Irish Republican News: Archives

July 30, 2016

Kenny ‘flip flops’ with push for border controls

Sinn Fein’s Gerry Adams has expressed his party’s dismay after a meeting on Brexit between the 26 County Taoiseach Enda Kenny and the new British Prime Minister Theresa May focused exclusively on the imposition of new customs and immigration controls along the Irish border.

Internment parade banned from Belfast city centre

The annual anti-internment parade planned for next weekend has been blocked from marching to Belfast City Hall by the Parades Commission.

Taylor takes action over prison treatment

Lawyers for staff at Maghaberry prison in County Antrim have admitted violating their own policies in a recent case of abuse against Irish republican internee Tony Taylor.

Testimony confirms British Army killer unit not disbanded

A recently released document marked ‘restricted’ has provided a new perspective on the British government’s collusion with loyalist paramilitaries in the north of Ireland.

UDA show of strength after parades body approval

A parade in support of UDA paramilitaries took place again this year in south Belfast and once again in defiance of Parade Commission restrictions.

Light sentences for Anglo fraudsters

Three former Irish bank executives have been sentenced to combined prison terms of just eight years three months despite being found guilty of committing one of the biggest financial crimes in world history.

The financial impact of partition

An examination of the economics of a divided Ireland.

An end to the Union

Once again a British politician - who has no stake in this island - is given influence over our lives by a British government whose priority interests are not ours.

July 23, 2016

Changed utterly? Party leaders accept reunification drive

In a potentially historic advance, the Irish Taoiseach and the leader of the largest opposition party in the Dublin parliament have both said they recognise the prospect of a referendum to bring about Irish reunification.

‘No crime’ say PSNI as UVF banner celebrates murders

The PSNI police have refused to even describe as a hate crime a new loyalist paramilitary banner which gloats about the UVF murder of four men in County Tyrone.

New row over Cameron’s Bloody Sunday apology

Former British PM David Cameron has been accused of hypocrisy over his Bloody Sunday apology amid efforts to eulogise his legacy following his departure from Downing Street.

Justice campaign for Robert McGuinness

The brother of a 20-year-old man shot dead by the British Army 43 years ago has embarked on a campaign to clear his name of accusations that he was armed at the time.

Soldier’s death linked to war crime 40 years earlier

A coroner has been given a letter revealing new evidence about a ‘psychopathic’ British soldier who was linked to the murder of a west Belfast teenager and also plotting to assassinate Gerry Adams.

Call to reform ‘inhumane’ Direct Provision

There have been new calls for the Dublin government to disband their “inhumane” Direct Provision centres as a report revealed the mental strain endured by those consigned to live in the refugee shelters.

Bobby Sands - 66 Days

‘Bobby Sands: 66 Days’ is a new documentary based around extracts from the late republican’s prison diary by Brendan J Byrne. He spoke to David Roy about making the film.

Political process has a one dimensional unionist narrative

The revelation that the 1916 memorial in Carnlough was removed in the dead of night by Mid and East Antrim Borough Council is unsurprising but symptomatic of a political establishment and narrative that seeks to remove all vestiges of Irish nationalist and republican culture and history.

July 16, 2016

Councillor attacked at Ballycastle parade

Independent nationalist councillor Padraig McShane was attacked and left bleeding from his head in the most serious incident arising from the ‘Twelfth’ parades by the anti-Catholic Orange Order on Tuesday.

Action against hate bonfires would ‘increase disorder’ - PSNI

The PSNI police has washed its hands over a series of hate crimes and other offences at this year’s loyalist ‘Eleventh Night’ bonfires, calling for “consultation and dialogue” instead of bringing charges against loyalists.

New British PM and Direct Ruler ‘value Northern Ireland’

The new British Prime Minister Theresa May has stressed her commitment to maintaining British rule in the north of Ireland amid concern among human rights workers that her appointment will further undermine civil and human rights here.

‘Messy business’ as debate over post-Brexit border begins

Sinn Fein’s Deputy First Minister at Stormont, Martin McGuinness, has said the new British Prime Minister is on a collision course with the European Union over its approach to what he described as a “disastrous decision” to leave the EU.

Growing support for release of Derry internee

Pressure for the release of Derry republican Tony Taylor has increased following the dropping of a prosecution dating from October 2015 and the removal from her post of British Direct Ruler Theresa Villiers, who ordered his internment.

Census confirms numbers of vacant homes amid housing crisis

Homeless campaigners have demanded immediate action after Census 2016 found almost 200,000 houses and apartments lying empty across the 26 Counties.

