Irish Republican News: Archives

June 27, 2011

Police Ombudsman must go

Nationalists have united behind calls for the Police Ombudsman to quit amid outrage over a report in which he denied that the PSNI (then RUC) police had not colluded in the Loughinisland massacre.

Talks due on sectarian marches

The body that rules on contentious marches in the Six Counties is to meet the North’s First Minister and Deputy First Minister at Stormont tomorrow [Tuesday] in advance of the climax of the Protestant sectarian marching season.

Ireland’s rich grow richer on bailout money

Cash from the EU/IMF bailout loans are being used to fund the extravagant lifestyles of the 26-County state’s wealthy elite, according to reports from a number of quarters.

Pressure mounts for release of Brendan Lillis

A meeting next month of the Parole Commission (formerly the Life Sentence Review Commission) has raised hopes for the family and supporters of former political prisoner Brendan Lillis, who is gravely ill at Maghaberry Prison.

Irish ship joins Gaza mission

The Dublin government has been urged to ask the Israeli authorities to allow an Irish ship joining an international flotilla to be allowed access to the port of Gaza.

Derry bridge ‘is peace symbol’

A new bridge in Derry is being described as a symbol of the city’s journey out of conflict to a brighter future.

Charles Stuart Parnell

The man known as the ‘Uncrowned King of Ireland’ was born on June 27th, 1846, 165 years ago today.

Where was Special Branch in Loughinisland massacre?

If the Police Ombudsman’s report into the McGurk’s Bar attrocity highlighted his reluctance to grapple with collusion, his report into Loughinisland is startling by its absence of another crucial piece of the picture: the role of Special Branch both before and after the massacre.

June 24, 2011

Families angered by new Loughinisland cover-up

The families of the men murdered by the unionist paramilitary UVF in a 1994 massacre in Loughinisland, County Down have vehemently rejected an investigation by the PSNI Police Ombudsman into the killings.

June 23, 2011

Short Strand quiet amid talks with UVF ‘Beast of the East’

Despite crowds of over a thousand gathering in east Belfast, the Short Strand experienced a tense but relatively trouble-free night last night.

June 22, 2011

A heroic defence

A sudden, unilateral and large-scale loyalist terror attack on the tiny nationalist community of the Short Strand was bravely fended off this week in an act of courage reminiscent of previous generations of the nationalist struggle.

Clashes follow ‘Tour of the North’

Members of the Protestant Orange Order and loyalist bandsmen clashed with the PSNI after a controversial sectarian parade was rerouted from the republican Ardoyne area of north Belfast on Friday.

Colin Duffy to stand trial

An attempt to have the case against Colin Duffy and Brian Shivers dropped has been refused by a judge.

US college battles to preserve history project

An American university is fighting a British bid to get hold of interviews with members of the Provisional IRA, gathered as part of an oral history project.

Kingsmills victims may bring civil case

Relatives of those who died in a gun attack at Kingsmills in south Armagh in 1976 may take a civil action against those they believe to be responsible.

Republican hardliners urged to unite

The former head of Irish Northern Aid, Martin Galvin, has urged republicans of all factions to unite to draw up a new strategy to defeat the British, in opposition to Sinn Fein.

Address to ‘Unite Ireland’ conference in Dublin

The full text of an address by Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams to a conference in Dublin at the weekend on the theme of Uniting Ireland.

Debt freakshow run by phoney lion tamers

This week, the Government marked 100 days in office and zero days in power.

Short Strand attacked again

There was serious rioting for a second night in east Belfast tonight as masked unionist paramilitaries renewed their attempts to attack the nationalist Short Strand enclave.

June 21, 2011

Shots fired at St Matthew’s

Shots have been fired by loyalists tonight towards St Matthew’s chapel amid a serious assault by unionist paramilitaries on the nationalist Short Strand.

June 20, 2011

Loyalist mob attacks Short Strand

Catholic homes in east Belfast’s Short Strand area and elsewhere have been attacked by over a hundred masked loyalists tonight, and several injuries have already been reported.

June 17, 2011

100 days of dithering

Faced with intense criticism over their failure to deal with the deep economic crisis in their first 100 days of office, the 26-County coalition leaders this week renewed promises to ‘burn the bondholders’ of two of the state’s nationalised banks, while vowing to maintain social welfare and income tax at current levels.

Cancer victim tortured at Maghaberry

A republican prisoner who is undergoing cancer treatment has been brutally strip-searched en route to the hospital.

Unprecedented harassment of republicans

The brother of a man shot dead by British soldiers in County Armagh is to take legal action after he was followed by British intelligence officers on holiday all the way to Dubai.

Police Ombudsman damned in new report

The Police Ombudsman’s Office is heavily criticised in a new report into its work.

Sectarian tension linked to marching season

The controversial Whiterock parade by the Protestant Orange Order in Belfast later this month will go ahead, despite the opposition of local nationalist residents.

Bloody Sunday prosecutions still awaited one year on

A decision on the prosecution of British paratroopers over the Bloody Sunday killings is expected before the end of the summer.

Bloody Sunday, the ongoing cover-up

A year later, it should be possible to acknowledge that the Saville Report was far from flawless.

An independent international truth commission

The legacy of the past is one of the big issues which remains to be resolved in the outworking of the peace process.

June 12, 2011

Drugs gang kill top RSF man

A founder member of a Sinn Fein breakaway group was assassinated on Thursday in an attack which has shocked the broader republican community in Dublin.

IRA members meet tribunal team

A meeting between former Provisional IRA Volunteers and the Smithwick Tribunal into the deaths of two senior RUC policemen in 1989 was facilitated by Sinn Fein, party President Gerry Adams has confirmed.

Cameron seeks end to ‘shared-out Stormont’

British Prime Minister David Cameron has outlined his vision for the future of the Six Counties, urging the North’s politicians to “move beyond” the question of British rule in Ireland, and instead focus on “the economic and social issues that affect people in their daily lives”.

‘Tour of the North’ rerouted from Ardoyne

A triumphalist parade by the Protestant Orange Order has again been banned from passing a republican community in north Belfast.

New inquest ordered into UDA murder

The Six-County Attorney General has ordered a new inquest into the murder of a Catholic man shot dead by a loyalist death squad in west Belfast in 1988.

UN demands investigation into Magdalene torture

The UN Committee Against Torture has recommended the 26-County State investigate “all allegations of torture, and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment that were allegedly committed in the Magdalene Laundries”.

Liam Kelly

Liam Kelly, a pivotal figure in republican politics who uniquely held seats simultaneously in Belfast and Dublin parliaments, died this week.

Republican ex-prisoners not second-class citizens

The joint first minister Martin McGuinness was absolutely right when he said that his heart went out to the Travers family over the IRA killing of their daughter Mary but that he could not agree with Ann Travers when she called for Mary McArdle to be removed as a special adviser to minister Caral Ni Chuilin.

June 10, 2011