In a night of drama for north Belfast, Martin Og Meehan, a prominent
republican spokesperson in the area, has been dramatically expelled by
two organisations for allegedly ‘collaborating with loyalists’.
The suspension of the inquest into the death of Armagh man Gareth
O’Connor in 2003 caused shockwaves on Monday after it was claimed that a
former Provisional IRA Volunteer accused of involvement received an ‘On
the Run’ (OTR) letter, potentially giving him immunity from questioning
on the killing.
The victory in last weekend’s Greek general election of the left-wing
Syriza party has electrified European politics and inspired new
confidence in Ireland’s anti-austerity movement and parties.
A high profile lawyer who represented the Guildford Four and Birmingham
Six has said he believes that two County Armagh men are the victims of a
miscarriage of justice.
The British Labour Party has denied claims that it has tried to persuade
Sinn Fein to take up its five seats at Westminster to collectively oust
the Conservatives and put Labour leader Ed Miliband into Number 10.
A newly-released British military file has finally admitted that a
British Army helicopter, said to have crashed in a 1978 air accident,
came down trying to avoid IRA gunfire.
Both the DUP and Sinn Fein have been refused permission to take part in
a televised debate of British party leaders ahead of the Westminster
general election.
The failure of the British Ministry of Defence to track down three
soldiers holding vital information about the killing of Crossmaglen man
Harry Thornton is another example of its determination to deny families
of state violence truth and justice, Sinn Fein has said.
A County Tyrone man who was stabbed while walking past a loyalist part
of south Belfast believes he may have been deliberately targeted for
wearing a Gaelic sports top.
Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams has said he can’t see his party sharing
power with either of the two main right-wing parties, Fine Gael or
Fianna Fail, after the next 26-County general election -- but that Sinn
Fein wants to be in government.
The Bloody Sunday March for Justice programme will see a raft of civil
rights events and speeches held in Derry. This year’s programme of
events has been themed ‘Resist’.
The coalition government has indicated it has abandoned efforts to
recover 30 billion euro pumped into Ireland’s banking system following
its collapse in 2008.
An investigation into the destruction of evidence in a Crown force
murder ambush has been announced just weeks after the reported death of
the deputy head of the police Special Branch who was central to its
destruction.
An inquest into the murder of prominent Gaelic sports official, Sean
Brown, may have to be abandoned because of the failure of the PSNI
police to hand over documents relevant to the case.
Derry man and IRA volunteer, Jim Moyne, was 29 years-old when he died
whilst being interned in the early hours of January 13, 1975.
Jim’s family will mark his 40th anniversary with a commemoration next week.
This week’s celebration of France - and the gaggle
of tyrannical leaders who joined it - had little to do with free speech
and much to do with suppressing ideas they dislike while venerating
ideas they prefer.
The Dublin government issued a number of statements to claim the
successes of its economic policy this week, even as thousands of recent
emigrants bade tearful farewell to their loved ones following a
Christmas break in Ireland.
Sinn Fein’s Mitchel McLaughlin is expected to become Speaker of the
Six-County Assembly as an outcome of the recent talks that resulted in
the Stormont House Agreement
An independent republican councillor in Derry this week won his appeal
against a term of imprisonment that would have cost him his seat on the
new super council of Derry/Strabane.
A group of concerned individuals has established “Reclaim the Vision of
1916--A Citizens’ Initiative for 2016,” in order to reassert the
political principles and objectives that animated the 1916 Rising and to
show their continuing relevance for Ireland today.
For the first time since the conflict in the north broke out in the
mid-1960s and after decades of campaigning, a door has been opened to
the past which potentially should allow the truth to be known for the
relatives of those bereaved in the conflict.
Declassified papers have revealed Margaret Thatcher’s infamous “out,
out, out” speech on nationalist aspirations in Ireland may have been
motivated by a summit in which the Dublin government admitted it was
working towards a “lowering of expectations” rather than Irish
reunification.
The 26-County Foreign Affairs Minister Charlie Flanagan has been urged
to apologise for internet comments in which he referred to Sinn Fein as
‘c*nt politics’.
There has been a furious response to news that a British broadcaster has
commissioned a ‘comedy’ television series based on the Irish famine when
an estimated one million people died of starvation and disease as a
result of British colonial policy in Ireland.
An announcement by former Fine Gael leadership figure Lucinda Creighton
that she is going ahead with efforts to form a new right-wing political
organisation has been criticised by Sinn Fein’s Gerry Adams who said
that another conservative political party is “the last thing” that
Ireland needs.
It has become an annual tradition: just as the last of the leftovers are
fed to a grateful dog, the declassified government files are released
giving a glimpse of a not so bygone time, a time when Paisley was still
rabble rousing and Adams was wearing a duffle coat.
The north is to be privatised, its past sanitised and its electorate
anaesthetised. That appears to be a reasonable summary of what the
Stormont parties agreed in their annual sleep-over at Stormont.