeering and extortion.

Body can build a more prosperous island

Further evidence of the ongoing transformation of Irish politics as a result of the peace process was again on display this week.

It ain’t easy being Green

The Greens by entering into coalition, have now joined a long list of once radical organizations who have chosen to become, as Chris Gaskin wrote, “the mud guard of the two failed civil war parties”.

Pattern of systemic inequality must be reversed

At the annual meeting of Lisburn council, SDLP councillors abandoned a long standing principle of their party - the principle of power-sharing.

PPS is undermining public confidence in justice

If ever there was a case for a speedy transfer of policing and justice powers to the north’s executive then it is shining out of the statement last week from the Public Prosecution Service (PPS).

English politicians care little about Six Counties

There was quite a revealing and disappointing moment for British secretary of state Peter Hain at the end of last week’s Question Time on the London-based BBC.

The DUP’s double standards are nauseating

How would anyone in the DUP, no matter how sanctimonious they may sound, know anything about policing and justice, let alone democratic standards?

UDA gangsters shouldn’t have it all their own way

It is quite obvious that, apart from everything else, the UDA are just far too emotionally unstable to be in charge of lethal weapons.

SF must learn quickly from election results

It is a mighty task but republicans have had setbacks more serious than last week’s election results.

Taking it on the chin

From the ecstasy of March to the agony of May, 2007 is turning out to be quite the rollercoaster year for republicans.

Assembly is merely a twig on the NIO branch

The Northern Ireland Office hasn't gone away, you know.

Face of Ireland changed in just 16 minutes

On Tuesday everyone in Stormont was entitled to feel proud.

Politics and the daily grind

Some tales from the Celtic Tiger as you consider your options and as the country winds itself up to go to the polls.

The writing is on the wall for ‘Britishness’

Tomorrow’s election results in Scotland are going to increase the isolation of unionists in Ireland even more.

Photocalls do not reflect street-level reality

The Paisley-Adams deal represents not a compromise or accommodation between the ideologies that had defined the two men’s parties but the willing negation of each.

Choosing prestige over power?

David Trimble joining the British Conservative Party is a sad event.

The people have spoken

There are still commentators who can’t accept that Sinn Féin and the DUP are carrying out the wishes of the voters.

Alternative Ulster

Strange parallels between those who thought the political process could never be reconciled are beginning to emerge.

Making headlines for the right reasons

The unthinkable, indeed unbelievable is happening before our very eyes.

An omen of good days to come

It is difficult to decide which captures best the ground-breaking nature of the event - the photo or the statements.

It’s time PSNI was accountable for its actions

In the past week we’ve had two very serious incidents involving the PSNI and the British Army.

A good news election story for republicans

With a brilliant election result behind him Gerry Adams will lead northern republicans southwards with the intention of building on his success.

DUP chokes on its own history

Elections are supposed to provide answers. When the people speak, the politicians are supposed to respond accordingly. Not so in the North.

Brown doesn’t give tuppence about this place

We’re at present in the lull before the storm - and what a storm it will be.

Power-sharing in North must not be stopped

By the standards of western democracy, the election in the North must be one of the most bizarre ever to have taken place.

Apologies are the latest cheapo wheeze

Has Peter Hain been outed for the political opportunist he is?

Policing no longer a tool of the British state

For centuries policing was an instrument of British state power and the armed wing of unionism. Now it can be neutralised.

Unionism will pay dearly if Blair is humiliated

There will be an election unless Paisley has the guts to say he will not share power with Sinn Féin.

Repeating the pattern of the top brass

Anybody wondering how Ronnie Flanagan came to believe he’d get away with claiming memory loss about his role in collusion should recall Mike Jackson and Bloody Sunday.

Reunification is solution to partition problem

Overwhelming is the word that springs to mind to describe the decision and the mood at Sinn Féin’s Ard Fheis last Sunday when more than 800 delegates backed the party leadership’s policing proposal.

Sit and watch intra-unionist bigot-fest

Only when the election is safely over and the DUP has consigned its UUP rival to oblivion will Paisley be able to contemplate delivering on his political obligations.

The wrong thing to do

Yes, there is an alternative to supporting the British Crown forces in Ireland.

New route to a United Ireland

The goal of a united Ireland remains absolute but the means by which it can be achieved no longer needs to involve armed actions.

