Irish Republican News: Archives

October 27, 2018

Presidential election - final results

Incumbent Michael D Higgins has been officially confirmed as the winner of the Irish Presidential Election with 822,566 votes (55.8%), exceeding the quota. Independent Peter Casey secured second place with 23.1% of the vote.

Higgins re-elected as President

Michael D Higgins will serve another seven year term as President of Ireland as tallies and early results in Friday’s Presidential election bore out the results of two exit polls which last night indicated he is set to be elected on the first count.

British Army in raid on Saoradh HQ

The British Army were involved in a dawn raid on the national headquarters of Saoradh in Derry as concerns increase over the increasing use of British military units in political oppression.

Bradley paves the way for a unionist Brexit

British Direct Ruler Karen Bradley has been accused of subverting democracy after postponing Stormont elections for up to ten months while prioritising the interests of unionists during Brexit.

Bizarre Fianna Fail rift over northern candidate

A potentially historic announcement of a first Fianna Fail candidate in the Six Counties has instead exposed a deep divide within the party over its stance in relation to northern elections.

DUP men subject unionist rival to anti-Catholic taunts

A former DUP minister who called Pope Francis “the anti-Christ” in a row over a Papal event in Ireland has been condemned by nationalists and is to be the subject of a formal complaint at Stormont.

Unanswered questions, 25 years on

Collusion continues to be suspected in the murders of Gerard and Rory Cairns, who were killed by a UVF murder squad 25 years ago this week.

The Greysteel massacre

A Catholic priest who comforted the bereaved after the Greysteel massacre 25 years ago has said he believes the revulsion felt after the savage mass-murder helped move the North of Ireland towards peace.

Farcical High Court decision backs PSNI farce

I am now convinced that the Police Service of Northern Ireland is an elaborate prank, a kind of brilliantly large-scale Candid Camera -- and the courts are totally in on the joke.

October 26, 2018

Higgins set to be comfortably re-elected as President

Two exit polls have predicted that Michael D Higgins has been re-elected to the largely ceremonial post of President of Ireland with well over half of the vote.

October 20, 2018

Brexit tensions ratchet higher

Concerns are growing that a failure to negotiate a solution to the issue of the border after Brexit could spark a return of serious violence in the north of Ireland.

Burning tyre strikes loyalist terror

Loyalists placed a tyre at the front door of a Catholic family in Magherafelt and set it alight this week, forcing the four terrified occupants, including an infant girl, to flee the home.

Ni Riada would wear poppy for inauguration

A row has erupted after Sinn Fein candidate for President of Ireland, Liadh Ni Riada, said that if elected she would would wear a poppy symbol on the day of her inauguration.

Judges uphold coroner’s refusal to say how Pearse Jordan died

The mother of an IRA Volunteer shot dead by the RUC has failed in a new legal bid to have the inquest verdict quashed.

Derry man reveals years of harassment

A man has accused the PSNI of continual harassment because he has refused to work as an informer against republicans.

Sinn Fein MP claims deal with loyalists in 1993

An unusual dispute has arisen in east Tyrone after a former IRA leader denied a Sinn Fein man’s claims that loyalists and republicans reached “an understanding” in the area after a secret meeting in the early 1990s.

I am a political prisoner, held hostage by Spain

For a year now, I am held without bail and without even a trial date for having defended fundamental rights in any democracy, such as the freedom of speech and the freedom to meet and protest.

Jingoism can’t disguise DUP’s reckless Brexit agenda

Arlene Foster is preparing to have a train crash Brexit in pursuit of a narrow agenda with no regard for the majority who voted to remain or for any of the people of the north.

October 13, 2018

Scotland marches for freedom

Over 120,000 people joined a march for Scottish independence through Edinburgh last Saturday in the largest ever march about the issue.

Tribunal blasts Garda Chief’s ‘repulsive’ lies

Former Garda police Commissioner Martin Callinan led a whispering campaign of lies and defamation against police whistleblower Sergeant Maurice McCabe and then denied it under oath, according to the findings of a sworn tribunal of inquiry.

Effort to open Britain’s archive of secrets

The widow of a man shot dead by a British soldier in Belfast 47 years ago has begun a High Court bid to obtain access to documents stored in secret English vaults.

Prison warders accused of seeking confrontation

Maghaberry prisoners aligned to Republican Sinn Fein have condemned what it said were attempts to provoke tension at the jail by prison warders.

PSNI cooperation with investigations in doubt

Sinn Fein has condemned the Police Federation in the North (PFNI) after it warned that current and former members of the PSNI/RUC police would not cooperate with the proposed Historical Investigations Unit (HIU).

Varadkar reeling as Minister quits over €500m scandal

Ireland’s reputation as a centre of large-scale financial corruption has not been helped by a whirlwind of devastating revelations which brought a sudden end to the Ministerial career of Denis Naughten on Thursday.

The IRA Hunger Strike of 1923

In the Ireland of 1922, a civil war tore through the land and in its path it ripped apart families and friendships. It also created a deeper wedge in an unstable society where the church grappled for top position in an emerging new state.

Was the British government the main protagonist?

When all disputes and diversions have been explored, we come back to one core awkward fact.

October 11, 2018

Minister quits amid questions over 500m euro contract

The 26 County Minister for Communications Denis Naughten resigned suddenly this afternoon as a controversy escalated over his handling of a 500 million euro contract for the rollout of rural broadband.

October 9, 2018

Budget 2019 denounced as ‘a betrayal’

Fine Gael’s Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe has revealed the third and final annual 26 County budget agreed with Fianna Fail as part of their government pact.

October 6, 2018

Foster’s blood and thunder

DUP leader Arlene Foster has described her party’s opposition to a deal in Brexit negotiations that would result in new checks on goods moving across the Irish Sea as a “red line” that is “blood red”.

Historic civil rights march remembered

Events have been taking place in Derry to mark the 50th anniversary of the 1968 civil rights’ march, which some consider to have been the start of the recent conflict in Ireland.

Roof raised as marchers take Dublin

Up to 20,000 people, of all ages and from across the country, gathered at a rally outside the Dublin parliament on Wednesday demanding an end to the housing crisis.

Pat Finucane murder linked to MI5’s ‘licence to kill’

MI5 authorised its agents and informers to kill targets and commit other crimes under a secret policy which operated throughout the conflict in Ireland and continued until at least 2012, an investigative powers tribunal in London has heard.

New Lodge investigation ordered

A decision to order a new investigation into the killing of six men in north Belfast 45 years ago has been widely welcomed.

Not-so-covert spying operations

Aggressive house raids on republicans in North and West Belfast were followed by an open attempt to bug the family home and car of one of the victims, as British intelligence operations become increasingly public in the face of smart phone technology.

Seamus Costello

Seamus Costello was a founding member of the Irish Republican Socialist Party (IRSP) and the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA). He was shot dead on 5 October 1977, 41 years ago this week.

The Republic must constitute any future United Ireland

An address delivered by Sean Bresnahan to the Ruairi O Bradaigh Memorial School in Roscommon.