Irish Republican News: Archives

February 25, 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.

UDA claim peace move

The unionist paramilitary UDA has announced that it will recognise and accept the authority of future Sinn Féin ministers following Assembly elections.

‘Internment’ of the Special Criminal Court

Republicans have called for international sanction against the Dublin government over the use of “internment” in the 26 Counties.

PSNI, MI5 on election agenda

A Sinn Féin delegation last week took part in a conference on policing organised by the Policing Board amid continuing controversy over the issue ahead of next week’s election.

Betwixt and between the election hustings

The North’s election campaign moved into full swing last week, with the Democratic Unionist Party publishing its manifesto.

Sinn Féin promises to tackle water charges issue

A recurring theme in the assembly election in the North is the British government’s proposal for water charges.

The first Bloody Sunday

A historical account of the background and context of the Bloody Sunday massacre at Croke Park in 1920.

Apologies are the latest cheapo wheeze

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

February 20, 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.

Anger at Croke Park insult

The London government has ruled out a gesture of reconciliation ahead of the controversial appearance of an English rugby team at the site of a notorious British massacre in 1920.

Adams in Castlereagh talks

Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams has held a first meeting with the PSNI chief since his party made its historic decision to support British policing in the North.

IRA convictions overturned

A judge who quashed a conviction against a Sinn Féin assembly member and a Derry-based journalist has spoken of a “distinct feeling of unease” about the 1979 convictions.

Intimidation threat over GAA facilities

A unionist group in Antrim has threatened ‘another Harryville’ if plans for development of facilities by St. Comgall’s Gaelic Athletics club proceed.

Family of New Lodge Six appeal for meeting

The families of six men shot dead in the New Lodge area of Belfast have called on the British government to launch a new investigation into their deaths after a former unionist paramilitary admitted he helped plan the attack with British intelligence.

Statement by US Senator Barack Obama

US Presidential candidate Barack Obama has issued a statement outlining his position the Irish peace process. We carry the full text of the statement, which has been welcomed by a number of Irish-American groups.

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.

February 15, 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.

Election candidates declared

The Six Counties is facing its biggest election contest in years as some 250 candidates launch their bids for seats in the troubled Belfast Assembly.

British Army spytower comes down

The last remaining British Army spypost in South Armagh has been dismantled in a move which has been described as ‘the end of an era’.

OTRs could be ‘deal breaker’

DUP leader Ian Paisley has said any move to allow republicans facing conflict-related prosecutions in the north of Ireland to come home would be “a deal breaker” for sharing power with Sinn Féin.

O Caolain suffers heart attack

Sinn Féin’s leader in the Dublin parliament, Caoimhghin O Caolain, is recovering after suffering a heart attack at his home last week.

UVF man links FRU to New Lodge massacre

A former unionist paramilitary has revealed that British military handlers organised and took part in a gun attack that left six Catholic men dead.

Assembly election candidates

The full list of candidates in the Belfast Assembly election on 7 March.

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.

February 10, 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.

Tourists caught up in sectarian violence

The ‘Paddywagon’ company, which uses green minibuses decorated with leprechauns and shamrocks, released photographs of a bus which was targeted in Belfast on Tuesday.

Justice bill provokes anger, concern

Nationalists have expressed dismay at the draft legislation relating to justice issues in the Six Counties which is currently passing through the London parliament.

DUP dissent ahead of election

The DUP is experiencing its own problems as it faces into an election amid a public expectation that the result could see it sharing power with Sinn Féin.

Finucane conspirator Mark Barr found dead

UDA paramilitay Mark Barr, who was once charged with the killing of Belfast defence lawyer Pat Finucane, has been found dead in mysterious circumstances.

Informer told not to return

So-called ‘supergrass’ Raymond Gilmour has been warned he will be targeted by the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) if he tries to set foot back in Derry.

The first Long Kesh escape

The escape from Long Kesh of Francis McGuigan, 35 years ago this wee, was an important morale booster for the nationalist population throughout the Six Counties.

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.

February 5, 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”.

‘Devolution or dissolution’ threat as DUP stalls

The future of the northern Six Counties must lie in a local, accountable, devolved, power-sharing government, 26-County Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has said at the conclusion of a meeting with the British Direct Ruler Peter Hain.

New plastic bullets found to be more lethal

So-called safer plastic bullets, first fired in 2005, have caused more harm than those used previously, according to research on people struck by them in the North of Ireland.

Northern committee back on Leinster House agenda

Plans for Six County members of the Westminster parliament in London to take part in a special committee of the Dublin parliament have been welcomed as a step forward by nationalist politicians in the North.

Republicans consider electoral strategy

An umbrella group led by former republican prisoners opposed to Sinn Féin’s new political direction is due to meet in the Gasyard Centre later today [Monday] to plan a strategy ahead of the Assembly elections in March.

Policing Board faces new controversies

The Policing Board, which oversees policing in the North of Ireland, is to be reconstituted with Sinn Féin representatives for the first time later this month.

Policing - a Republican Socialist view

Leading IRSP member Liam O Ruairc takes a critical look at the historic decision by Sinn Féin to support the PSNI and the political context which led to it.

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.

February 1, 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.

DUP press home policing demands

Pressure has mounted on the DUP to accept power sharing in light of Sinn Fein’s latest concessions, but DUP deputy leader Peter Robinson said his party will wait to see if Sinn Fein displayed support for the PSNI “on the ground”.

Bloody Sunday victims remembered 35 years on

The 35th anniversary of Bloody Sunday was marked with a rally attended by several thousand people in Derry on Sunday. The massive crowd, believed to have been significantly larger than last year’s, retraced the steps of the civil rights and anti-internment marchers of January 30 1972 from Creggan to the Bogside.