In a dramatic vindication for the grieving families, the High Court in
Belfast has accepted that the PSNI wrecked an investigation into
collusion by Britain in the notorious Glenanne Gang, which was
responsible for killing 130 Catholics.
The widow of murdered defence lawyer Pat Finucane has been granted
permission to take her bid for a public inquiry into his death to the
highest court in England.
There is a growing media focus on the Orange Order in the north of Ireland
after reports that the secretive anti-Catholic organisation has a
violent initiation ritual known as ‘riding the goat’, and that its members
were told not to use the phrase ‘Rest in Peace’ as it is too Catholic.
There are indications that the Dublin government may be waking up to the
risks involved in reinforcing the partition of Ireland after it rejected
the prospect of a new economic border to impose Brexit.
The British government may be planning to supplant the power-sharing
Executive at Stormont with the ‘consultative committee’ set up as part
of the deal with the Democratic Unionists to prop up the Tory government
at Westminster, it has been warned.
Loyalists marched through a mixed community in south Belfast on Friday
night in a show of strength in tribute to notorious UDA paramilitaries
linked to a string of sectarian atrocities.
A Tamil widow who says 10 of her relatives were massacred by Sri Lanka’s
police in 1986 has lodged a complaint with the Police Ombudsman in the
North after links from the RUC (now PSNI) to the country’s security
forces emerged.
Over the last few months I think we have all noticed the upsurge in IRA
membership charges facing Republicans in the 26 Counties, it seems every
other day someone is up in the Special Criminal Court.
The Orange Order has refused to apologise after photographs emerged of
supporters in Scotland wearing bizarre and shocking costumes expressing
racist and sectarian hate.
Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams TD has said that Micheal Martin “needs
to get serious about a United Ireland” following the Fianna Fail
leader’s refusal to support the establishment of a parliamentary
committee on Irish Unity.
The Democratic Unionist Party has caused a furore by issuing
conflicting statements about the burning of a coffin effigy of the late
Sinn Fein leader Martin McGuinness on a loyalist bonfire in east
Belfast on Tuesday.
The height of the Protestant marching season passed more quietly than
recent years as Orangemen and bandsmen largely respected the rulings of
the Parades Commission, which adjudicates on the routes of contentious
parades.
Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams has expressed his surprise at remarks
made by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, during an interview with Time Magazine,
in which he says that he is ‘very much opposed’ to a referendum on Irish
reunification.
Links between local councils and loyalist paramilitary groups continue
to grow with the erection in north Down of banners carrying the motto of
infamous UDA death squads.
Saoradh, the new republican political party, has alleged that British
military intelligence (MI5) has been targeting Irish republicans in
County Tyrone, in attempts to recruit British agents and informers.
A look at the evolution of internment, from a speech delivered by
National PRO of Republican Network for Unity, Nathan Stuart, at a picket
organised by the Anti-Internment Group For Ireland (AIGI).
It has been a long slow painful process and of course it’s not completed
yet. However Orangemen can no longer march where they want or where they
aren’t wanted.
Last night saw an almost 50% increase in bonfire-related emergency
callouts since last year as state-funded loyalist ‘Eleventh Night’
blazes damaged property and threatened lives across the North.
Stung by criticism that it has conspired in loyalist paramilitary crime,
Belfast city councillors have now attempted to limit the size of four
‘Eleventh Night’ bonfires, despite having previously funded and
supported the infamously sectarian displays.
The outcome of the Jobstown trial is causing chaos for the political
establishment in Dublin after an attempted frame-up failed to jail a
sitting TD and other left-wing activists.
There are concerns that the European Union is ready to sacrifice Ireland
in its Brexit negotiations after EU Chief Negotiator Michel Barnier
declared that a “frictionless” EU border across Ireland is not possible
following Britain’s withdrawal from the EU.
A complete ban on Orange Order marches is being considered in Glasgow,
Scotland after council officials examined footage showing a sectarian
and racist song being chanted at a parade last weekend.
Dublin City Council this week passed a motion calling for the release of
Brendan McConville and John Paul Wootton, victims of a miscarriage of
justice in March 2009. Gavin O’Reilly takes a fresh look at the case.
The collapse of talks to revive power-sharing has been described by Sinn
Fein’s Michelle O’Neill as a “monumental failure” by British Prime
Minister Theresa May who she said had “set back decades of work” in the
peace process.
A deal between the Tories and the Democratic Unionist Party could allow
the unionist hardliners to control British policy in the north of
Ireland for the lifetime of the current Westminster parliament.
The 26 County political establishment suffered a devastating blow on
Thursday when a jury rejected an attempt to jail six political activists
on accusations that they had ‘kidnapped’ former Taoiseach Joan Burton
and her secretary.
Loyalists have renewed sectarian intimidation at the Holy Cross Catholic
Girls School in the Ardoyne district of Belfast by painting red, white
and blue paint on kerbstones and the letters ‘LA’ at the entrance.