
July 28, 2018

Donegal County Council has passed a motion calling on the Minister for
Justice to cancel the appointment of a new head of the 26 County police
because of his previous links to British intelligence agencies and his
role in shutting down an investigation into state collusion with
loyalist paramilitaries.
A suspected British state agent and hitman identified as a triple
sectarian killer was never prosecuted because of a cover-up in which the
PSNI (then RUC) police simply did not send a file to prosecutors, it has
emerged.
The DUP has come under pressure from Sinn Fein after it appeared to rule
out any further sanction against its MP Ian Paisley despite his
unprecedented suspension from the Westminster parliament over holidays
secretly funded by the Sri Lankan government.
One of Britain’s largest unions has passed a motion calling for the
conviction of two County Armagh men known as the ‘Craigavon 2’ to be
reviewed.
The Irish Republican Prisoners Welfare Association has relayed
serious cases of abuse of republican prisoners at Maghaberry and
Hydebank jails.
DUP MP Ian Paisley has been found to have improperly lobbied on behalf
of Sri Lanka’s then Rajapaksa regime against accusations of war crimes
which targeted the minority Tamil population. Meet the Rajapaksas, in
this Channel 4 report from 2013.
Short of pulling out a Tricolour, the national flag of Ireland, and
setting it on fire on the dais, it is difficult to imagine how much more
undiplomatic and positively provocative the Conservative Party leader
could have been in her words and sentiments.
July 21, 2018

After a chaotic week of u-turns and narrow votes at the Westminster
parliament, the British Prime Minister has denounced a previously agreed
‘backstop’ plan to ensure no border checks are introduced across the
island of Ireland.
The PSNI police have so far refused to say who they believe was
responsible for a firework thrown at the home of Gerry Adams last
weekend.
A Catholic-maintained school for special needs pupils has been badly
damaged in a sectarian hate crime in east Belfast.
A petition is set to be collected to recall north Antrim MP Ian Paisley
following a finding by the Westminster parliament that he improperly
accepted holidays from the government of Sri Lanka valued in excess of
100,000 pounds.
Sinn Fein is to challenge Michael D Higgins in the upcoming Irish
presidential election but has yet to name a candidate for the vote,
which is expected to take place in November.
The Dublin parliament has gifted a portrait of Irish abstentionist MP
Constance Markievicz, the first woman elected to Westminster, as a
debate takes place over the refusal of Sinn Fein to take its seats
there.
An introduction to the life of Constance Georgine Markievicz, an Irish politician, suffragette, socialist and republican rebel.
July 14, 2018
The homes of republican youths in Derry are currently the focus of a
PSNI crackdown following several nights of clashes around a major
sectarian parade through the city centre.
There have been calls for calm after two devices were thrown at the
homes of former Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams and prominent republican
Bobby Storey in Belfast overnight.
A meeting which took place between the DUP and the unionist paramilitary
UVF in the early hours of Wednesday failed to convince the loyalist
armed group to lower a giant bonfire, it has emerged.
A hate attack on a Catholic priest by supporters of an Orange Order
parade in Glasgow has caused a major backlash and a call for a blanket
ban on the openly sectarian organisation in the city.
A County Tyrone man has described how he was hospitalised after MI5 and
PSNI tried to recruit him as an informer.
Irish senators on Wednesday passed a bill to ban the import of goods
from Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian land.
A brief look at the life of Martin Hurson, who fought for Irish freedom
and became the sixth to die in the 1981 hunger strike, 37 years ago
this week.
Ireland is entitled to disassociate from what the EU itself condemns as
clear breaches of international law.
July 13, 2018
A sectarian parade through the centre of Derry provoked heavy
rioting in the city last night as youths threw petrol bombs and the PSNI
responded with potentially lethal plastic bullets.
July 12, 2018
The north of Ireland saw some of the worse violence in recent years as
unionist paramilitaries hit back at a first step by authorities against
their towering and toxic ‘Eleventh Night’ bonfires.
July 10, 2018
Disturbances involving nationalist youths in the Bogside area of Derry
has seen another night of trouble as appeals from a wide spectrum of
politicians fell on deaf ears.
July 9, 2018
Boris Johnson has resigned as British Foreign Secretary, following the
departure earlier today of Brexit Minister David Davis, amid a growing
crisis within the Conservative Party over London’s Brexit strategy.
July 7, 2018

Steel barriers sealed off the nationalist Short Strand last Monday to
facilitate the passage of a sectarian parade by the anti-Catholic Orange
Order, infuriating local residents but without causing any of the
violence seen in previous years.
There was some trouble in Derry last weekend amid tension in the city
ahead of major sectarian marches to be held on Thursday by the Orange
Order.
Calls for a fresh inquest into the McGurks Bar Bombing in Belfast have
been rejected by the Six County Attorney General.
Sinn Fein has cast doubt on claims that a newly agreed British cabinet
positon on Brexit could prevent a hardening of the border and a
diminution of the rights of the citizens in the north of Ireland.
Republicans have mourned the passing of veteran IRA figure Sean Scott,
of Ballyforan, near Ballinasloe in County Galway, whose funeral took
place on Wednesday.
Michael Shaw Mahoney captures the Falls Curfew of July 1970 through the
eyes of the late Billy Curran (for the Pensive Quill).
Those who claim to be unionist may regard
themselves as British but they live on Irish soil and are here as a
result of colonisation. They have a right to live in Ireland but they
have no right to prevent the Irish people from being part of one
historical Irish nation.