An internet auction site has banned the sale of all Irish
republican materials outside the USA.
Britain’s Direct Ruler in Ireland, Paul Murphy, was taken to
hospital today after falling ill at the annual conference of the
British Labour Party.
Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams has expressed concern about the
handling of the political process since the failure of last
week’s intensive talks to reach a deal.
A number of people have suggested to us that it was a mistake to
include the case of Seamus Doherty in the issues being
highlighted by the march marking the anniversary of the October
5th 1968 launch of the civil rights campaign in Derry.
The former US ambassador to Ireland, Richard Egan, has warned
the publisher of an Irish American magazine she had “better
think twice before trying to influence American politics” as
“the Irish are not the only ones with long memories”.
A controversy has arisen involving a British soldier’s links to
unionist paramilitaries and his wife’s accusations of
harassment.
Tony Blair has been accused by the SDLP leader Mark Durkan of
breaking pledges over the issue of British collusion with
unionist paramilitaries.
A leading unionist paramilitary who was caught breaking bail
conditions has controversially been allowed to remain free.
A statement by Amnesty International Press Release
following yesterday’s announcement of an inquiry into the
Pat Finucane case.
The brother of the British hostage facing execution in Iraq
believes the Irish Government could be the “catalyst” to secure
his release.
An announcement by the British government of a secretive inquiry
into the murder of Belfast defence lawyer Pat Finucane has
fuelled fears that a long-standing cover-up is set to continue.
The following is a statement by Amnesty International Press Release
following yesterday’s announcement of an inquiry into the
Pat Finucane case.
A woman who escaped injury with her nine-month-old daughter in a
pipe bomb attack in Derry has said they were an easy target.
Two days of talks in Belfast this week have again failed to
produce the breakthrough which appeared imminent during
intensive negotiations last weekend in southern England.
A judicial review of the PSNI’s refusal to bring in an outside
police force to investigate a controversial murder resumed
yesterday at the High Court in Belfast.
Speaking at a news conference in London this morning, Sinn Féin
Vice-President Pat Doherty outlined his party’s view of the
course of events preceding and during the intensive talks at
Leeds Castle this past weekend.
Irish President Mary McAleese is set to serve another seven year
term as no other candidate has emerged to challenge
her re-election.
A deal to restore the suspended Belfast Assembly and
power-sharing institutions in the North of Ireland appears to be
getting closer following three days of intensive all-party
negotiations in southern England and further talks in Belfast
this week.
The British government has been warned against any attempt to
water down an inquiry into the murder of Pat Finucane.
There has been concern in Derry after unionist paramilitary
feuding broke out in a gun attack at a pub in the city.
At last, the DUP has been smoked out, fundamentalist unionism
exposed to the world.
The wife of Ulster Unionist Party leader David Trimble is to try
to unseat Paisleyite and former UUP rebel Jeffrey Donaldson at
the next Westminster election.
A widow whose husband was killed by a plastic bullet yesterday
confronted a senior member of the North’s Policing Board,
demanding a ban on the use of the baton round.
Martin Morgan, a leading member of the nationalist SDLP and a
former mayor of Belfast, is to leave politics.
A decision by the Fruit of the Loom corporation to close its
Donegal and Derry plants has come as a massive blow to the
northwest.
Huge press interest surrounds intensive talks at Leeds Castle in
Kent in southern England, where the prospects of a deal between
Gerry Adams and Ian Paisley is the increasing subject of rumour
and speculation.
A former district master in the Orange Order has been sentenced
to at least 15 years of a life term for the sectarian murder of
Glengormley man Trevor Lowry, a 49-year-old Protestant father
of two who was mistaken for a Catholic.
Ken Barrett’s conviction yesterday for the murder of Pat
Finucane does not help the search for the truth surrounding the
lawyer’s murder, according to the dead man’s family.
Sinn Féin has said the Dublin Government must oppose any attempt
to formally reintroduce direct rule in the North in crisis talks
in southern England later this week.
