Widespread shock at the appointment of a sinister RUC figure as 26
County Garda police commissioner has been followed by a row after Sinn
Fein vowed to “hold him to account”.
An elderly nationalist collapsed as he was arrested by PSNI police after
he tried to remove provocative banners in praise of an infamous loyalist
paramilitary in Moygashel, County Tyrone, on Thursday.
A series of choreographed political gestures could be preparing the way
for a return of the Stormont Assembly as both Sinn Fein and the DUP have
said they are ready to restore the Six County political institutions.
A conviction by the juryless ‘Special Criminal Court’ (SCC) in Dublin has
been overturned on appeal, raising new questions over a court whose main
purpose has always been to efficiently imprison Irish republicans.
The widow of murdered Belfast defence lawyer Pat Finucane has said she
is optimistic that the Supreme Court in London will finally rule in
favour of a full public inquiry into her husband’s death.
A family’s decision to make a stand over housing set in motion a chain
of events that would give rise to the civil rights movement 50 years ago
and thrust Ireland into the international spotlight.
Drew Harris, a current Deputy Chief Constable of the PSNI police in the
Six Counties, is to become the new Garda police commissioner in the 26
Counties, it has been confirmed.
A secret MI5 report that resulted in the RUC (now PSNI) police
protecting its agents and informers regardless of their role in the
conflict has been made public after 38 years.
A judge in the non-jury trial of a prominent republican has admitted
the prosecution was based entirely on allegations extracted by police
threats and ordered him to be released, more than five and a half years
after he was initially charged.
The British Crown Forces are refusing to release documents relating to
top loyalist paramilitary Robin ‘The Jackal’ Jackson, a former British
soldier linked to the Miami Showband massacre and other suspected acts
of collusion.
Sinn Fein and Fine Gael have warned the British government against
last-minute negotiations on the border ahead of a crucial June 28-29
summit to finalise a Brexit deal.
Sinn Fein wants to be part of an administration in Dublin after the next
general election, party leader Mary Lou McDonald has confirmed, as she
set out a change of strategy for her party.
The unionist paramilitary UVF are being blamed for an ‘Eleventh Night’
bonfire being built close to a children’s play park in a built-up
residential area of Belfast.
There have been calls for greater efforts to tackle white-collar crime
after former Anglo Irish Bank chief executive David ‘The Drummer’ Drumm
received only a six year sentence for his central role in a 7.2 billion
euro fraud which marked a low point in Ireland’s financial crisis.
This week in 1897, James Connolly was arrested and detained for
organising a series of protests in Dublin over Queen Victoria’s diamond
jubilee, some of which resulted in riots.
I want Arlene and the Orange Order to look at this huge institution
which creates division again and again every year, in a society which is
already divided.
Sinn Fein’s internal difficulties have worsened following a combative
display by the party leadership at a weekend conference saw the party
adopt a hardline pro-abortion stance, including a ban on dissent on the
issue by its elected representatives.
Sinn Fein faces difficult decisions today at the party’s annual
conference as a row over the the party’s attitude to abortion threatens
to overshadow the launch of its bid to enter government following the
next 26 County general election.
A rally by far-right unionists and neo-Nazis at Belfast City hall last
weekend has raised concerns over the increased visibility of fringe
loyalist groups ahead of the sectarian marching season.
With the 26 County housing crisis threatening to spiral out of control,
Sinn Fein have begun a new campaign against the man most hold
responsible for the scandal, Fine Gael Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy.
Nationalists and republicans are being urged to unite to support the
Palestinian cause amid signs that the Irish establishment is seeking to
protect Israel from the fallout over recent atrocities.
An abridged version of the main oration delivered by Republican Sinn
Fein Ard Chomhairle member, John Joe McCusker, following the party’s
annual commemorative parade to the grave of Theobald Wolfe Tone last
weekend.
Peter Robinson, the former leader of the hardline unionist DUP, has
suggested agreement on a strategy for phased reunification could allow
him to support a Six County referendum on unity.
Loyalists have begun hoisting flags and banners and painting kerbstones
in locations across the North in advance of the summer sectarian parades
by the Protestant marching organisations.
One of the oldest republican prisoners in Maghaberry Prison, Sean
O’Neill, has passed away from cancer in Limerick this week while still
being actively sought by the British authorities in the North for
“breaching bail”.
Sinn Fein and the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA) were
infiltrated by an undercover British police unit which is currently the
focus of a major inquiry in England.
A rumoured alliance between Sinn Fein and Fine Gael appears closer this
week after Fine Gael leader and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar launched the West
Belfast festival, Feile an Phobail, on Friday.
A former political prisoner, who fled to the United States after being
part of the 1983 mass escape from the H-Blocks of Long Kesh 35 years
ago, is making a new attempt to clear his name.
A statement issued through the Pat Finucane Centre by the family of
Dennis Heaney, who was shot dead on the streets of Derry by undercover
SAS soldiers on 10th June 1978, 40 years ago this week.
Theresa May’s new list of working peers includes an ex-MP from the
proppers-up of her government, the Democratic Unionist Party: the Rev
William “Boxcar Willie” McCrea, veteran gospel-singing politician.
The issue of women’s rights and access to abortion are now being placed
alongside calls for same-sex marriage as part of an equality agenda
being opposed by unionists.
Britain’s cartwheeling approach to Brexit and the north of Ireland has
reached a critical point with a new plan to expand the Irish border into
a ten-mile demilitarised ‘buffer’ zone.
Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald has said she expects her party will
endorse the provision of abortion in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy
following last Friday’s 26 County referendum to repeal the Eighth
Amendment, which gave a pregnant woman only an equal right to life as
her unborn child.
The younger brother of Derry plastic bullet victim, Stephen McConomy,
says a new inquest into his death could provide his family with the
“answers we deserve.”
Dozens of republicans gathered with friends and family of the late IRA
Volunteer, George McBrearty in Derry on Sunday to commemorate the 37th
anniversary of his death at the hands of SAS alongside his comrade
Charles ‘Pop’ Maguire in 1981.