The final step

There was no great surprise at the end of it. Who expected a different result?

DUP’s creative ambiguity has limited lifespan

For the first time in his 50 years in politics Ian Paisley snr is facing a reality he probably thought he would never have to face.

SF is up for the challenges of peace making

Evidence that the leadership of Sinn Féin is set once again to stretch republicans to the outer limits of their commitment to the peace process is very obvious.

DUP’s mindset is fossilised in 17th century

The current DUP leadership is a political Jurassic Park but if the mindset exhibited on the Today programme is anything to go by, then the prospect the coming men offer is back to the future.

Sinn Féin and Policing the North

Those with experience of Sinn Féin manoeuvring will have recognised recent signs that a policy change is in the air.

DUP dissenters can afford to wait a year or so

The DUP is a victim of its own success.

SF quite right to make policing a deal-breaker

Unionists like to claim that nationalists are a kind of sub-species who enjoy criminality and endorse lawlessness.

Time won’t change stark choice DUP faces

With Martin McGuinness as his co-equal deputy first minister, Ian Paisley is now shakily wearing the crown of transitional first minister.

Britain being made to squirm

The truth is that the British government couldn't care less what the taoiseach says about 1974-76 any more than the Russian government cares about what John Reid says about anything

Carry on regardless

Regardless of the pandemonium Michael Stone caused outside the Assembly, his appearance only served to distract from the confusion and mistrust inside.

Unionists still believe they own the north

You could be forgiven for thinking that the only issue in Irish politics at present is whether Sinn Féin ‘will sign up to policing’.

Proconsul’s jiggery-pokery comes at a price

A lot of people, including the majority of the local meedja, seem to think the judge called for an inquiry into her appointment.

Paisley gets to say yes, again

Gerry Adams recalls the recent St Andrews negotiations and how Ian Paisley said 'Yes' for the first time in 50 years.

On the cusp of a historic development

If the DUP come into the St Andrews process, it will be a final acknowledgement by this most recalcitrant unionist constituency that the days of domination, inequality and discrimination are gone for ever.

Is it a country or a region? It’s a basket case

When unionist politicians give a knee-jerk reaction it is the mentality they reveal that still shocks.

BBC out of step with its own protocol

Many people were incensed that the BBC - an organisation funded by the licence-paying public - would provide an uncritical programme live glorifying the RIR.

Ian Og in his da's shoes?

Is the DUP really a political party, or the political wing of a religious sect, or a family business?

Chance to put politics of partition behind us

It is a deal in waiting and what a deal it could be.

How tides have turned

The St Andrews Agreement will bring about a seismic change in the North.

Serving Judas, Not Justice

It remains far from clear that the absence of evidence is preventing a proper resolution of the O’Hagan murder

The DUP is preparing for a seismic shift

There is a rustling in the unionist undergrowth to indicate that the DUP may be preparing for a sea change in its approach to power-sharing.

CRC article relates more to unionist thinking

The British has created a series of shop-window fronts to give the false impression, particularly to those looking from abroad, that Britain is addressing the unique problems here.

Ministers have lost interest in north-south links

The nature and extent of all-Ireland arrangements are likely to become political issues in the South instead of matters on which all Irish parties agree and take for granted as a national objective.

Renaissance Republicanism

It is hardly surprising three dozen or so Irish Republicans considered getting together in Toomebridge to have a chat about the future of their country and the role of Irish Republicanism within it.

Peelers Give You Trouble

With Sinn Fein's ratification of the British constabulary on the political agenda, Martin Galvin join's Danny Morrison's call for a serious debate on the future of Irish Republicanism.

When one doesn't mind being called a Provo

The sincerity of those dissident republicans who believe that the strategy of the Republican Movement is wrong is easily tested.

Public commitment or public relations

Many Republicans believe that as part of the negotiations for a return to a DUP headed Stormont, Sinn Fein will be obliged to accept not only policing boards but the British constabulary.

Injustice must always be opposed and exposed

Britain’s history in Ireland is one of brutality and inhumanity, often characterised through the abuse of political prisoners.

Diplock claim equals justice denied

The British strategy on non-jury Diplock courts seems clearly and solely directed at Sinn Féin.

Hunger Strike Anniversary

News of the protest against criminalization, by Republican political prisoners at Maghaberry, will strike a chord deep within the hearts and memories of many nationalists and Republicans.