The PSNI police have been criticised for failing to protect
nationalists in Derry’s Waterside after loyalists entered a
Catholic home and attacked two men.
Ireland’s right-wing parties have backed the re-election
campaign of Irish President Mary McAleese, while her potential
rivals are struggling to gain the necessary nomination.
The family of Pat Finucane has renewed demands for a public
inquiry into the murder following the conviction of unionist
paramilitary Ken Barrett yesterday.
A partner at a leading estate agency in Belfast joked about the
breeding habits of Catholics and the size of their families, a
Fair Employment tribunal has heard.
A sophisticated bugging device was discovered at Sinn Féin’s
offices in west Belfast today.
This week the British and Irish governments and all the main
parties in the north of Ireland will be in Leeds Castle in Kent.
Sinn Féin will be trying to unblock the political impasse here.
It will not be easy.
Just over 800 full-time police reservists, who are
overwhelmingly Protestant, have been offered severance packages
worth up to a hundred thousand pounds sterling as a lump sum,
with a pension to follow.
Ethnic minorities in the North have been warned they could be
attacked by racist and far-right groups.
The Dublin government has controversially decided to abandon its plan to
introduce a new tax on polluting fuels.
The Irish and Scots may be as closely related to the people of
Spain and Portugal as the Celts of central Europe, it has been
reported.
Sinn Féin’s Gerry Adams has said he is pessimistic about the
prospects of prospect of a breakthrough at next week’s peace
talks at Leeds Castle in southern England.
A masked republican carried out a gun attack on Derry’s PSNI
headquarters yesterday morning, firing up to 30 shots from an
AK-47 automatic rifle.
Given that background and the belief constantly repeated by
unionist politicians that change can only be bad for unionists,
it looks as if racist assaults by unionists will continue to
increase in frequency.
There were serious disturbances in the Whitewell area of north
Belfast at the weekend before a controversial unionist parade
passed through the troubled sectarian interface.
The population of the 26 Counties in April 2004 is at its
highest figure since 1871 amid an Irish baby boom.
The High Court in Dublin has ruled against the constitutional
challenge to the south Dublin portion of the South Eastern
Motorway at the archaeologically sensitive Carrickmines Castle.
An elaborate bugging device found at the home of one of Gerry
Adams's staff has all but capsized preparations for crucial
talks set for England later this month.
The following is an edited version of the address by Sinn Féin
MP Michelle Gildernew, speaking at the annual Sinn Féin
commemoration of IRA figure Liam Lynch on Sunday at his
graveside in Goatenbridge, on the Tipperary-Waterford border.
The following is an edited version of an address by DUP Deputy
Leader Peter Robinson MP MLA at the annual conference of the
Irish Small Firms Association in Dublin Castle.
Amid conflicting messages from unionists in recent days, Sinn
Féin president Mr Gerry Adams said yesterday that London and
Dublin must now decide whether the Good Friday Agreement or the
Democratic Unionist Party is to prevail in the North of Ireland.
President George Bush’s chief strategist, Karl Rove, has invoked
the wrath of Irish America by comparing the IRA to al-Qaeda.
Unionist paramilitaries crashed a fork lift truck into a north
Belfast pub last night in an attempt to murder staff and
customers.
A north Belfast interface is tense ahead of a contentious march
this weekend.
DUP hardliners led by Ian Paisley have insisted that any
breakthrough in negotiations this month will require an overhaul
of Sinn Féin as a political party and the end of the IRA.
The Irish-American Unity Conference has listed some ways you can
help promote the Irish cause in the US in the correct political
context.
A republican prisoner in Maghaberry jail is taking a High Court
action challenging the way the Prison Service is operating a
restrictive and punitive regime of segregation in the jail.
A touted initiative by the 26 County Dublin government to provide
cheaper housing in new private estates resulted in just 163
social and affordable houses being built last year, despite an
overall output of 69,000 houses and apartments.