[Irish Republican News]

July 03, 2009

[Irish Republican News]



‘LARRY THE CHEF’ CLEARED

larryzaitschek.jpg The case against a former chef sought in connection with a break-in at a top British Crown force base in the North of Ireland collapsed today after seven years when prosecutors said he could not receive a fair trial.

July 03, 2009



UDA BEHIND MURDER - PSNI

mcdaidaccused.jpg The PSNI police believes that the unionist paramilitary UDA was involved in the murder of Catholic community worker Kevin McDaid in Coleraine last month, it has been revealed.

June 26, 2009



BIGOTS TARGET IMMIGRANTS

romanians.jpg More than 100 immigrants were forced to take shelter in a church near Queen’s University this week after four days of racist attacks by loyalist thugs from the Village area of south Belfast.

June 19, 2009



UNIONISM FRACTURES

electionhandshake.jpg Sinn Féin headed the poll for the first time in the European elections in Six Counties while the DUP, poll-topper at every other European election, had to be content with taking the third seat.

June 12, 2009



SF AT HEART OF
ELECTION DEBATE

ballotbox.jpg A relatively lacklustre election campaign in the 26 Counties erupted into farce in its final days with claims and counter claims among the establishment parties about ‘what to do with Sinn Féin’.

June 04, 2009



MOB RULE IN COLERAINE

injuredfleming.jpg The family of Kevin McDaid have accused the PSNI of being culpable in his murder by a loyalist mob.

May 29, 2009



ABUSED BY
CHURCH AND STATE

abuse.jpg There has been a wave of outrage after an official report for the Dublin government admitted that thousands of children suffered physical and sexual abuse over several decades in residential institutions run by religious congregations.

May 22, 2009



COALITION FACING ELECTION MELTDOWN

govtpoll.jpg With local and European elections less than three weeks away, the latest poll shows satisfaction with the Dublin government has slumped to an extraordinary record low of just ten per cent.

May 15, 2009



CENSORSHIP POLICE
MOVE IN

breen.jpg The PSNI police have brought an Irish journalist to court under special anti-terrorist legislation in a move seen as further evidence of a return to traditional repressive state policies against republicanism.

May 08, 2009



IRELAND ‘FACING THE ABYSS’

doleq.jpg The 26-County state is set to experience a depression surpassing that of any other industrialised nation for over 70 years, according to official predictions.

May 01, 2009



‘ONLY ONE IRA’ - ADAMS

The Sinn Féin leadership has begun a fight-back against rival republican groups who are seeking to maintain an armed struggle against British rule.

April 24, 2009



WAR OF WORDS

brokenmemorial.jpg There are concerns that tensions between Sinn Féin and republican dissidents could escalate further.

April 17, 2009



CRONY BAIL-OUT

fiannafail.jpg

The Dublin government stands accused of targeting children and other vulnerable groups in the Budget, rather than the banks and property developers responsible for causing the current crisis.

April 10, 2009



STATEMENT OF INTENT

burnedtruck.jpg Days of disturbances in the North this week amounted to a show of strength by so-called “dissidents” following a recent PSNI crackdown.

April 03, 2009



‘WITCH-HUNT’

duffycharged.jpg Following intense controversy over his continued detention without charge, Colin Duffy was brought to court this [Friday] morning and formally charged in connection with the ‘Real IRA’ attack on Massereene British Army base earlier this month.

March 27, 2009



DIALOGUE RULED OUT

irabrown.jpg The British government has rejected any idea of engagement with militant republican groups.

March 19, 2009



THE LINES ARE DRAWN

armedpsni.jpg Different IRA factions may have come together to co-ordinate their actions in two deadly attacks this week.

March 13, 2009



RE-MILITARISATION REVEALED

recon.jpg British Army special forces soldiers are back in the north of Ireland, according to PSNI Chief Hugh Orde.

March 06, 2009



JUSTICE FOR MICKEY BO

mcilveen2.jpg Four loyalists were convicted on Wednesday of the savage sectarian killing of 15-year-old Catholic schoolboy Michael McIlveen in Ballymena, County Antrim in May 2006.

February 27, 2009



SMASH THE GOLDEN CHAINS

goldenchains.jpg The 26-County coalition government of Brian Cowen is in crisis over a ‘golden circle’ of wealthy Irish developers who received almost half a billion Euro to purchase shares in a potentially fraudulent transaction at the scandal-plagued Anglo-Irish Bank.

February 20, 2009



DUP SEEKING ‘DEMISE’ OF GFA

gfa.jpg A DUP bid to abolish the main cross-border political institution of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement -- part of an admitted larger plan to collapse the Agreement itself -- failed in the Belfast Assembly this week.

February 13, 2009



JOBS SHOCK AS ECONOMY UNRAVELS

bigmarch.jpg

One of Ireland’s leading unions has warned of “catastrophic” consequences following the collapse of economic recovery talks in Dublin at the weekend.

February 06, 2009



LEGACY: MONEY AND LIES

europarow.jpg The relatives of those killed by British forces in the north of Ireland have criticised the emphasis placed on so-called “recognition payments” to be paid by the British government to their families as a way of dealing with the past conflict.

