Irish Republican News: Archives

November 30, 2019

Republicans come together for unity

Thousands of people took to the streets of County Donegal and County Tyrone last weekend to demand a united Ireland.

By-election victory may mark turnaround for Sinn Féin

Sinn Féin’s candidate Mark Ward has been elected to the Dáil following a poll-topping result in the Dublin Mid-West by-election which could represent a change in fortunes for the party following the setback of the local elections in the 26 Counties.

Finucane rises above ‘gutter politics’

Representatives of the unionist paramilitary UDA have openly called for a vote for the DUP to ensure “no abstentionist MPs [Sinn Féin] are elected, nor their cohorts in the SDLP”.

Conviction overturned on faulty DNA evidence

A west Belfast man has won his appeal against a conviction on arms charges over flawed forensic evidence. Judges directed that Ballymurphy man Kevin McLaughlin should be freed immediately.

Review sought into Bloody Sunday prosecution decision

Lawyers representing the families of nine of those massacred by the British Army on Bloody Sunday have asked for a review of a decision not to prosecute nine soldiers in Derry in 1972.

Pre-Christmas talks expected at Stormont

Efforts to restore Stormont following the Westminster election on December 12 have accelerated despite election campaigning.

Victims of first Bloody Sunday remembered

The last three unmarked graves of the 14 people killed un the first Bloody Sunday massacre in Dublin 99 years ago have been replaced with commemorative headstones.

Polls on Irish unity are only heading in one direction

Unless you have been living under a rock, you can’t but have noticed that the prospect of Irish reunification has been gaining ground these past three years.

November 23, 2019

Sinister UDA figures behind hate banners

Unionist banners have been erected by the UDA targeting the family of Pat Finucane, the Belfast defence lawyer who in 1989 was assassinated by a UDA paramilitary death squad in collusion with British military intelligence.

Sinn Féin appeals for unity agenda at Ard Fheis

Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald has urged the Dublin government to convene a forum on Irish unity ahead of a border poll within the next five years.

March for Irish Unity

Tomorrow, Sunday November 24, a ‘March for Irish Unity’ is due to take place between Lifford in County Donegal and Strabane in County Tyrone.

Special Branch accused in civilian death

The mother of a County Down woman who died when an undercover British agent allegedly became involved in an IRA attack is taking a case against the PSNI police chief and the British Ministry of Defence.

Mixed outcome as PSNI allowed appeal to Supreme Court

The PSNI (formerly RUC) is to take a ruling that the police force lacks the independence to investigate a killing by the British Army to the Supreme Court in London.

Racism button pushed ahead of by-elections in South

Fine Gael has been branded a “safe house for right-wing politics” after a series of controversies over bigotry, including a by-election candidate who claimed asylum seekers need to be “deprogrammed” when they seek refuge in Ireland.

Death of Peig King

Lifelong Republican Péig King of Tyrone and Dublin passed away this week. She held many senior positions in the republican movement and Cumann na mBan and is a former patron of Republican Sinn Féin. Her funeral took place with full republican honours in Glasnevin Cemetery on Friday.

Sinn Féin Presidential Address Ard Fheis 2019

The full text of the address by Mary Lou McDonald to the Sinn Féin annual party conference in Derry last weekend.

November 16, 2019

DUP hypocrisy amid poster war

Sinn Féin has accused the DUP of forming electoral alliances with active paramilitaries and demonising republicans and nationalists in an attempt to provide itself with cover.

Brexit distorts Westminster election campaign

The DUP has been accused of treating Brexit like an “embarrassing relative” by failing to make any mention of it in the party’s election broadcast for next month’s Westminster poll.

Johnson pledges war crimes amnesty

A Tory vow to amend British law to protect former British soldiers from prosecutions relating to their crimes in the north of Ireland has been condemned as an attempt to use the conflict in Ireland for electoral gain.

Westminster election could clear way for Stormont - SF

The Sinn Féin Ard Fheis has heard this weekend that the Stormont Assembly could be restored in the New Year.

Joseph McCrystal - ‘no one seems to care’

The family of a Catholic man shot dead by loyalists almost 50 years have vowed to continue their fight for justice following the publication of a report by Relatives for Justice. Joseph McCrystal was shot as he returned to his home in Newtownabbey on November 12, 1972. He died the following day.

McAllister ordered to report to airport

A former political prisoner who sought asylum in the US again hears he will be deported after being ordered to report to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at Newark Airport.