Irish outside 26 Counties to get vote in Presidential elections

A referendum to give Irish people living abroad a vote in the presidential election is planned for 2017, diaspora minister Joe McHugh announced this week.

Sectarian Orange Order bonfires

Perhaps one reason why the Northern state turns a blind eye to the naked sectarianism displayed at 11th July bonfires is the fundamentally sectarian foundations of the British Constitution.

July 14, 2016

Villiers replaced as British Direct Ruler

James Brokenshire, a 48-year-old Tory MP and junior Home Office Minister based in Kent, has been named as the new British Direct Ruler in Ireland after Theresa Villiers was dropped from the post.

July 12, 2016

Houses gutted by bonfires as Orangemen march

There were confrontations this morning as sectarian parades were forced through Catholic communities following a night in which bonfires were lit to herald the day of loyalist aggression.

July 11, 2016

Theresa May to become British PM on Wednesday

British Prime Minister David Cameron has revealed he will officially step down on Wednesday, months ahead of schedule. His announcement came after it emerged his replacement will be Home Secretary Theresa May, whose last rival for the leadership of the Conservative Party dropped out this morning.

July 9, 2016

Unionists ‘veto’ Irish Brexit forum

Sinn Fein has called on the Taoiseach to press ahead with a plan to convene a national, all-Ireland forum on dealing with the fallout of the British vote to leave the EU.

Kenny facing party demands for timeline to quit

Pressure is growing on the Fine Gael leader and 26 County Taoiseach Enda Kenny to declare a timetable for his departure as questions mount over his leadership abilities in the wake of the Brexit crisis in Britain.

Bonfire terror ‘utterly insane’

A number of potentially toxic Eleventh Night bonfires in Belfast have caused fear and alarm, including one outside a city centre hotel and others near houses in east Belfast.

Nationalists to protest Twelfth parades

The Protestant marching season reaches its climax on Tuesday with a number of provocative sectarian marches once again planned for nationalist areas.

Upheaval in British Labour Party linked to Iraq report

An attempted internal party coup within the British Labour Party is being blamed on the publication of an official government report by John Chilcot into the Iraq war. Tony Blair, the former British Prime Minister and Labour leader, was savaged in the verdict and faces angry demands for justice from British victims of the war.

Sign of the times as Irish language is attacked

A new initiative to support the Irish language in the North has been attacked in a unionist campaign of vandalism and hate.

Address to independent Bodenstown commemoration

A republican commemoration for Wolfe Tone took place last Sunday, organised by the 2016 Wolfe Tone Commemoration Committee. The following is the speech delivered at the event in Bodenstown by Armagh republican Paul Duffy.

The funeral of Joe McDonnell

Joe McDonnell died at 5am on Wednesday July 8, the fifth man to die on hunger strike in the 1981 protest in the H-blocks. As republicans mark the 35th anniversary of his death, a look at how it took place in the context of a national and international outpouring of solidarity with the prisoners.

July 2, 2016

Unionists fear unity, demand border troops

Unionists have expressed concern at a renewed support for Irish nationalism and republicanism following the result of the recent British referendum to leave the European Union.

New British PM could take hard line on Ireland

The battle to replace David Cameron as leader of the Conservative Party and British Prime Minister is set to be dominated by two contendors with extreme right-wing views.

New evidence points to cold-blooded killing

The Police Ombudsman is to examine the death of a republican 25 years ago after relatives of IRA Volunteer Colum Marks brought a High Court challenge over the ‘shoot-to-kill’ policy of planned state executions.

Increase in harassment of republicans

Republican Sinn Fein has said two members of its Ard Chomhairle leadership were among a group stopped and ambushed in Lurgan, County Armagh in a heavy-handed operation by British forces this week.

Orange parade plan for Ardoyne abandoned

A major Orange Order parade passed off peacefully in Belfast on Friday after a proposed march through nationalist areas of north Belfast did not go ahead.

Shock over latest charity scandal

The founder of Irish suicide prevention charity Console, his wife and son ran up credit card bills of almost half a million euro on items such as designer clothes, foreign trips and weekly groceries over a three-year period, according to a long-delayed audit of the charity.

‘Self-government is our right’

The full text of 1916 rebel Roger Casement’s speech from the dock one hundred years ago during his trial for treason, following his attempt to land weapons in Kerry for the Easter Rising.

Brexit - The view in Ireland

Responses from the Irish nationalist and republican political parties to the Brexit referendum.