January 30, 2009



IRELAND HAILS OBAMA PRESIDENCY

obamadc.jpg On a visit to Washington DC to attend the US Presidential inauguration ceremenonies, Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams has said he believes that President Obama can assist the Irish peace process.

January 23, 2009



‘CONDEMN CRIMES’ - ADAMS

adamsdiss.jpg Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams has accused republican hardliners of demanding protection money from drug dealers and other criminals in the North.

January 16, 2009



MASSACRE IN GAZA

gazafuneral.jpg The Israeli bombing of two UN-run schools filled with children taking shelter from the continuing bloodshed in Gaza has provoked protests and increasingly desperate appeals for a halt to the killing.

January 09, 2009



1978: DIRTY WAR, DIRTY PROTEST

archives.jpg Previously confidential files released this week in Dublin, Belfast and London under the 30 year ruled provide evidence of the increasing role of the ‘Dirty War’ -- the use of covert intelligence and the SAS shoot-to-kill strategy by the British government.

January 02, 2009



IRELAND UNITED IN CRISIS

gnpgdp.jpg Concern in mounting in Ireland this Christmas that a set of rapidly deteriorating market conditions and government mis-steps are threatening to pitch the entire island into an unprecedented economic crisis.

December 19, 2008



LISBON II: ‘SMOKE AND MIRRORS’

lisbon2.jpg A second referendum to ratify the Lisbon Treaty will be held in the 26 Counties before October 31st of next year, according to the conclusions of a European Union summit this week.

December 12, 2008



NO GUNS, NO PROBLEM

udaguns.jpg The British government has extended a deadline for unionist paramilitary groups to decommission their weapons by another twelve months.

December 05, 2008



OVERDOSE FOR UDA’S ‘BLINGADIER’

ihabshoukri.jpg The funeral has taken place of UDA ‘brigadier’ Ihab Shoukri, who died this week after taking a fit brought on by a night of heavy drug use in Newtonabbey, outside Belfast.

November 28, 2008



BACK ON TRACK?

stormontstatue.jpg The Stormont Executive met on Thursday for the first time in over five months.

November 21, 2008



UDA ‘READY FOR BATTLE’

uda.jpg The UDA has warned of being ready to “do battle” in a statement read to several thousand loyalist supporters at a number of venues in the north of Ireland.

November 13, 2008



IRELAND’S HOPES
ON OBAMA

obamasf.jpg Hopes are high that the election of a transformative President in the US could herald an era of progressive change in Ireland.

November 07, 2008



CALL IT OFF

rirdrumcree.jpg A coat-trailing and incendiary march by British troops is set to take place in the centre of Ireland’s second city on Sunday despite widespread fears over the potential for serious violence.

October 31, 2008



A KIND OF REVOLUTION

budgetmarch.jpg The Dublin government is under further pressure over the October Budget, days after thirty thousand pensioners and students besieged parliament over cutbacks.

October 24, 2008



RIP-OFF REPUBLIC

budget09.jpg Hundreds of thousands of Irish taxpayers were the subject of a sweeping and savage range of cuts and taxes this week in order to pay for the gross mismanagement of the 26-County economy by the Dublin government.

October 17, 2008



SYSTEM OF INJUSTICE

chrisward.jpg There have been calls for a completely new system of policing and justice in the north of Ireland following the dramatic collapse of the trial of bank official Chris Ward, the only individual accused of the 2004 Northern Bank robbery.

October 10, 2008



INSTITUTIONS START TO UNRAVEL

mcguinnessrobinson.jpg The North-South Ministerial Council (NSMC) meeting scheduled for today [Friday] was cancelled in the escalating dispute within the North’s power-sharing administration.

October 03, 2008



US BATTLE
FOR IRISH VOTE

obamamccain.jpg Irish-American voters have become the focus of intense campaigning in the US Presidential election as the race for the White House hots up.

September 26, 2008



STORMONT FARCE

schism.jpg The North’s strained stalemate exploded in rancour on Thursday when the Stormont’s cabinet-style administration visibly broke into rival factions.

September 19, 2008



SDLP CALL FOR
MAJORITY RULE

durkan.jpg SDLP leader Mark Durkan has stunned the political parties in the north by calling for power-sharing between nationalists and unionists, a key safeguard of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, to be scrapped.

September 12, 2008



NO ARMY COUNCIL
STATEMENT - ADAMS

adamstalks.jpg Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams has stated “categorically and definitively” that the Provisional IRA has left the stage as the DUP continued to demand a statement by the organisation’s Army Council on its status.

September 05, 2008



‘POLICING ISSUE
BEHIND RIOTS’

craigavon.jpg Serious rioting broke out this week in Belfast and in County Armagh, where clashes between republican youths and the PSNI police saw a blast bomb thrown and shots fired.

August 29, 2008



RETURN OF THE RPG?

rpg.jpg The use of a rocket-propelled grenade by the Continuity IRA against a PSNI patrol marks a further escalation in their ongoing armed campaign.

August 22, 2008



PSNI COLLUDE IN MOB ATTACK

PSNI.jpg Two men were treated in hospital for serious head injuries after a loyalist mob, including armed paramilitaries, attacked a republican commemoration in Coleraine last weekend - with the assistance of the police.

