There has been sporadic unrest in Derry over three days as a provocative
Crown Force operation took place in the area of Racecourse Road,
Greenhaw Road, Glengalliagh Road and Fern Road.
New evidence has emerged in the murder of 13-year-old Martha Campbell in
Belfast in 1972, which puts a British Army unit in the area and shooting
at the time she was shot and killed.
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald accepted the resignation of party
Senator Elisha McCallion as a new financial scandal erupted in the North
this week.
A decision of the North’s Public Prosecution Service (PPS) not to
prosecute one of their own members for perjury relating to the
‘Stakeknife’ double-agent has come as no surprise, according to legal
representatives of his victims.
‘Plastic Justice’, an extensive report on the history, legacy and the
deadly impact of the plastic bullet in the north of Ireland, was
launched by Relatives for Justice last weekend.
Lasair Dhearg activists said they have carried out a “new
guerilla marketing strategy” throughout Belfast to highlight the
ongoing British occupation of the north of Ireland.
Kevin Barry was hanged at the age of 18 by the British in Mountjoy Jail
on 1 November 1920, 100 years ago this week. He was the first republican
to be executed by the British after the 1916 Rising, but his martyrdom
inspired the republican side in the War of Independence.
This weeks marks the 40th anniversary of the start of the 1980 hunger strike in the H-Blocks of Long Kesh, as well as the centenary of the death on hunger strike of Terence MacSwiney, the Sinn Féin Lord Mayor of Cork. It is also an important week for the Irish cause in 2020. That is because it is now widely believed that the British government has delayed key Brexit negotiations until after the US Presidential election.
An adoption rights activist born in one of Ireland’s notorious ‘mother
and baby’ homes has described a move to seal records about the
institutions for thirty years as a denial of justice.
A refusal by Micheál Martin to say if a border poll will ever take place
and a statement that Irish reunification is not a priority has put the
Taoiseach at odds with a broad swathe of Irish public opinion, including
his own party.
A deeply-rooted prejudice of DUP minister Edwin Poots emerged in
scandalous fashion this week when he issued a series of bigoted remarks
in connection with Covid-19, peaking with the incredible claim that they
weren’t sectarian as “most Sinn Féin leaders don’t attend the Catholic Church on a regular basis”.
Lawyers representing two men jailed in a miscarriage of justice say
there are new grounds for their convictions to be deemed unsafe due to
the sinister involvement of MI5 double agent Dennis McFadden.
The family of a County Tyrone man murdered by loyalists 30 years ago has
called for an independent investigation to be carried out after
receiving an anonymous letter containing significant new information.
Terence MacSwiney, an Irish playwright, author and Sinn Féin Lord Mayor
of Cork, died 100 years ago this week in a hunger strike strike which
brought the Irish Republican campaign to worldwide attention.
After weeks of vacillation and infighting, the Dublin government has
responded to inexorably rising levels of the coronavirus in Ireland with
a stringent, six-week ‘level 5’ lockdown.
Post-Brexit Europe will see a border between Scotland and England if the
result of the latest poll, which found 58% of Scots now support
independence, is borne out in a referendum.
The failure to agree a joint all-island strategy on tackling the
Covid-19 pandemic has led to a blame game on both sides of the border as
the numbers of new cases and deaths have once again spiralled upwards.
Large-scale surveillance installations used by British forces to spy on
the nationalist population in the north of Ireland are the focus of a
new campaign by republican activists.
A year after a breakthrough documentary was broadcast on the case, the
father of two brothers killed by loyalists almost 30 years ago has
confirmed that the PSNI failed to take any action on the new
information.
A Belfast man has begun a High Court action over the British Army’s use
of torture techniques to extract a false confession used to secure a
death sentence against him at trial.
A forum set up by the British government to look at how to mark next
year’s ‘Centenary of Northern Ireland’ is being boycotted by
nationalists and republicans. The Centenary Forum was announced by
British prime minister Boris Johnson during a visit to Ireland in
August.
Amid calls for the legacy investigation into the actions of
British agents inside the Provisional IRA to be expanded, the 32 County
Sovereignty Movement recall the brutal ambush twenty years ago this week
of 26-year-old Joe O’Connor.
The attempt to close the book on Bloody Sunday is an insult to the
victims’ families and to the rule of law. It is a stark indication of
where this British government is headed, writes
former British soldier Richard Rudkin.
A 61-year-old woman has been left fighting for her life after a unionist paramilitary gun attack in Coleraine, County Derry. Sally Cummings is in a critical condition in the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast after being struck in the head by one of eight shots.
A member of the notorious ‘Glenanne Gang’ death squad is being investigated after a shocking death threat was made against Aontú councillor Denise Mullen, the daughter of a man previously murdered by the gang.
An armed Garda support unit is to be permanently deployed to the border in a decision which appears to confirm plans for a cross-border remilitarisation of the area.
Political activists in Derry occupied the local branch of the Santander bank in an action over the freezing of bank accounts and welfare benefits of those targeted by the PSNI.
Amnesty International is helping organise a campaign for justice for Majella O’Hare, a girl who was shot in the back on her way to church by a British soldier and then ‘treated like a piece of meat’, according to an eyewitness.
Majella O’Hare was just 12 years of age when she was shot twice in the back by a British paratrooper on her way to Mass in Whitecross, County Armagh, on August 16, 1976.
The house of the O’Rahilly, a famous historical landmark once home to the 1916 Easter Rising leader Michael Joseph O’Rahilly, was tragically and deliberately demolished in the early hours of Tuesday morning, September 29.
An independent inquiry report into the mistreatment of PoWs in the H-Blocks and Armagh Women’s Jail in the period between 1976 and 1981 has exposed the systematic abuse and torture of prisoners during the prison protests.
Sinn Féin has come in for stinging criticism for its meeting this week with Prince Charles, the head of the British Army’s Parachute Regiment, less than 24 hours after it was announced that no further charges will be brought over the Bloody Sunday massacre.
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald has said the “erratic” and “dangerous” Boris Johnson cannot be trusted on Brexit. She said Johnson has forfeited credibility by unpicking the Withdrawal Agreement, negotiated earlier this year, and now cannot be believed when he says he wants a trade deal.
An extraordinary attack by the former 26 County Minister for Justice, Charlie Flanagan on a documentary film on collusion has been described as an attack on nationalist victims of the conflict.
Sinn Féin Assembly member Gerry Kelly has said he remains proud of his involvement in the 1983 mass breakout from Long Kesh prison despite British Direct Ruler Brandon Lewis describing his memories of the event “disgraceful”.
Many people outside Derry say - and others may frequently feel like saying - that the city does go on a bit about its grievances. This week is no exception, with another eruption of rage over Bloody Sunday.