The publication of declassified papers from thirty years ago has
brought new controversy over the British view of the 1981 hunger
strike, in which ten men, including Bobby Sands, died.
The annual march commemorating the 1972 Bloody Sunday massacre will take
place under the theme ‘March for Justice’, despite calls by some
relatives of the victims that the campaign should come to an end.
A residents’ group whose members were convicted this week for protesting
against a sectarian parade said the case highlighted the one-sided
nature of the justice system in the North of Ireland.
Every drop of clean water in the 26 County state is to be metered and
taxed as part of a new government fundraising drive which emerged over
the Christmas break.
The Presidential Address delivered at the 107th Ard
Fheis of Republican Sinn Féin last month in which Des Dalton reviews
events of the past year and looks to the future.
A remarkable year in politics north and south - remarkable not least
because for once there was more ‘Sturm und Drang’ south of the border
than north of it.
Pressure is growing for the immediate release form jail of former
republican spokeswoman Marian Price after it was admitted that a royal
pardon central to her case has been shredded by the British government.
A lawyer told Belfast Crown Court this week that the trial of Colin
Duffy and Brian Shivers for the March 2009 Real IRA attack on a British
Army base in Antrim has “miscarriage of justice all over it”.
A prosecution in the case of a Derry teenager killed in 1972 could pave
the way for cases to be brought against those responsible for Bloody
Sunday and other British military atrocities in the North of Ireland.
The latest opinion poll in the 26 Counties places Gerry Adams as the
most popular political leader, and Sinn Fein as the second most popular
party in the state.
There have been new calls for a truth commission in the north of Ireland
following confirmation that one of the North’s deadliest terrorists was
a police agent.
British soldiers involved in shooting a 15-year-old boy nearly 40 years
ago should face prosecution, a lawyer for the teenager’s family has
said, following the long-sought inquest into his death last week.
Sinn Fein has described the deal done by European leaders last week as
“madness” which could condemn the 26-County state to a draconian
austerity program from which it can never escape.
An MI5 attempt to recruit the wife of a dissident republican prisoner as
an agent ended with the mother-of-three being groped and intimidated by an
intelligence officer.
A campaign by members of the Dublin parliament to boycott the 100 euro
household charge is “a very dangerous road for our democracy”, according
to the coalition government.
Both the RUC police and the British Army’s Ulster Defence Regiment
(UDR) were directly involved in the Miami Showband massacre, according
to a report by the North’s Historical Enquiries Team.
A historic Franco-German drive for a new superstate has seen the
Eurocrats of Brussels demand political and fiscal powers to rival those
of the US federal government in Washington.
A 26-County Government backbencher, Patrick Nulty has formally left the
Labour parliamentary party amid a public outcry over the Fine
Gael/Labour coalition’s austerity budget, announced this week.
The former head of Sinn Fein on Belfast city council has criticised the
PSNI police who confiscated his taxi, falsely claiming it had
been used in relation to ‘dissident’ activity.
The British government is to face a legal challenge over its failure to
launch a public inquiry into Crown force collusion in the murder of
defence lawyer Pat Finucane.
The families of victims of the 1971 McGurk’s bar bombing have lodged
papers at the High Court in Belfast challenging both the PSNI and the police
ombudsman over failings in the recent handling of the case.
Patrick McGurk lost his mother and sister in the bomb that ripped
through his father’s bar in Belfast’s North Queen Street. On the 40th
anniversary of the bombing he spoke about his memories of December 4
1971 and how victims’ families are still continuing to fight for the
truth.
Belfast’s Lord Mayor Niall O Donnghaile has done more in his six months
in office to promote peace and reconciliation between the citizens of
Belfast than his unionist critics have done in a lifetime.
An announcement of new taxes in the Dublin parliament has brought
confirmation that those living on low and middle incomes will be the
main victims of the 26-County government’s austerity program.
Sinn Fein has accused the Fine Gael/Labour overnment of targeting the
vulnerable and low and middle income families with the same failed
austerity budgetary measures as pursued by Fianna Fail.
A total of 49 cases in which members of the RUC/PSNI police were
responsible for extra-judicial killings have been consigned to a “legal
limbo”, according to reports.
Tommy Broughan, who represented Dublin North-East in the Dail, has been
expelled from the Labour Party after he refused to support an extension
of the bank guarantee.
The family of a teenager shot dead by the British Army 40 years ago
said they hope a report into the killing will help them finally come to
terms with the atrocity.
There was disappointment but little surprise for justice campaigners
this week when a judge declared in Antrim Crown Court that
controversial DNA evidence, never before allowed in a British of Irish
court, was “reliable and acceptable”.
A ‘car convoy’ protest is planned for the weekend to draw attention to
the crisis over the treatment of Irish political prisoners at
Maghaberry jail in County Armagh.
The mayor of Belfast, Sinn Fein’s Niall O Donnghaile, has been
condemned by unionists for not presenting a Duke of Edinburgh award to
a British Army cadet at a ceremony in Belfast.
An introduction by Joseph Gannon to the history behind the Anglo-Irish
Treaty, signed 90 years ago this week and which sowed the seeds of
a conflict which continues to this day.