Irish Republican News: Archives

August 31, 2009

Major disturbances in east Belfast

Heavy rioting has erupted tonight in east Belfast after a Sinn Fein event was attacked by a large loyalist mob.

‘DNA’ case abandoned

Declan McGlinchey, son of INLA leader Dominic McGlinchey, has been found not guilty of four charges relating to making and possessing a bomb after the prosecution admitted its low-copy DNA evidence was “insufficient”.

New ‘peaceline’ divides Belfast

A new ‘peaceline’ has been erected in Belfast, 40 years after the first such barriers were built to keep the divided communities apart.

Lisbon campaign heats up

The 26-County Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheal Martin has launched an extraordinary attack against the ‘Coir’ campaign on the Lisbon Treaty referendum.

UDA linked to sectarian attacks

A sectarian arson attack has destroyed an Irish language school in Castlewellan, County Down.

Marching season ends

The last day of the marching season saw loyalist bands play sectarian tunes through republican areas and a village in County Down completely shut down, with tailbacks of up to seven miles long.

Bailing out the rich and powerful

In the course of the current crisis, the only state intervention into the market has been to secure the interests and profits of a tiny wealthy elite.

Pushing back regressive policing

When Suzanne Breen wrote after the verdict in her case, declaring it a triumph for press freedom across Europe, it can hardly be said she was exaggerating.

August 27, 2009

RIRA roadblock furore

The PSNI were forced to pull back after encountering a ‘Real IRA’ checkpoint in south Armagh this week, it has been confirmed.

Rasharkin parade ‘a disgrace’

A spate of serious sectarian attacks followed a contentious parade in the County Antrim village of Rasharkin last weekend.

McGuinness urges unionists to ‘hold their nerve’

Sinn Fein’s Martin McGuinness has said the only obstacle to the devolution of policing and justice powers would be if the DUP “loses its nerve.”

Deported Brennan weighs options

West Belfast Long Kesh escapee Pol Brennan said it is a “bittersweet” feeling for him to be back on Irish soil after his deportation from the US at the weekend.

PSNI informer part of murder gang

The Police Ombudsman has confirmed that a Crown force informer was a member of a gang that gunned down a father of six in front of his wife and children.

UDA brigadier in Banbridge mob terror

It has now been confirmed that UDA leader Jackie McDonald was one of over 100 unionists who laid siege to homes in the Peggy’s Loaning area of Banbridge for several hours on Tuesday, August 11.

Death of Senator Ted Kennedy

There has been a wave of praise by politicians in Ireland and Britain following the death of US Senator Edward Kennedy for his efforts in the Irish peace process and his decades of political service.

Nama a good deal only for the banks’ shareholders

UCD lecturer Karl Whelan on the implications of the Dublin government’s proposed bailout for Irish property speculators and their bankers through the National Asset Management Agency (Nama).

Final solution is no longer possible

Forty years after the attacks on homes and people in 1969, we are hearing new descriptions of what happened.

Craven Commission again fails to protect the weak

The Parades Commission’s decision to allow Friday’s Orange Order march through Rasharkin without restriction was disgraceful.

August 22, 2009

Pol Brennan deported

Former Irish political prisoner Pól Brennan was deported from the US today [Friday], returning to Ireland for the first time in 25 years.

August 20, 2009

‘IRRESPONSIBLE AND DANGEROUS’

Tensions have risen in the North ahead of a highly contentious Orange Order parade due to take place in the County Antrim village of Rasharkin on Friday.

Human rights probe into Ardoyne violence

An international human rights adviser is to investigate the circumstances in which four young people, including a 13-year-old child, were injured with plastic bullets in north Belfast last month.

‘Shoot to kill’ case set for Europe

The families of two unarmed IRA Volunteers shot dead by the British Army SAS nearly 20 years ago are to take their case to Europe over the failure of the RUC police to hold a genuine investigation.

Thousands attend hunger strike rally

As part of a weekend of events a rally and wreath-laying ceremony took place in the village of Galbally -- home of Martin Hurson, the sixth person to die in the 1981 fast.

Burning of Bombay St remembered

Hundreds of members of the West Belfast community gathered on Sunday for a march and rally to mark the 40th anniversary of the pogroms of August 1969.

‘No to Lisbon’ campaign launched

A group campaigning for a ‘No’ vote in the October 2nd referendum on the Lisbon Treaty has expressed concern over guidelines issued to broadcasters.

eirigi members board warship

Two republican activists boarded a British warship in Belfast last weekend.

The Battle of the Bogside

The scene for the Battle of the Bogside was set long before August 1969.

A decadent police

A new residents group has been set up to ‘give support to a community who have suffered ongoing abuse from the police.&rsquo

Unionist wild men played a part in starting Troubles

Few people know that about a fortnight before the Battle of the Bogside the RUC’s Belfast Commissioner requested that British troops be deployed against unionist mobs on the Shankill Road.

August 17, 2009

Pol Brennan Action Alert

This urgent action alert is from the Pol Brennan support group.

August 14, 2009

PSNI BRUTALITY ON SHOW

The annual Apprentice Boys’ parade in Derry at the weekend saw a number of acts of deliberate aggression and random violence by the PSNI against nationalist residents.

Nama unease grows

The Green Party is set to hold a special convention on the Dublin government’s controversial ‘bad bank’ after a swell in grass-roots opposition

Sinn Féin circles the wagons

Sinn Fein brushed off suggestions of internal unrest following a meeting in Navan, County Meath, this week.

Tyrone village used as RAF training centre

Residents are demanding that the British Army stop using a County Tyrone village as a training centre for its war in Afghanistan.

New PSNI chief appointed amid devolution doubts

Members of the Policing Board have unanimously appointed Englishman Matt Baggott, head of Leicestershire police, as the new PSNI chief.

Loyalist terror continues

Up to a hundred loyalists descended on an area of Banbridge, County Down this week terrifying residents and ripping down two Irish flags.

The stone that broke the North’s dam of violence

Forty years ago this weekend, the dam broke and the generational political failure that had deepened since partition washed over all the Irish political institutions.

9th of August

Anthony McIntyre on internment morning, 38 years ago.

August 7, 2009

IRA PROSECUTIONS DROPPED

The British authorities have dropped plans to extradite four Provisional IRA Volunteers, including two who famously escaped from London’s Brixton prison 18 years ago, it has been revealed.

Police used to suppress workers’ protest

A sit-in action by workers who occupied the Dublin store of international travel company Thomas Cook ended violently this week when scores of Garda police used battering rams to raid the premises and arrest the workers.