In a speech to mark the centenary of the 1916 Easter Rising, President
Michael D Higgins has called for an end to the pro-British bias in the
interpretation of events at the turn of the last century.
There has been an outcry over the destruction of a republican mural of
IRA Volunteer Kieran Nugent who started the blanket protest in the
H-Blocks of Long Kesh. It was replaced with a mural depicting unionist
leader Edward Carson.
An Irish language group has attacked a Dublin City Council banner
featuring moderate nationalist John Redmond on the Bank of Ireland
building at College Green.
Relatives of those who fought and died in the Easter Rising are set to
take legal action to stop a wall being unveiled at Glasnevin cemetery
which commemorates the British army dead alongside those who were killed
while attempting to liberate Ireland from that army.
Sinn Fein’s First Minister Martin McGuinness has said the next stage of
the north’s peace process must be the “reconciliation phase” and again
condemned the new IRA, who he said wanted to “destroy the peace
process”.
The number and variety of Easter commemorative events taking place this
weekend is at a record as the 26 County state attempts to make up for
the years when it ignored the 1916 anniversary.
Sinn Fein’s Mary Lou McDonald has said she was subjected to
“heavy-handed and very invasive” security searches while travelling
home from the United States after St Patrick’s Day.
There's a lot of balderdash talked in the last couple of weeks about the Easter Rising being 'undemocratic'. So it was as people today view democracy. However that doesn't mean the existing government in Ireland was democratic. It wasn't.
In a landmark victory for republican heritage campaigners, a High Court
judge has granted that a number of buildings on and around Dublin’s
Moore Street are a battlefield site worthy of the designation of
national monument.
Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams has called on the US to review its security
arrangements for visits by party representatives after he was
dramatically refused entry to a St Patrick’s reception at the White
House.
There have been further condemnations by politicians after a senior
prison official died from a heart attack two weeks after he received a
leg injury in an attack on his vehicle.
Several homes in Belfast were violently raided last weekend amid an
increased PSNI presence, with heavily armed units deployed in the west
and north of the city.
Over a hundred families are being evicted from a Dublin estate after
Wall Street firm Goldman Sachs ordered the estate cleared following a
purchase of the loan underlying the development.
There has been strong criticism of a banner in honour of four
parliamentary nationalists, three of whom died long before the 1916
Rising and one who bitterly opposed it, amid continuing preparations for
the centennial.
There has been no comment so far by the White House after an
extraordinary and hamfisted insult to Gerry Adams drew stinging
criticism from the Sinn Fein party leader and stunned Irish-American
political leaders.
Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams was prevented from attending a St
Patrick’s Day event at the White House last night by security
personnel, although his deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald and colleague
Martin McGuinness were allowed to take part.
Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny has formally taken on the role of Acting
Taoiseach until a new government is formed in Dublin or, as appears
increasingly likely, a second general election takes place.
British soldiers were deployed on the republican wing at Maghaberry jail
as political prisoners maintained a standoff in the canteen, according
to media reports.
This year of all years presents an opportunity to
challenge the misconceptions, to present the argument for a new Ireland
where the Proclamation exists as reality, not an afterthought from the
past.
Following an election count which lasted six days, the new Dublin
parliament will meet next Thursday to elect a new Taoiseach, although no
new government is expected to be formed for several weeks.
A man accused of taking part in the 1998 Omagh bomb has said there
needs to be a public inquiry into the attack which claimed the lives of
29 people and for which he wrongly spent two years in jail.
There were celebrations in the Basque Country and among solidarity
activists around the world on March 1 as Basque political prisoner
Arnaldo Otegi was released from a Spanish jail after more than six
years.
A monument to a British imperialist in the centre of Dublin, Nelson’s
Pillar on O’Connell Street, was blown up by republicans fifty years ago
this week.
Jim Gibney writes that with Gerry Adams leading a significantly larger
group of Sinn Fein TDs in the Dail the north will, in this centenary
year of the 1916 Rising, never again be abandoned.
After two years behind bars, prosecutors today dropped all
charges against Seamus Daly, the only man still charged in connection
with the 1998 Omagh bomb.