Jeffrey Donaldson has stepped down as leader of the Democratic Unionist
Party with immediate effect after he was charged with “historical”
sexual offences.
A ten-year, ten million pound effort to lock up three prominent
republicans has ended in failure with Colin Duffy and Henry
Fitzsimons both found not guilty.
The funeral took place on Wednesday of renowned Provisional IRA
Volunteer Rose Dugdale, which saw her remembered as “a true
revolutionary and a true legend”.
The first meeting of a new East-West Council has taken place in London
as part of a deal with the DUP on ‘safeguarding the Union’ in return for
the party ending its boycott of the Six County institutions.
An attempt by the PSNI and British government to block the release of
even a brief summary of information from Crown force intelligence about
the sectarian murder of Paul ‘Topper’ Thompson in April 1994 has been
branded a “total waste of resources”.
A round-up of events to honour Ireland’s fallen this Easter, with thanks
to Republican Memorial Tributes, and apologies for errors or omissions.
Please confirm times and dates with your local organisation.
Simon Harris, a 37-year-old career politician, has replaced Leo Varadkar
as Fine Gael leader and appears set to be elected Taoiseach when the
Dáil returns on April 9th.
The Dublin government is reeling from the sudden announcement of Leo
Varadkar’s departure as Taoiseach and is under immense pressure to allow
the voters of the 26 Counties to choose his successor.
Protests over President Joe Biden’s support for the Israeli assault on
Gaza have undermined the traditional St Patrick’s Day visits by Irish
politicians to the US.
Questions continue to mount about the findings of the police
investigation ‘Operation Kenova’, particularly in regard to an apparent
pattern of Crown Force double agents outing and executing each other,
with the knowledge of their handlers.
An inquest has heard that the Crown Forces were ‘aware’ of a planned
massacre by a loyalist death squad, just three months before the Good
Friday Agreement was signed.
Lawyers representing the family of Annette McGavigan have issued a
pre-action protocol letter over a prosecutorial decision regarding the
soldier who shot and killed their sister.
This week marks the 25th anniversary of the assassination of prominent
Irish human rights lawyer Rosemary Nelson. Her killing, amid Crown force
harassment, led to the continuing belief that the state colluded with
her loyalist killers.
A seven-year police investigation into the role of the British
state’s deadliest spy within the Provisional IRA has uncovered little
new information, defended his handlers and failed to deliver a single
prosecution against those who operated the serial-killing double-agent.
Efforts by the British Crown Forces to extradite Cork republican Sean
Walsh have been put on hold following the decision of the 26 County
Supreme Court to refer the matter to the European Court of Justice
(ECJ).
A pro-Palestinian mural criticising Sinn Féin, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael
for attending a St Patrick’s Day event in the White House has been
vandalised in west Belfast in a sign of continuing tensions over Sinn
Féin’s involvement.
A former British soldier has been accused of shooting a County Derry
man, even after he lay helpless on the ground, during an ambush by
British Army special forces.
The brother of a west Belfast man whose inquest was dramatically halted
after an intervention by the British government has asked, “What are
they hiding?”
An inquest jury has found that Hugh Gerard Coney was given no verbal
warning before being shot in the back while trying to escape from Long
Kesh almost 50 years ago.
The installation of two bronze statues in the grounds of Belfast City
Hall to commemorate two radical Belfast women has been hailed as a
“historic and symbolic day for the city”.
Volunteer Michael Kearney’s name was cleared in 2003 following an
internal Provisional IRA investigation which confirmed he was not an
informer. A statement by Seamus Kearney in relation to the Kenova Report
and its revelations about the killing of his brother by an IRA unit
which had been infiltrated by the British Crown Forces.
The Irish public has delivered a stunning rejection to the 26 County
state’s political classes as two referendums held on Friday backfired
disastrously for the Dublin government and almost every other politician
in the country.
Orders by British state agencies to suppress information about their
role in the 1997 murder of Gaelic sports official Sean Brown have led a
coroner to abandon his inquest and call for a public inquiry instead.
On Friday, a report on a notorious spy operation is to be finally
published after seven years of a supposed police investigation into acts
of collusion involving a spy inside the Provisional IRA’s internal
security unit.
A loyalist who was described by a judge as a “convicted sectarian gunman
and murderer” nevertheless walked free from court this week after he was
found not guilty of killing two Catholic men.
A son of a member of the Saoradh National Executive was attacked and
beaten by the PSNI on Sunday, March 3rd as he sought to defuse sectarian
tensions outside a sports event in Derry, according to the party.
A series of murals painted in support of Palestine are set to challenge
censorship of the genocide there after they were officially unveiled in
west Belfast.
Threats against Catholics continue to cause concern to residents of the
greater Belfast area following the appearance of intimidatory signage
and graffiti.
Sinn Féin President Mary Lou McDonald TD delivered the following keynote
address to the Irish Unity Summit in New York last week, an event
organised by a collaboration of Irish-American groups to drive support
for Irish reunification.
A referendum takes place in the 26 Counties on Friday to alter two articles of the Irish Constitution relating to families. Voters should vote no on the basis they
can both be redone, better, later.