August 15, 2008



DEVOLUTION LINKED TO IRA COUNCIL

sniper.jpg The British government is ready to declare that the Provisional IRA’s Army Council has disbanded to speed the transfer of policing and justice powers from London to the Stormont Executive in Belfast.

August 08, 2008



UDA HOLDS ON TO ARMS

checkpoint.jpg The British government has confirmed that its Direct Rule Minister Paul Goggins and PSNI Chief Hugh Orde held talks with leaders of the UDA murder gangs on Monday night.

The UDA rejected an appeal to begin weapons decommissioning.

August 01, 2008



BORDER CHECKS TO RETURN

checkpoint.jpg The first formal border checks between Ireland and Britain for more than 80 years are set to begin following an announcement by the Dublin and London governments on Thursday.

July 25, 2008



SARKOZY STORM

sarkozy.jpg A declaration by French and current European Union President Nicolas Sarkozy that Ireland will have to hold a second referendum on the Lisbon Treaty has generated a furious reaction in Ireland ahead of his planned visit to Dublin on Monday.

July 18, 2008



HATE ON PARADE

bonfire.jpg As the height of the Protestant marching season approaches, nationalists are facing a weekend of sectarian intimidation, paramilitary displays, provocative marches and drunken, uncontrolled violence at ‘Eleventh Night’ bonfires.

July 11, 2008



MISCARRIAGE OF JUSTICE

dannymorrison.jpg Sinn Féin’s former publicity director Danny Morrison is set to have his conviction for false imprisonment overturned amid secretive legal moves to conceal the truth in the case.

July 04, 2008



‘BIK’ CLEARED
AS TRIAL COLLAPSES

The trial of former IRA chief Brendan ‘Bik’ McFarlane was brought to a sudden climax on Thursday afternoon, when the non-jury Special Criminal Court in Dublin dismissed all charges against him.

June 27, 2008



‘NO MEANS NO’

lisbonresult.jpg The European Union is generating its own crisis as the Eurocrat ‘elite’ refuses to accept Ireland’s NO vote in last week’s referendum on the Lisbon Treaty.

June 19, 2008



IRELAND SPEAKS
FOR EUROPE

lisbonposter.jpg Irish voters are being urged to go to the polls today to say ‘No’ to runaway plans by the European bureaucracy to create a superstate at the expense of Irish sovereignty and neutrality.

June 12, 2008



‘HONEYMOON IS OVER’

mcguinnessrobinson.jpg The new First Minister, Peter Robinson, and Deputy First Minister, Martin McGuinness, today start talks with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown to try to resolve key issues troubling the peace process.

June 06, 2008



BARROSO PUTS
THE BOOT IN

barroso.jpg Thinly disguised threats are emanating from both the European bureaucracy and the Dublin government ahead of the Lisbon Treaty referendum on June 12.

May 30, 2008



FINAL JOURNEY
FOR IRA HERO

keenan.jpg South Armagh bade farewell to former IRA commander Brian Keenan yesterday [Thursday] before he began his final journey back to his native Belfast.

May 23, 2008



TYRONE BOMB SHOCK

A breakaway republican armed group known as Oglaigh na hEireann has been linked to a surprise car bomb attack which injured a member of the PSNI police on Monday night.

May 16, 2008



DEVOLUTION DEAL ‘BROKEN’

Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness has accused the DUP of reneging on a deal for the devolution of policing and justice powers from London to Belfast this month.

May 08, 2008



PARADE TENSIONS SPILL OVER

Missiles were thrown when rival nationalist and unionist groups clashed on Sunday morning following a sectarian parade by the Protestant Orange Order in east Belfast.

May 02, 2008



FINUCANE INQUIRY SCANDAL

The public inquiry into the 1989 murder of Belfast defence lawyer Pat Finucane has been secretly blocked for nearly two years, it has emerged.

April 25, 2008



BRITISH CONSPIRING TO PUSH TREATY

A leaked memo by a senior British diplomat has revealed secret cross-channel plans to convince Irish voters to support the upcoming referendum on the Lisbon Treaty.

April 18, 2008



REPRESSION AT MAGHABERRY

Five republican prisoners have been moved to solitary confinement in Maghaberry jail after protesting a court ruling on a ban on the wearing of Easter lily.

April 11, 2008



BERTIE BOWS OUT

Fianna Fail is expected to elect Minister for Finance Brian Cowen as leader next week following this week’s announcement by Bertie Ahern that he intends to step down as Taoiseach and leader of Fianna Fail on May 6th.

April 04, 2008



EASTER RISING ‘LIP SERVICE’

Sinn Féin has welcomed the Dublin government’s commemoration of the 1916 Easter Rising but has accused the coalition government of merely paying “lip service” to the Proclamation of the Irish Republic.

March 28, 2008



‘QUEEN OF PROPOGANDA’

The English queen Elizabeth Windsor conducted a three-day visit to the north of Ireland this week amid a storm of controversy but without violent incident.

March 21, 2008



BATTLE FOR TARA

There was a dramatic escalation of tension this week at the Tara heritage site in County Meath where hundreds of construction workers and Garda police attacked a growing protest determined to save a national monument from destruction.

