Five Catholic and mixed families have been forced out of their homes in
Derry amid a pogrom by loyalist paramilitaries in the predominately
Protestant Waterside area of the city.
A prominent Sinn Fein figure has said that party members have become
disillusioned with the Stormont Assembly even as Sinn Fein issued a call
for new efforts to restore power-sharing in the Six Counties.
Sinn Fein Deputy Leader Mary Lou McDonald has described Fine Gael’s
attempts to introduce a mandatory ID Card for the 26 Counties “by the
back door” as a textbook example of a government that does not believe
it is accountable to the people.
The family of a teenager believed to have been shot by a British
soldier on the grounds of a Belfast hospital more than four decades ago
have condemned a two-year delay to the inquest into his death.
The most successful prison break in Australian history was an
international rescue effort that took years to organise, and which
finally freed six Irish republicans from a British jail in Fremantle.
It is now clear that policing,
intelligence and political elements within the British system have
sought to frustrate families and victims getting to the truth of the
Glenanne Gang and its actions.
Claims by the British government that they wish to impose no additional
border reinforcements in Ireland following their departure from the
European Union are being treated with scepticism.
Two nationalist residents groups held protests against a coat-trailing
loyalist march through the mainly nationalist village of Rasharkin on
Friday night, August 18.
Republican Sinn Fein has denounced an arrest operation in the Armagh and
Tyrone areas which saw several members of the party seized over a 24
hour period. In one instance a member was taken ill in the process and
needed an ambulance to take him to hospital.
With the prospects of Irish reunification appearing to grow in the
aftermath of the Brexit referendum, some elements within the 26 County
establishment have become increasingly nervous.
The number of homeless people in Ireland could reach 10,000 by the
middle of next year if the low level of government activity continues,
charities have warned.
A one-sided approach by council authorities to bonfires has
been blamed for a riotous conflagration in nationalist areas of Belfast
city centre this week which threatened to reignite conflict at sectarian
interfaces in the city.
There is increasing speculation that Sinn Fein could become the junior
partners in the next coalition government in the 26 Counties after the
party leadership refused to rule it out.
A protest by a group called ‘Irish Socialist Republicans’ successfully disrupted a
concert performance in honour of the British Army at a rural village in
County Limerick this week.
Over a thousand people took part in an anti-internment parade through
Belfast which was banned from the city centre last weekend, while two
tiny loyalist and fascist events were allowed to take place there.
Sinn Fein’s Gerry Kelly has condemned the DUP for “cosying up to the
UDA” while Sinn Fein was “standing up against armed groups from right
across the community”.
An Irish parliamentary report on achieving Irish unity has placed the
republican goal of a united Ireland in the context of 26 County
constitutional parliamentary politics for the first time.
The 26 County Taoiseach has made his first visit north of the border
since becoming Fine Gael leader, and called for a “unique solution” to
the status of the Six Counties after Brexit and attending a Gay Pride
event.
A dispute which saw unaligned republican prisoner Donal Billings
undertake a brief hunger protest after he was removed from the
republican wing of Portlaoise jail has ended amicably with his return to
the wing.
Tensions remain high in the North following ‘the Twelfth’ marches by
the Orange Order and sectarian bonfires earlier this month, and ahead
of a confluence of nationalist, loyalist and far-right protests and
counter-protests in Belfast on Sunday.
An abridged introduction to this week’s report of Joint Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement and a summary of its recommendations.