Fine Gael has drawn the opening lines of attack for the next election,
targeting Sinn Fein on economic policy and setting the scene for a new
left/right alignment in Irish politics.
The PSNI has been accused of returning to “unaccountable policing” after
the Sinn Fein northern chairman Bobby Storey and a party councillor were
separately arrested and released.
In a stinging blow to the multi-party talks underway at Stormont, DUP
hardliner Gregory Campbell has told Sinn Fein his party “will treat
their entire wish list as no more than toilet paper.”
Amnesty International has demanded the reopening of a landmark case
against Britain over the use of torture in the north of Ireland.
The Dublin government took the case of the so-called ‘Hooded Men’ to the
European Court of Human Rights in 1971.
The British government has been accused of frustrating the release of
files that could expose a state-sponsored programme of assassination in
the north of Ireland.
The Stormont parties have been embarrassed by reports that 35,000 water
meters have been secretly installed at homes across the Six Counties at
a cost of more than 13 million pounds.
A government backbench TD has described water charge protestors in
Dublin as “parasites” and warned that Ireland faces “an ISIS situation”
if protests are not “nipped in the bud”.
Republican prisoners at Maghaberry were locked into a canteen by prison
staff on Thursday after renewed attempts to implement a four-year-old
agreement appeared to break down.
The battle over the 26 County state’s austerity programme has again seen
the malign involvement of international officials seeking to dictate the
state’s fiscal measures.
Irish emigrant groups have welcomed US President Barack Obama’s
executive order on Thursday changing US deportation laws, which could
allow many ‘illegal’ Irish to return to Ireland and visit their families.
A video and website that was used by the Dublin government to launch its
programme for the anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising are set to be
scrapped following a public outcry.
The Dublin government has been accused of attempting to erase the 1916
Easter Rising from the history books following a disastrous and deeply
conflicted launch of commemorative events for the anniversary.
Sinn Fein’s Deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald staged a sit-in that lasted
almost four hours in the Dublin parliament this week as frayed tempers
finally erupted.
New evidence that victims were allowed to bleed to death has led to
demands for a new inquest into the 1971 Ballymurphy massacre.
Meanwhile, a decision to wind down criminal proceedings arising from
the Bloody Sunday massacre is to face a legal challenge.
There has been praise for an Irish soccer player who refused to bow to
pressure to wear a poppy, the symbol of the British Army’s war dead, on
Remembrance Sunday.
The text of a speech delivered by Republican Sinn Fein
Vice-President Cait Trainor to a group of American Students on
the theme, ‘Will there be a United Ireland?’
Ireland is on the cusp of enormous political change. Our homegrown
political establishment, who have defended their interests against all
comers since the foundation of the state, suddenly find themselves
wrong-footed and floundering.
There were clashes in the Creggan area of Derry this week following an
attack by the ‘new IRA’ in which an armoured police patrol was struck by
a mortar rocket.
There have been calls for an urgent investigation into the death of a
Maghaberry prisoner, who collapsed in his cell at the County Antrim
prison last week. The 30-year-old was taken to Craigavon Area Hospital,
where he died on Thursday afternoon.
A prominent Derry republican could be robbed of his poll-topping
performance in recent local elections after being being handed an
extraordinary six month prison sentence for graffiti.
Unionists have increased pressure on parades and flags ahead of planned
talks, with loyalists planning a major flags parade through Belfast city
centre on one of the busiest shopping days of the year.
The DUP’s Gregory Campbell has been called upon to apologise for an
attempt to mock the Irish language community in the Six-County Assembly
at Stormont.
The battle against the Water Tax is largely a battle for the hearts and
minds of the people. Indeed the same can be said for the wider struggle
for meaningful Irish political, economic and social freedom.
Sinn Fein has topped an opinion poll in the 26 Counties for the first
time in the history of polling in the state, gaining four points to move
up to 26%.
The nationalist residents of the Short Strand endured five nights of
loyalist violence this week in east Belfast as loyalist mobs attacked
with petrol bombs, fireworks and other missiles.
The political controversy over abuse allegations by west Belfast woman
Mairia Cahill has taken a further twist following the revelation that
she actually wrote to the Provisional IRA’s army council to ask for their
assistance in seeking justice.
Former Sinn Fein councillor Pat Rice is the latest to be arrested in
connection with the IRA execution in 1972 of informer Jean McConville,
but appears to have been an embarrassing victim of mistaken identity.
The ‘new IRA’ has said it planted two devices in the County Tyrone town
of Strabane in an attempt to ambush PSNI police on Thursday night. It is
the second time in the past two weeks that an attack has been mounted in
the north west. A bomb left at a vacant house in Derry was also directed
against the PSNI, it has emerged.
New US peace envoy Gary Hart has spent two days in a series of
bilateral meetings with the five main parties in the North and the
Dublin and London governments.
Brendan McConville and John Paul Wootton are to go before the highest
court in British law in a bid to clear their names after receiving
permission to do so this week.
All republican and left-wing groups have committed to support local
demonstrations taking place today [Saturday, November 1] in every county
across Ireland as part of the ‘Right2Water’ campaign. The protests
are expected to be the largest Ireland has seen in decades.
What’s Gary Hart doing here? Why now? The answer is that the timing has more to
do with the US mid-term elections next week than the Mexican stand-off
at Stormont.