March 14, 2008



END OF AN ERA

Peter Robinson is the clear favourite to succeed Ian Paisley following the historic announcement that he will quit as First Minister and leader of the DUP.

March 07, 2008



HAUGHEY AIDED SAS - ADAMS

Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams has accused the Dublin government under Charles Haughey of providing the information that led to the SAS ambush of three IRA Volunteers in Gibraltar 20 years ago.

February 29, 2008



PAISLEY JNR RESIGNS

Ian Paisley Jnr dramatically quit from the northern power-sharing executive on Tuesday, and questions are now being raised over how long his father can remain as First Minister.

February 21, 2008



‘STEAK-KNIFE’ SPY FLEES

A former Sinn Féin bodyguard and driver for Gerry Adams has been exposed as a British agent and informer.

February 15, 2008



PSNI INTIMIDATION

The PSNI police have again set up a number of road checkpoints across the North amid a general increase in tension between the British Crown forces and republican hardliners.

February 08, 2008



DUBLIN ANGER AT COLLUSION COVER-UP

The Dublin parliament is to debate an all-party motion condemning collusion by British forces in atrocities in the North of Ireland.

January 31, 2008



AGENTS PROVOCATEUR

A ‘Real IRA’ bomb trial was terminated abruptly on Monday following unchallenged accusations that an informer lies at the heart of the case.

January 24, 2008



TELL THE TRUTH, SAY VICTIMS

Victims’ groups have called for an international independent truth commission to deal with the legacy of the last 30 years of war in the North of Ireland.

January 17, 2008



BRITISH ‘TRUTH PANEL’ OPPOSED

A panel unilaterally set up by the British government to deal with the desire for truth and reconciliation following the peace process has begun public consultations, provoking anger and controversy over its role.

January 09, 2008



OMAGH BLAME GAME

The PSNI police chief Hugh Orde has said it is “highly unlikely” that anyone will be jailed for the 1998 Omagh bomb, following the freeing of Armagh man Sean Hoey and the trial judge’s stinging indictment of the PSNI.

January 03, 2008



HOEY FREED

Armagh man Sean Hoey has been cleared of any involvement in the 1998 Omagh bomb attack after a judge today [Thursday] rubbished the case presented by the PSNI/RUC police.

December 20, 2007



NEW ARMED GROUP ‘BOGUS’

There is no republican involvement in a campaign of threats and hoaxes against Sinn Féin figures, including the widow of a recently deceased IRA veteran, it has been claimed.

December 12, 2007



SPY CLAIMS HIT PEACE PROCESS

A British soldier has caused a scandal by revealing that the British Crown forces are continuing to deploy high-technology spying equipment to monitor the homes and activities of republicans north and south of the border.

December 05, 2007



EUROPE BACKS COLLUSION FAMILIES

The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg ruled on Tuesday that evidence of British Crown force collusion in the murder of eight men in South Armagh in the 1970s had not properly been investigated.

November 28, 2007



MOLLOY REJECTS DUP ‘STUNT’

Sinn Fein assembly member Francie Molloy has rejected as “rubbish” a claim that he has been working as a Special Branch informer for almost 30 years.

November 22, 2007



‘REAL IRA’ MOUNT GUN, BOMB ATTACKS

The breakaway republican group known as the ‘Real IRA’ has said it shot two members of the PSNI in Derry and Dungannon, County Tyrone last week, and also detonated a coffee-jar bomb in Newry, County Armagh.

November 15, 2007



UDA IN DISARRAY

The UDA decommissioning saga has descended into farce after a breakaway faction of the group denied that it had destroyed a small quantity of guns.

November 08, 2007



UDA GANG MAKES ARMS MOVE

A breakaway faction of the UDA has said the British and 26-County governments now recognise it as an independent organisation after it began disarming.

November 01, 2007



BORDER CONTROLS TO RETURN

British military checkpoints are to return to the border area between the North and South of Ireland following a British decision to abandon the 'Common Travel Area' which has covered both islands since before partition.

October 24, 2007



UDA FUNDING WITHDRAWN

To DUP outrage, a decision to withdraw £1.2 million (Euro 1.7 million) funding for a group connected to the unionist paramilitary UDA has been confirmed after the UDA’s killer gangs refused to disarm.

October 17, 2007



CORONER CHALLENGES ORDE ON SHOOT-TO-KILL

The North’s most senior coroner has warned he will consider taking legal action against PSNI Chief Hugh Orde if he refuses to hand over police files relating to the killing of six unarmed people.

October 10, 2007



PSNI RAMPAGE IN DERRY

PSNI police clubbed scores of nationalist pub-goers in Derry city centre on Saturday night in some of the worst street conflict seen in the city in years.

October 03, 2007



UDA FEUD SPREADS

There are fears other areas are being drawn into a unionist paramilitary feud between rival gangs of the UDA in County Antrim.

tara.jpg

Hundreds of campaigners created a giant human harp in County Meath to mark Tara Heritage Day on Sunday. The protest is the latest in a string of high profile moves to pressurise the government into rerouting the M3 motorway away from the historic site.

The sites under threat are inextricably linked with the harping and bardic traditions for more than 2,500 years. Protests were also held in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Dublin.

