Our old friend Tony O'Reilly is back in the news. He is in line
to buy a number of local newspapers. They include The Ulster
Herald, The Fermanagh Herald, the Strabane Chronicle and The
Derry People and Donegal News.
If the deal goes through it means that republicans will not get a
fair hearing in those titles because that is the editorial line
of all of O'Reilly's papers. It will be a distortion of political
life in the border counties to have that type of censorship of
republicans.
All the more reason to ensure your regular copy of An
Phoblacht.
A wonderful mural in memory of those who fought in the 1798
Rebellion was unveiled in Andersonstown, West Belfast last
Sunday. It was unveiled by Jim Gibney, who made
an ovation to the assembled crowd. A local republican tells me
that when Jim finished his speech a strange thing happened: an
old man at the front of the crowd blessed himself. He wonders was
it a case of `thank God that's over' or was he inspired by the
spiritual nature of Jim's words?
Talking of which, they say that sport and shopping are the new
religions. So maybe Saoirse has copped on to this and decided to
mix religion and politics. They are organising a train from
Belfast (and Portadown, Newry, Dundalk and Drogheda) to the Irish
Independence march and rally in Dublin on 18 October. The train
leaves at 8.00am and the rally is at 2.00pm. This, they say,
allows time for shopping in Dublin. A good idea but don't buy too
much or that march will seem awful long.
How much of a lost people loyalists are was symbolised in last
Sunday's Observer, which carried a piece about the latest craze
in Portadown. They wrote that many loyalists are getting tattoos
of dead sectarian killer Billy Wright. Such is the demand that
the tattooist involved, Dave Taylor from Bolton in England, is
coming to Portadown for three days in November. Sad really.
![[An Phoblacht]](http://republican-news.org/graphics/title_gifs/aprn.gif)