Irish Republican News: Archives

September 30, 2011

Historic campaign underway

A large crowd turned out in Derry on Thursday as Sinn Fein’s Martin McGuinness launched his Presidential election campaign.

McGuinness candidacy highlights partitionist attitudes

Despite coming under intense criticism from the 26-County establishment in Dublin, Sinn Fein’s Martin McGuinness has received support from the former British Direct Ruler in Ireland, Shaun Woodward.

Teachers blast pension ‘larceny’

The two largest teacher unions in Ireland, the INTO and ASTI, have condemned changes to pensions proposed by the 26-County Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin as “larcenous” and “probably illegal”.

Paper still targeted, ten years after O’Hagan death

A decade after the murder of crime journalist Martin O’Hagan by loyalist paramilitaries, his colleagues at the newspaper he worked for are still receiving loyalist death threats.

Loyalists head for US talks

A number of loyalist paramilitary figures are to visit US political and business leaders in a visit being organised by the Dublin government, it has emerged.

Rhianna encounter stranger than fiction

International pop sensation Rhianna was this week confronted in a County Down cornfield by a DUP councillor who told her to “cover up” while she was on his farm.

‘They will not break us’

An anti-internment/Free Marian Price march takes place this Saturday, 1st October at 2pm, Dublin, from the Garden of Remembrance to the GPO. Martin Rafferty, of the 32CSM, discusses the Marian Price campaign, internment, and the prospects for a united Ireland.

Ireland owes much to the IRA’s willingness to fight

The IRA is an intrinsic part of this nation’s history; of its political evolution.

September 27, 2011

Final nominations for Irish Presidential election

The line-up for the Irish Presidential election next month has been decided tonight after controversial Senator David Norris and former pop/gospel singer ‘Dana’ Rosemary Scallon both secured the necessary support of local councillors for their nomination as candidates.

September 24, 2011

Carnival of reaction

The nomination of Sinn Fein’s Martin McGuinness for next month’s election to the President of Ireland has provoked a chaotic and bitter response from the 26-County ‘elite’.

Presidential candidate McGuinness tackles IRA past

Sinn Fein nominee Martin McGuinness was repeatedly questioned about his past involvement with the IRA this week, with the issue dominating the early days of the presidential campaign.

Justice comes first for Bloody Sunday relatives

Britain’s Ministry of Defence has confirmed that the British government intends to make a cash payment to the families and wounded of the Bloody Sunday massacre.

Ongoing harassment of republicans and families

Runai ginearalta eirigi [the general secretary of eirigi] Breandan Mac Cionnaith has condemned the continuing harassment of Lurgan republicans after three homes were raided on Wednesday morning by the PSNI.

Ombudsman forces mother to relive her grief

The mother of a Catholic murdered by the unionist paramilitary UDA has added to calls for Police Ombudsman Al Hutchinson to resign after she was again fobbed off over a report on her son’s murder.

Coalition selling state assets to pay private debts

There were rowdy scenes in the Dublin parliament this week between the 26-County government and Sinn Fein over the planned sell-off of part of the ESB (Electricity Supply Board), the semi-state body which until recently held a monopoly on Ireland’s energy market.

Palestine seeks recognition

An abridged version of the address by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at the United Nations, in which he requested full membership and recognition for the State of Palestine.

Sinn Fein can displace Fianna Fail

The events of the past week suggest the party is over for Fianna Fail.

September 18, 2011

A Presidential opportunity

On the centenary of the Easter Rising in 2016, it could be Sinn Fein’s Martin McGuinness taking the salute outside the GPO in Dublin, following a dramatic and imaginative proposal by the party this weekend for his nomination in next month’s Presidential election.

Renewed IRA attacks on PSNI

Breakaway IRA groups carried out four separate attacks against the PSNI this past week, including an attack in County Antrim in which members of the police force are reported to have received minor injuries.

British apology after 40 years

The head of the British Army has written a letter of apology to the family of a Derryman who was shot dead in 1971.

Orangemen reprimanded over Kerr funeral

The leader of the Ulster Unionist Party, Tom Elliott, and UUP Assembly member Danny Kennedy are to face disciplinary proceedings from the Orange Order for attending the funeral mass of PSNI member Ronan Kerr in April.

Germany’s humiliation agenda

Germany’s European Union [EU] commissioner Guenther Oettinger caused an outrage this week after he called for the Irish tricolour to be flown at half-mast in Brussels to embarrass the country over its economic problems.

Boundary changes pose electoral questions

Proposals to radically change the Westminster constituencies in the North are expected to see the main unionist DUP party, as well as the nationalist SDLP, both lose a valuable seat in the Westminster parliament in London.

Ugly scenes at Liam Lynch commemoration

A controversial newspaper columnist was shouted and spat at by angry Fianna Fail supporters after a commemoration organised by the party last week went disastrously wrong.

The peoples’ president

Martin McGuinness has been my friend for almost 40 years. He is a remarkable and gifted human being and a great leader and a patriot. It will be a great honour for me to propose Martin McGuinness to contest Presidential election on a broad, republican, citizen-centred platform. He will make an excellent President of Ireland.

September 16, 2011

Martin McGuinness set to contest Presidency of Ireland

Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams has confirmed reports that the party’s Ard Chomhairle [high council] is to meet on Sunday morning to discuss a proposal from the party’s leadership to nominate Martin McGuinness to stand in the 26-County presidential election.

September 11, 2011

‘A new Republic for 2016’

The Sinn Fein annual conference has heard calls for a national conversation on the future of Ireland, between now and the centenary of the Easter Rising in 2016.

Warning as supergrass trial goes ahead

British Special Branch double-agent Mark Haddock ordered the murder of a paramilitary rival and smirked as he told the gunmen, “try not to shoot the kids”, a high-profile trial in Belfast was told this week.

As cuts deepen, NAMA keeps developers in style

Bankrupted Irish property speculators are being paid ‘salaries’ of up to 200,000 euro (US$280,000) a year by the Dublin government, it was revealed this week.

Waterford facing employment meltdown

A surprise announcement of the loss of almost 600 jobs from a call centre operation in Waterford has shocked staff and left government officials struggling to frame a response.

The case for Gerry McGeough

Pressure is growing on the authorities at Maghaberry prison to release internee Gerry McGeough, who suffers from a serious heart condition, into hospital care.

The brutality is not ‘systematic’, it’s the lying

The death of Baha Mousa reminded Robert Fisk of his days working as a journalist in the North of Ireland.

Loathing and absence in Belfast Crown Court

To risk being pedantic: if no other good comes from the supergrass trial that began in Belfast yesterday, at least the practice of referring to informers as ‘informants’ will have been dropped.

Every day Hutchinson hangs on does damage

The question is, why is he still there? After two official reports tore to shreds his management of the Police Ombudsman’s Office and its core functions and exposed the shambles that the office has been for the past two years, Al Hutchinson should have been booted out immediately.