Address to Saoradh Ard Fheis

The following is the address by Saoradh chairperson Brian Kenna to the party’s annual conference in Newry last weekend.

When Stormont’s credibility went up in flames

A review by Rory Carroll of ‘Burned - The inside story of the ‘cash for ash’ scandal and Northern Ireland’s secretive new elite’, by Sam McBride.

November 9, 2019

UDA threat alters election contest

A decision by the Ulster Unionist Party to stand aside in North Belfast following loyalist threats of violence has been condemned, despite the insistence of the party’s new leader Steve Aiken that the move was not connected to the threats.

One pact follows another as Remainers bid for change

An SDLP decision to stand aside in north Belfast as a result of the UUP’s pact with the DUP in the constituency has triggered a reciprocal arrangement with Sinn Féin which now also includes the Green Party.

PSNI bid to ‘steal Christmas’ from prisoners, families

The headquarters of Saoradh in Derry, Junior McDaid House, has been targeted in yet another PSNI raid on Thursday morning, this time in connection with a fundraising raffle.

Tributes to Dickie Glenholmes and Fr Des Wilson

Republicans have been paying tribute to IRA veteran Richard ‘Dickie’ Glenholmes, who died on Monday after a lengthy illness, as well as Fr Des Wilson, who passed away on Tuesday.

By-elections bring test for republican politics in South

Four by-elections in the 26 Counties are to go ahead on 29 November -- two in Dublin, one in Cork and one in Wexford. The by-elections follow the recent election of four TDs to the European Parliament, requiring them to relinquish their seats at Leinster House.

University fails to defend academic freedom for campaigner

Queen’s University Belfast is once again being accused of discriminating against nationalists after a Law Professor at the university revealed he had come under pressure to end his involvement in a public debate on Brexit and Irish reunification.

The first shoot-to-kill victims

On the night of 11 November 1982, two young IRA volunteers, Eugene Toman and Sean Burns were sitting in another volunteer, Gervais McKerr’s house in Lurgan, County Armagh, drinking tea, and waiting for a lift to a safe house. The atmosphere was friendly and relaxed, according to a girl in the McKerr house that night, with the lads joking as usual and enjoying the company. Within a few hours, the three volunteers would be dead, the first victims of an horrific shoot-to-kill policy by the RUC.

Planning for Ireland’s Future

This week’s initiative by Ireland’s Future is an important contribution to the ongoing debate around Brexit, the issue of rights, the need to defend the Good Friday Agreement, and the imperative of planning for Irish unity.

November 2, 2019

UDA’s election coercion for DUP

Loyalist paramilitaries have issued threats against the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) in a bid to force it to withdraw from the Westminster election in north Belfast against Nigel Dodds, the Deputy leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP).

Arsonist wrecks car of Sinn Féin justice spokesperson

The home of a Sinn Féin TD has come under firebomb attack after he defended the rights of immigrant asylum-seekers. Party leader Mary Lou McDonald condemned what she said was a “very deliberate and targeted attack” which she described as a “deeply serious and sinister development.”

Election provides opportunities, risks for SF

Sinn Féin is set to contest all 18 Westminster constituencies after its efforts to form a pact of parties opposed to Brexit failed to get a positive response from other party leaders.

Protest after dawn operation to arrest elderly woman

Sinn Féin has hit out after a 63-year-old woman was arrested by the PSNI police on Thursday following an early-morning operation in the Creggan area of Derry. Sadie Callan, an active Sinn Féin party member, was taken to Belfast for interrogation under new “terror” legislation.

PSNI accused of delaying reports on collusion killings

The Police Ombudsman in the north of Ireland has again delayed publication of three reports on loyalist murders after previously undisclosed files were uncovered. The material was found due to a recent computer upgrade, according to the PSNI.

Desperate scenes in Waterford hospital

Overcrowding at University Hospital Waterford has been described as unacceptable after photographs emerged this week of dire conditions in the psychiatric unit.

Ireland’s unreal partition

A hundred years ago this week, as it was struggling to suppress Ireland’s fight for freedom, the British war cabinet first endorsed a unionist proposal for setting up two devolved parliaments - one in Dublin and one in Belfast. Historian Cormac Moore looks at the background to Britain’s partition of Ireland.

Economic boundaries and deep-seated fears

Are the DUP right when they say that a border in the Irish Sea is a serious threat to the union?