Irish Republican News: Archives

July 29, 2011

Policing in ‘cloud-cuckoo-land’

A heavy-handed series of arrest operations against families of prominent republicans backfired significantly on the PSNI this week as public opinion turned against them.

No compassion for dying prisoner

The Life Sentence Review Commission has refused release of critically ill republican prisoner Brendan Lillis on compassionate grounds as a growing human rights campaign continues to demand his release.

PSNI ignoring loyalist violence - SF

Sinn Fein has accused the PSNI of an “obvious disparity” between how riots in loyalist and nationalist areas are policed.

Orangemen attempt Garvaghy march

The Orange Order yesterday [Wednesday] attempted to stage a march along part of the nationalist Garvaghy Road in Portadown.

New tax inspires public boycott

Householders in the 26-County state face hundreds of euro in new charges, starting with a flat-rate charge in January and separate water and property charges by 2014.

Presidential election date named

The coalition government in Dublin has named Thursday, October 27th, as the date for the presidential election and two constitutional referenda.

Norwegian killer praised Bloody Sunday

Right-wing mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik made a bizarre reference to Derry’s Bloody Sunday in his 1500 page manifesto, it has emerged.

Somalia - a failure of politics

Famine is a terrible word. It conjures up frightening images and for many in Ireland a folk memory of the Great Hunger of the 1840’s.

July 24, 2011

Reject Stormont brutality

The Six-County administration is still resisting intense pressure to release dying prisoner Brendan Lillis, who remains critically ill at Maghaberry prison despite having the charges which put him there withdrawn.

Marian Price charged over 2009 attack

Veteran republican Marian Price has been charged by the PSNI in a move widely seen as a political response to the growing controversy over selective internment and the plight of Brendan Lillis.

‘Twelfth’ fallout continues

A Ballycastle man assaulted on the Twelfth of July has said he was set upon only because he had walked across the road during a contentious parade by the anti-Catholic Orange Order.

No justice for abuse victims as Kenny blasts Vatican

The Taoiseach Enda Kenny has mounted a strong verbal attack on the Catholic church as pressure again grows in Ireland for action to be taken in the wake of the latest child abuse scandal.

EU forced to cut Irish interest rate

A lowering of the interest rate being charged by the European Union for its share of the current 85 billion euro bailout loan will not deflect the Dublin government from implementing further cuts to services as well as new stealth taxes, the government has said.

PSNI invade wedding, arrest couple, question guests

The PSNI in Derry have been accused of mixing sectarianism with racism as they interrupted a wedding ceremony between a local man and a woman who had moved to Ireland from China, and arrested the couple.

Why did the Nelson Inquiry not mention collusion?

It was set up specifically to definitively address the allegations of collusion but after a six-year probe costing £46.5 million, the Rosemary Nelson Inquiry made no reference to the “c” word in its final report.

On the bridge of peace

In recent days, largely as a result of the persistence of his indefatigable partner Roisin, the case of Brendan Lillis has at last managed to break into the mainstream media.

July 19, 2011

Blanketman on the threshold

Supporters of critically ill Maghaberry prisoner Brendan Lillis are to stage a hunger protest in a last-ditch attempt to convince the Stormont and British authorities to release him from prison before he dies.

Mid-Ulster UVF blamed for Portadown attack

Over 100 loyalists were involved in a serious mob assault at a ‘peaceline’ in Portadown on Friday night, throwing bricks, bottles, paint-bombs, fireworks and at least one blast bomb.

Stormont buries its head after riots

The Six-County administration at Stormont has been criticised for adopting a ‘securocrat’ response to the marching season.

Soccer team attacked in north Belfast

Members of a north Belfast soccer team have been left with injuries including stab wounds and a broken leg after being attacked by a loyalist mob.

CIRA dismisses talks offer

A member of the Continuity IRA has dismissed offers from senior Sinn Fein figures to enter into talks, according to the Guardian newspaper.

Minister in ‘Thatcherite’ attack on welfare recipients

‘Minister for Social Protection’, Labour’s Joan Burton, has been widely condemned after she suggested that social welfare is becoming a “lifestyle choice”.

PSNI pawns in grant application game

The distinction between ‘legal’ union flags and ‘illegal’ loyalist flags, as raised by the Ballyclare riots, is a pure Orange herring.

Running out of time

The humanitarian grounds for releasing Brendan Lillis far outweigh the political considerations that are feeding into his ongoing imprisonment.

July 14, 2011

The Battle of Ardoyne

The PSNI attacked a peaceful protest in the republican Ardoyne area of north Belfast to facilitate a sectarian march, triggering hours of rioting on Tuesday evening.

Interfaces attacked amid surge in UVF activity

A series of sectarian and racist attacks were carried out by loyalists in the nights leading up to the ‘Eleventh Night’ bonfires and the ‘Twelfth’ marches.

Kenny and Gilmore caught as false promises are exposed

The Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Tanaiste Eamon Gilmore both misled voters in pre-election assurances about the future of hospital services in Roscommon, it has emerged.

Call for prosecutions after new abuse report

There has been another shocking report on the failure of the Catholic Church to protect child abuse victims in the 26 Counties.

McGeough’s legal challenge to conviction gets go ahead

Jailed former Provisional IRA commander Gerry McGeough has passed the first stage of a legal battle to be given an amnesty, in line with those accorded to some other combatants in the North’s conflict.

Inverted priorities at the Dail

The Dublin government postponed Ireland’s National Famine Commemoration Day due to the visit of ‘Queen of England’ Elizabeth Windsor -- and is still refusing to name a date for the event.

Joe McDonnell and Martin Hurson

A look at the lives of two Volunteers who died on hunger strike 30 years ago this month.

Pumping up the volume

The ongoing detention of the republican activist Marian Price two months after her arrest raises serious concerns about how life sentence licenses are being used as a weapon of political policing.

July 13, 2011

Nationalists riot as parade forced through

Intense rioting has engulfed north Belfast after a parade by the Orange Order was forced through the republican Ardoyne area.

July 12, 2011

Eleventh Night mayhem in Belfast

Serious disturbances broke out across Belfast and elsewhere last night as loyalist bonfires spilled over into sectarian attacks and quickly evolved into general rioting.

July 10, 2011

UVF riots in Ballyclare, Newtownabbey, Carrickfergus

Riots orchestrated by the unionist paramilitary UVF erupted in a number of towns in county Antrim overnight, ostensibly over the removal of UVF flags erected for the marching season.

July 8, 2011

Austerity protests grow

More than a thousand people have protested outside the Dublin parliament as the coalition government begins to wield the axe against frontline health services around the country in order to serve European/IMF demands for spending cuts.

RSF arrests linked to Drumcree protest

A controversial plan by the Orange Order to hold a parade in Portadown in County Armagh without the usual notification was apparently averted when the organisation was informed of pending arrests of the Republican Sinn Fein leadership, it has emerged.