September 27, 2007



PSNI USING CS GAS DAILY

The PSNI have been using CS gas nearly every day on average since a hand-held spray form was introduced three years ago, it has been revealed.

September 20, 2007



ASSEMBLY HANDCUFFED

An attempt to secure tax-varying powers for the Belfast Assembly was defeated on Monday. Unionists blocked the Sinn Féin motion after DUP Finance Minister Peter Robinson expressed reservations.

September 12, 2007



BRITISH LIE RETRACTED

A retraction of the 35-year-old British Army claim that a teenager shot dead by a soldier in Derry was a “terrorist” has been welcomed by nationalists.

September 05, 2007



GANGS BATTLE AT MAGHABERRY

Tensions are high inside Maghaberry prison after clashes between feuding prisoners within the unionist paramilitary UDA.

August 30, 2007



DUP MAN ‘TO NAME DOUBLE-AGENT’

A DUP MP is planning to name a senior Sinn Féin figure in parliament who he alleges has secretly been working for the British Crown forces.

August 22, 2007



UDA FACE WEAPONS DEADLINE

The North’s Executive has been accused of seeking to avoid a decision over highly controversial government funding of the unionist paramilitary UDA.

August 16, 2007



DESTRUCTION OF TARA UNDERWAY

The controversial excavation and demolition of a newly-uncovered national monument at Lismullin in the Tara Valley began yesterday after conservationists were threatened with a potentially violent Garda police arrest operation.

August 08, 2007



BRITISH TROOPS CALLED IN

The British Army will cease to provide military support to Crown force policing operations in the Six Counties from midnight.

July 31, 2007



PSNI MAN SHOT IN UDA FEUD

A feud between rival factions of the unionist paramilitary UDA erupted in intense clashes at the weekend during which a PSNI policeman was shot in the back.

July 25, 2007



INSTITUTIONS MARK RENEWAL

DUP leader and Six-County First Minister Ian Paisley has declared that the conflict in Ireland is at an end.

July 18, 2007



BRITISH ARMY LEARN NOTHING

A bizarre British Army document has come to light which purports to summarise the lessons taken by the force from its engagement in conflict in the North of Ireland.

July 11, 2007



VICTIMS GETTING SIDELINED

A multi-pronged British strategy to protect their own while downplaying collusion and the rights of nationalist victims could provoke a crisis in the peace process later this year.

July 04, 2007



COLLUSION KILLERS GO FREE

A decision taken by the Crown Public Prosecution Service that no members of the British Crown forces are to be charged over collusion investigations has been condemned in the strongest terms by human rights groups and families of the victims.

June 27, 2007



GREENS ACCUSED OF SELL OUT

The Irish Green Party has abandoned a number of core political beliefs in order to enter into a coalition government in Dublin, securing the return of Fianna Fail’s Bertie Ahern as 26-County Taoiseach.

June 18, 2007



PAISLEY ANSWERS QUESTIONS

The North’s new First Minister Ian Paisley has delivered his first question-and-answer session in the Belfast Assembly in his inimitable manner but without generating fresh controversy.

June 11, 2007



INQUIRY OPENS WITHOUT FILES

Files on infamous unionist paramilitary leader Billy ‘King Rat’ Wright have been deliberately destroyed or ‘lost’, an inquiry into his murder has been told.

June 04, 2007



CARRY ON, BERTIE?

Talks between Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and potential coalition government partners have been hit by fresh controversy over suspect payments received by him when he was Minister for Finance.

May 29, 2007



SF READY TO NEGOTIATE NEW GOVT

Bertie Ahern could be returned as 26-County Taoiseach for a further five years, according to the latest polls, but only if he finds a new coalition partner.

May 21, 2007



ELECTION CAMPAIGN SHIFTS GEAR

The election campaign in the 26 Counties is heating up with just over a week left to polling day.

May 15, 2007



HISTORY, HYPE AND HOPE

stormont.jpg

The Six Counties have a new power-sharing Executive in another historic day at Stormont.

May 08, 2007



CONTROVERSY MARKS CAMPAIGN START

Intense election campaigning has begun in the 26 Counties after the Taoiseach Bertie Ahern’s early morning visit to the Presidential residence, Aras an Uachtarain, to finally dissolve the Dublin parliament on Sunday.

May 02, 2007



SF BIDS FOR GOVERNMENT

Sinn Féin’s 26-County TDs today said that they are preparing for the election of a significant number of colleagues in the forthcoming General Election - with the aim of the party being in government north and south of the border.

April 27, 2007



COLLUSION 2007

Two members of the British Crown forces are involved in the latest intelligence gathering operation to obtain the personal data of over 150 nationalists from the PSNI police computer system and deliver it to a unionist paramilitary death-squad.

April 21, 2007



REPUBLICANS ON NEW UVF HIT LIST

Sinn Féin has challenged unionist paramilitaries in the North to come clean following the discovery of a new hit list of republican murder targets.

April 15, 2007



‘REUNIFICATION COMING’

The countdown to a united Ireland is underway, according to Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness.

April 10, 2007



HISTORIC HANDSHAKE

handshake.jpg

Extraordinary scenes continued in the peace process this week with a public handshake at Farmleigh House in Dublin between DUP leader Ian Paisley and the 26-County Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern.

