An official statement by the European Union that it will accept a future
united Ireland into the EU has been cautiously welcomed by republicans
as bringing international diplomatic recognition for impending Irish
unification.
The widow of an unarmed Belfast civilian shot and killed by British
soldiers in 1971 has lived to see a coroner clear his name after 46
years of disinformation and lies.
The first weeks of the Westminster general election campaign in the
north of Ireland have been dominated by suggestions of strategic pacts
and alliances, which so far have made little headway.
Relatives of people killed by the British army have reacted angrily
after a Westminster committee recommended a halt to the investigation
and prosecution of soldiers for war crimes committed during the
conflict.
The trial of water-charge protestors accused of ‘falsely imprisoning’
former Labour leader and Tanaiste Joan Burton began this week as
hundreds of supporters gathered near the court.
With Brexit looming and unionism fast becoming not only a national
minority but one within its own gerrymandered statelet, what is now
required is a national dialogue.
Crisis talks in the north of Ireland have been suspended until June
following the decision of the British Prime Minister to call a snap
general election, an unexpected move which angered politicians in
Belfast and cast new uncertainty over the future of Stormont and its
powersharing institutions.
Tens of thousands of republicans took to the streets of villages, towns
and cities across Ireland last weekend to pay their respects to
Ireland’s fallen heroes.
There have been calls for a public inquiry after a Louth man who shot
and killed a Garda policeman and seriously injured his ex-girlfriend
before killing himself was confirmed to have been a state informer who
had been told to spy on IRA groups.
Unionists have expressed outrage at a gravestone erected for former
deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness as republicans gathered to
remember him a month after his passing.
The family of a Catholic man killed by loyalists in collusion with state
forces has called for the release of details of a recently found arms
cache which they believe could finally secure a conviction for his
murder.
Over 80,000 people have signed a petition calling on Simon Harris, the
26 County health minister, to prevent a religious order from being
handed ownership of a new maternity hospital.
Anne Cadwallader tells the story of the Hooded Men, internees subjected
to fine-tuned methods of torture, that left little physical evidence, imported by
Britain to Ireland in 1971.
Sinn Fein has been urged to exonerate those republicans and others who
were executed as ‘informers’ on the orders of a British double agent
operating inside the Provisional IRA.
A demonstration by former British soldiers in Belfast city and a
counter-demonstration by republican group Saoradh have both passed off
peacefully on Good Friday.
A deal between the two main right-wing parties on water charges in the
26 Counties has reignited the controversy, despite claims that the
charges have been scrapped “for most people”.
A decades-long justice campaign for a teenage boy shot dead by the
British Army in Derry in 1972 has been fully vindicated after a coroner
ruled this week that Manus Deery was ‘totally innocent’ and his murder
‘totally unjustified’.
Talks between the Stormont political parties have been extended into May
amid a deadlock which Sinn Fein has blamed on unionists’ refusal to back
a rights-based society.
Former British Direct Ruler in the North of Ireland, Theresa Villiers,
has become the subject of ridicule after she expressed support for
freedom and unity for the divided island of... Cyprus.
The sacrifice of this generation of republicans and the families of our
patriot dead transformed Ireland in a way that means that a new independent
Ireland can be realised.
The Dublin government’s failure to secure any kind of veto for Ireland
in the negotiations following Brexit has been strongly criticised as a
dereliction of its duties.
Members of the PSNI Special Branch used a pair of shopping gift cards in
an attempt to turn a Fermanagh activist into an informer, as spying
activity appears to have increased ahead of next weekend’s republican
commemorations.
A report for Stormont’s ‘Department for Communities’ has admitted that a
scheme for funding community halls was biased in favour of the
Protestant community.
The British Direct Ruler James Brokenshire has been urged to give up the
chairmanship of the talks at Stormont after the latest round of
discussions failed to make any real progress.
The Basque armed group ETA says it will disarm on Saturday, leaving
down their weapons “so that Basques can continue taking steps to
achieve peace and freedom for our country”.
As we approach Easter 2017 and the 101st anniversary of the Easter
Rising of 1916 are we anywhere near the ideals set out in the
proclamation read out by Padraig Pearse outside the GPO? NO, most
definitely not.
Despite the Brexit process, the north of Ireland could remain in the
European Union pending a unity referendum, according to papers
published this week by a European Parliament committee.
The organisation known as the new IRA has said it struck a PSNI armoured
vehicle with an ‘explosively formed projectile’ (EFP) in County Tyrone
last week.
A prisoner in the republican wing of Maghaberry prison has been removed
following a dispute with other prisoners in a row which has pitched two
small republican political parties against each other.
Sinn Fein has said it will be insisting on the implementation of
previous peace deals in talks which are set to go on at Stormont
after a deadline for agreement was extended by the British government.
The 26 County Garda police commissioner Noirin O Sullivan remains in her
post despite a barrage of shocking and incredible revelations about the
depth of fraud and corruption in the police force she heads.
The chairman of the Dublin parliament’s Public Accounts Committee has
alleged that pressure was put on him by the Minister for Finance to
limit its investigation into the notorious cut-price sale of
state-owned properties in the Six Counties known as ‘Project Eagle’
Now that Article 50 has been triggered a period of what is likely to be
long and protracted negotiations will begin. The north will not be
represented at those negotiations.
You might think she doesn’t get it but Arlene Foster knows fine well what the
problems were and continue to be and she knows rightly that forming an
executive is not Sinn Fein’s priority.