30,000 people know who the victors were 25 years ago

The public demonstration for the anniversary of the hunger strikers was a powerful evidence of people’s determination, and of their dignity.

Sectarian rhetoric

The issue of sectarianism has to be tackled head on whatever its source.

Nothing is true until it’s officially denied

No-one any longer believes a word this British government utters.

Nationalists have a right to proper policing

Any future decision by republicans to endorse policing in the six counties will be on a par with those landmark decisions which republicans have already taken over the last decade of the peace process.

Unionists still refuse to have open minds

One year on the unionists and their allies are still refusing to open their minds to the place the peace process can take us.

Israel must be held accountable

Israel is clearly once again guilty of a gross crime against humanity and it must be held accountable.

Paisley still trading on fears

Over the decades, one thing has not changed.

SF riding the tide in political sea change

Two strangers arrived at Stormont as the shutters went up for the summer.

Participation in partition - a denial of sovereignty

The Annual Republican Sinn Féin Wolfe Tone Commemoration to Bodenstown took place last month. The following oration was delivered by Dr Sean Maguire son of the late Comdt- General Tom Maguire, a survivor of the Second (All-Ireland) Dail Eireann. It is reproduced here in full.

No dumbing down of the Orange Order

Why try and dress up the Twelfth as something it is not?

Collusion issue is now an undisputed fact

For decades republicans raised the issue of collusion but were dismissed as propagandists. It is now an undisputed fact.

Timely reminder to second-class nationalists

In case any one is in any doubt about the purpose behind Orange marches the decision by the Parades Commission in relation to an Orange march on Belfasts Springfield Road is a timely reminder.

Violence rewarded, while Feile gets punished

Belatedly, unionists have come to recognise the concept of alienation - which they derided in nationalists.

Slave mentality rules

There is no political way we can say 'No' to, or change, what Peter Hain decrees.

DUP support would help Empey strategy

It was entirely understandable that nationalists and their political representatives would be cynical about the decision a few weeks ago by Reg Empey to take David Ervine into his assembly party.

Britain must come clean on Haddock

The confession by the former north Belfast Ulster Volunteer Force man Mark Haddock that he has been a Special Branch informer for the last 16 years is further damning evidence of collusion.

Unionists must choose to shape change

Robert McBride, former ANC activist, death row inmate, parliamentarian and now chief of police in East Rand, Johannesburg, recently brought a message to republicans across Ireland.

‘Assembly’ is hologram on the hill

The assembly meeting up at Stormont isn't the Northern Ireland Assembly established by the Good Friday Agreement.

Ballymena’s culture of hate

It has been fascinating to watch the DUP tip-toe politely around the funeral of Michael McIlveen.

‘Assisted suicide’ for UUP

Farewell to David Ervine and the Progressive Unionist Party.

A sinister hush over collusion evidence

One of the biggest scandals to hit these islands in recent years did not even merit a mention on our main radio or TV stations.

Things changed forever after Bobby Sands' death

There was nothing normal about our lives in the H-blocks during the years 1976-1981 so why should our thinking and actions be assessed according to a 'normal' system of measurement.

It takes lots of courage to break ranks

Brian Kennaway's new book The Orange Order: A Tradition Betrayed is causing quite a stir, mainly among Protestants, unionists and Orangemen

A few bad apples don’t make a bad barrel

The IMC has failed to report that almost 70 active members of a certain paramilitary organisation have been convicted of criminal offences.

Values of Rising need to be renewed

There needs to be a debate about what it really does mean to be Irish.

Shootings ‘cult of silence’ must end

Until Easter Sunday Neil McConville was the only person the PSNI had shot dead.

Rising played pivotal part in Irish history

Shortly before 1pm on Easter Monday 1916, outside Dublin's GPO, the British empire started to crumble.

1916 and all that...

To justify or to sympathise or, at the minimum, to understand, 1916, is to justify, sympathise or understand the IRA’s armed struggle in the North.

Who killed Denis Donaldson?

Few in the media or among mainstream political parties have dared to consider British involvement.

Sham assembly just like old times

Tomorrow’s performance by Blair and Ahern promises to be a perfect example of “the triumph of hope over experience”,

‘Feudal lord’ has illusions above his station

If ever there was a politician on the make, it’s Peter Hain.

July 03, 2009