April 05, 2007



SIGN OF PROGRESS

gerryian.jpg

Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams has said a breakthrough deal on power-sharing following the first-ever direct talks with DUP leader Ian Paisley means that “a new and unprecedented opportunity for progress now exists”.

March 30, 2007



UDA KILLERS GET PAY-OFF

Victims of UDA death-squads expressed outrage at the British government’s plans to give the paramilitary group 1.2 million pounds sterling.

March 24, 2007



CROSSING THE RUBICON

Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams has said a political deal to secure power-sharing by March 26 is close and that the British government can “smell” a breakthrough.

March 18, 2007



IT’S ‘DEVOLUTION OR BUST’

There is mounting optimism that the peace process can make a historic breakthrough this month after the Dublin and London governments appeared willing to hold to their stated March 26th deadline for the return of local power-sharing in the North of Ireland.

March 13, 2007



VOTING UNDERWAY

Voting to the election for the new Belfast Assembly got underway across the Six Counties this Wednesday morning.

March 07, 2007



ELECTION CAMPAIGN BUILDS

Unionists in Belfast would benefit from an all-Ireland economy, Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams said as he launched his party’s platform for the election to the Belfast Assembly.

March 01, 2007



ABNORMALITY AT CROKE PARK

Republican Sinn Féin president Ruairi O Bradaigh delivered a letter of protest to the headquarters of the GAA as part of an extremely high-profile demonstration at Saturday’s rugby international at Croke Park in Dublin.

February 25, 2007



DUP PUSHES ‘PLAN C’

The Democratic Unionist Party is to push for an alternative ‘Plan C’ -- which would see Sinn Féin excluded from political institutions in Belfast -- should the party fail to satisfy its demands in a future power sharing government.

February 20, 2007



CROKE PARK FURORE

The British government may be forced to make a gesture to mark the killing of 14 civilians by British Crown forces at Croke Park in 1920 when British Direct Ruler Peter Hain attends the Ireland v England rugby match there next week.

February 15, 2007



REPUBLICANS FACE ELECTION CHOICE

Republican Sinn Féin has confirmed that it will stand at least eleven abstentionist candidates in the Belfast assembly elections, while independent republicans have already declared in five constituencies.

February 10, 2007



COLLUSION ‘UNACCEPTABLE’ - BLAIR

British Prime Minister Tony Blair has told Sinn Féin’s Gerry Adams it is “unacceptable” that members of the PSNI police colluded in sectarian and other paramilitary murders and that it “must never happen again”.

February 05, 2007



HISTORY IS MADE AS SF BACKS PSNI

Sunday’s extraordinary Sinn Fein Ard Fheis saw overwhelming party support for a seismic shift on policing and a clear endorsement for the Adams/McGuinness leadership.

February 01, 2007



MURDER CAMPAIGN ‘WENT TO THE TOP’

Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness has said collusion in the PSNI/RUC police went “to the very top” following this week’s report which implicated the Special Branch in a decade-long campaign of sectarian murder in north Belfast.

January 27, 2007



PSNI KILLERS STILL WORKING

A report by the Police Ombudsman concludes that RUC/PSNI Special Branch police officers colluded in at least 18 murders in the North of Ireland between 1990 and 2003 has been described as ‘the tip of the iceberg’.

January 22, 2007



BIG STAKES FOR SINN FEIN

A debate on the acceptability of the PSNI police and British Crown courts in the North of Ireland is currently underway within republicanism.

January 17, 2007



DUP HAS RENEGED - SF

Ian Paisley’s DUP have gone back on a deal to agree the devolution of policing, Sinn Féin has said.

January 12, 2007



PAISLEY DENIES CHRISTMAS DEAL

A crisis is mounting as a result of the continuing failure of the DUP to respond positively to the decision by the Sinn Féin leadership to recognise the courts and support the police force in the North of Ireland.

January 08, 2007



PAISLEY UPS DEMANDS

Sinn Féin has said it is still awaiting a positive response from Ian Paisley’s DUP following its decision to hold a special party conference on supporting the police and recognising the courts in the North of Ireland.

January 04, 2007



SINN FÉIN DEBATES POLICING CHANGE

DUP leader Ian Paisley has welcomed moves by Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams which could lead the party to a once unthinkable position -- supporting a police force in Ireland while it remains under the authority of the British Crown.

December 29, 2006



TALKS GO ON DESPITE DOUBTS

A week of intense talks involving Sinn Féin, Ian Paisley’s DUP and the Dublin and London governments to find a way through the impasse over policing before the Christmas break continues unabated.

December 23, 2006



AGREEMENT ON THE EDGE

Key meetings of Assembly committees are taking place in Belfast this week which will seek to bridge significant differences on the issue of the transfer of justice and policing powers from London to Belfast.

December 18, 2006



ADAMS MURDER BID ‘THWARTED’

An assassination plot against Gerry Adams by republican hardliners was defeated by security arrangements taken by the Sinn Féin president and his security advisers, Mr Adams has said.

December 13, 2006



ADAMS-PAISLEY CONTACT

DUP leader Ian Paisley responded to and made comments directed at Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams across the Belfast Assembly chamber this week in what is being seen as a possible shift in his party’s refusal to talk directly to Sinn Féin.

December 07, 2006



PROCESS RESUMES AFTER STORMONT MAYHEM

Crazed killer Michael Stone outlined his plan to mount a Colombine-style assault against the Sinn Féin leadership in a letter to a local newspaper.

December 01, 2006



CONFUSION AND TERROR AT STORMONT

The peace process has survived one of its most dramatic days in recent years despite a major political crisis and an almost simultaneous gun and bomb attack at the Belfast Assembly.

November 25, 2006



PARTIES UPBEAT AHEAD OF TALKS

The first meeting of the programme for government committee takes place in Belfast tomorrow despite a continuing boycott by DUP leader Ian Paisley.

November 19, 2006



SF LEADERS ‘UNDER THREAT’

The lives of Sinn Féin’s Gerry Adams, Martin McGuinness and Gerry Kelly are under threat from hardline republicans, the party has confirmed.

November 14, 2006



THE GLENNANE GANG - BRITAIN’S DEATH BRIGADE

A major international report has called for an independent inquiry into what senior British government figures knew about Crown force collusion with unionist death-squads in 74 murders.

November 09, 2006



PARTIES FACING TALKS DEADLINE

Ian Paisley’s DUP is likely to give only “a conditional response” to the St Andrews document next week in tactically stating they will only go along with a political deal on power-sharing government if certain demands are met.

November 04, 2006



ADAMS WARNING OVER DUP DEMANDS

The British and Irish governments could put progress in the North at risk if they divert from what was agreed at the St Andrews talks and make fresh concessions to the DUP, Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams has said.

October 30, 2006



WILL PAISLEY DELIVER?

There are growing concerns that the hardline unionist DUP will remain as negative within the peace process as the party was outside amid ongoing tension over the details of a potential new deal.

October 25, 2006



CHALLENGES SURMOUNTABLE - ADAMS

Disagreement over the wording and timing of a pledge of office has emerged as a key stumbling block as negotiations continue over a potentially historic deal between Sinn Féin and Ian Paisley’s DUP.

October 20, 2006



DEAL OR NO DEAL?

DUP leader Ian Paisley and Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams could hold face-to-face talks as early as tomorrow as the St Andrews proposals are worked through by the two party leaderships.

October 16, 2006



HOPES RISING FOR TALKS DEAL

Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams has said his party is determined to do everything it can to get the political institutions of the Good Friday Agreement up and running in Belfast before the November 24th deadline.

October 10, 2006



IRA'S WAR IS OVER - BLAIR

The British government has formally acknowledged that the Provisional IRA’s military campaign is over.

October 05, 2006



McDOWELL SITS IN JUDGEMENT

The Dublin government is divided by the deep facing 26-County Prime Minister, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, over cash payments he accepted when Minister for Finance in the 1990s.

September 30, 2006



NO ANSWERS TO AHERN QUESTIONS

The Dublin government is enveloped in a new and potentially critical corruption scandal over revelations of payments made to the 26-County Prime Minister, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, in 1993.

September 25, 2006



DUP CAN END DEADLOCK - SF

Sinn Féin’s spokesperson on policing, Gerry Kelly, has said the parties could be “very, very close” to an agreement on policing if Ian Paisley’s DUP were to be engage with Sinn Féin in a positive manner.

September 19, 2006



PSNI’S FILEGATE

Up to 1,000 murder files held by the Crown police in the North of Ireland have simply “gone missing”, the PSNI have admitted.

September 15, 2006



CHANGING OF THE GUARD

Tony Blair's promise to step down as British Prime Minister within 12 months threatens to derail the Irish peace process.

September 10, 2006



TALKS HEADED FOR SCOTLAND

A fresh attempt to end the political deadlock in the North of Ireland is to be made next month with intensive talks in Scotland.

September 05, 2006



PSNI QUIET ON UDA ARMS FINDS

The PSNI police has been covering up a series of unionist paramilitary arms discoveries -- according to the UDA themselves.

August 31, 2006



DUP ‘WON’T LOOK AT US’

Sinn Fein has revealed that Ian Paisley’s DUP are refusing to even look directly at the party’s representatives across the table at meetings intended to prepare the way for the two parties to share power in the Six Counties.

August 27, 2006



LOYALIST INTIMIDATION, PSNI VIOLENCE

The Police Ombudsman has been asked to investigate the assault of a Sinn Féin politician by the PSNI police at a weekend loyalist parade.

August 22, 2006



COMPROMISE FOR CHANGE - ADAMS

Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams has called for greater compromise and confidence in dealing with unionists during a significant mass rally in west Belfast.

August 18, 2006



CRIMINALISATION ‘WILL BE RESISTED’

Republican prisoners held in Maghaberry jail have concluded a 48-hour fast as part of an escalating protest for the restoration of political status and the implementation of five demands.

August 13, 2006



FIREBOMB BLITZ

The Continuity IRA are considered most likely to be responsible for a spate of fire-bomb attacks and bomb alerts in the town of Newry, close to the border, that damaged or destroyed at least four large British retail chain stores.

August 10, 2006



SHOUKRI GANG FORCED OUT

The UDA has forcibly ousted its former north Belfast leadership from the city with the tacit support of the PSNI police.

August 05, 2006



AHERN’S MASSACRE SHAME

The Dublin government has been forced to end the transport of munitions for the Israeli Army through Shannon Airport following outrage over the massacre of scores of women and children in Lebanon.

July 31, 2006



FIVE ATTACKS A DAY

Sectarian attacks are now averaging at least five attacks every day despite efforts of nationalist groups to placate unionists with concessions over contentious anti-Catholic parades through interface areas.

July 25, 2006



PENAL POLICING

The arrest of an Irish language school teacher in Belfast for speaking Irish “brings us back to the days of the penal laws”, said Sinn Féin’s Bairbre de Brun.

July 20, 2006



NATIONALISTS UNDER ATTACK

A Derry man is fighting for his life following a spate of sectarian attacks surrounding the annual July 12th parades by the Protestant Orange Order.

July 17, 2006



SECTARIAN SPECTACLE

Hundreds of ‘11th night’ bonfires were set alight by loyalists across the North last night as tensions mounted ahead of ‘the Twelfth’, a day when over 600 marches are staged by the Protestant Orange Order to mark a 17th century battle victory over Catholics.

July 12, 2006



TIME TO GO

26-County Taoiseach Bertie Ahern this week faced calls for an early election amid a public outcry over mounting evidence of serious incompetence within his cabinet and senior civil service.

July 07, 2006



IRA MUST REPENT - PAISLEY

DUP leader Ian Paisley has said that there will be no power-sharing with nationalists unless the Provisional IRA “repents of its evil deeds”

July 02, 2006



PRISON PROTEST ESCALATES

Republican prisoners at Maghaberry Prison are now refusing meals in an increasing protest for the recognition of political status.

June 27, 2006



RIOTERS REWARDED

The Parades Commission stands accused of rewarding loyalist violence after it ruled that a sectarian, coat-trailing march can pass along the nationalist Springfield Road in west Belfast this weekend.

June 22, 2006



MARCH AWAY FROM CONFLICT

Relatively little violence at the ‘Tour of the North’ parade in north Belfast on Friday night is being cited as evidence that this year’s marching season could be the quietest for several years.

June 17, 2006



END THE DUP VETO

Frustration is growing in the North of Ireland over the ongoing attempts by hardline unionists to obstruct and undermine the peace process.

June 11, 2006



HIDDEN AGENDA

Martin McGuinness has accused his enemies of trying to have him killed by claiming he was a British spy.

June 06, 2006



UVF SHOOT ‘DOUBLE-AGENT’

A man named in the Dublin parliament earlier this year as a PSNI Special Branch agent linked to a series of murders was shot near North Belfast today.

May 30, 2006



ASSEMBLY DISSEMBLING

British Direct Ruler Peter Hain is to press ahead with the formation of an all-party committee at the new shadow assembly to discuss the return of powers from London to Belfast.

May 27, 2006



‘CERTAINLY NOT’

There were no surprises as the DUP leader Ian Paisley flatly rejected a bid to form a power sharing executive at the shadow Belfast Assembly on Monday.

May 23, 2006



OVERSHADOWED ASSEMBLY

The mood at the first days of a new 'transitional' northern assembly were low key and overshadowed by the sectarian murder of Catholic schoolboy Michael McIlveen in Ballymena.

May 17, 2006



BALLYMENA CHALLENGED

Preparations are currently underway for the funeral of fifteen-year-old Michael McIlveen who died on Monday after he was fatally wounded in a sectarian gang attack in Ballymena, County Antrim last weekend.

May 13, 2006



LAUGHTER OF OUR CHILDREN?

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A schoolboy savagely beaten in a sectarian attack in Ballymena on Saturday died in hospital on Monday night.

May 08, 2006



SUBVERSIVES

Successive British governments failed to act despite having full knowledge of the extensive and murderous collaboration between the UDR and unionist paramilitaries.

May 03, 2006



O’HARE RELEASED

Dessie O'Hare, former leader of the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA), has finally been freed from prison, but not under the terms of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.

April 28, 2006



KILLERS ON THE LOOSE

Members of the PSNI police who shot and killed a motorist in County Down last weekend are still armed and on duty, it has emerged.

April 24, 2006



RIOTS FOLLOW ARRESTS

Rioting has continued in Lurgan, County Armagh for two days after PSNI police staged a raid on Wednesday on what they claimed was a dissident republican bomb factory.

April 21, 2006



EASTER KILLING

A man shot dead by the PSNI at a checkpoint in County Down was unarmed at the time, it has been revealed.

April 18, 2006



RISING REBORN?

This weekend Ireland will witness one of the biggest official commemorations of any historic event since partition.

April 14, 2006



SF TO ATTEND STORMONT

Sinn Féin has said it will attend the reconvened Belfast Assembly on May 15th with the purpose of forming a power sharing government.

April 09, 2006



DEATH OF A DOUBLE-AGENT

The murder of top republican informer Denis Donaldson has caused political shockwaves amid intense speculation about his killing.

April 05, 2006



DUBLIN COLLUSION ALLEGED

Evidence has emerged that suggests the Dublin government ordered Garda police not to pursue British military and unionist paramilitary killers of Irish citizens in the 1970s.

April 03, 2006