Irish Republican News: Archives

In the wake of the selection of former senior PSNI figure Jon Burrows to lead the Ulster Unionist Party after he was co-opted into it just six months ago, alongside another unelected politician, Diana Armstrong, as his deputy, commentator Brian Feeney has warned that trouble is brewing for unionism.

Everyone benefits with Unity

When I was a child at school there was talk about the three Rs. These were reading, writing and arithmetic. Clearly spelling didn’t feature prominently at the time. When I think of Irish Unity, there are three Rs which come to mind. These are renewal, reconciliation, and resilience.

Freedom for Christmas

An updated account of a famous prison escape, 65 years ago this week.

Grace Gifford

On the 70th anniversary of her death, a history of an Irish rebel, born into a wealthy Protestant family and widowed by the British, whose memory has been revived by the song that carries her name.

The brutal executions of the Four Martyrs

On December 9, 1922, four anti-Treaty IRA prisoners were murdered at the hands of the pro-Treaty Free State forces. An account by Peter McDermott, originally published by the Irish Echo newspaper.

Crime pays for a state-sponsored serial killing scumbag

Freddie Scappaticci is one of the vilest characters to have emerged from the Troubles.

The disastrous outcome of the Boundary Commission

Historian Cormac Moore explains how northern nationalists were ‘sold out’ by the Irish Free State, 100 years ago this week.

Hosting Séamus Kearney

Sometimes, some things - events, people, places, whatever it may be - they move you, and to not write about them afterwards is simply not an option.

Win, win for unionist paramilitary crime

While a harsh budget is to be imposed on the north of Ireland by the Labour government in London, it has emerged the murderous South East Antrim UDA is to get grant aid worth over a million pounds.

The forced hunger trek to Canada

Bonfires were lit in the west of Ireland in celebration after Anglo-Irish landlord Major Denis Mahon was shot dead as he drove his carriage through his estate in County Roscommon, 178 years go this month. A history of a pivotal episode in the Great Hunger.

Are unionists just repeating their mistakes?

All the anniversary reflections on the massive upheavals linked to the unveiling of the Anglo-Irish Agreement (AIA), 40 years ago next week, may draw at least some comparisons with the increasing tensions at Stormont today.

1980 hunger strike remembered

The 27th of October is a very important date in modern Irish history as it marks the beginning of the 1980 hunger strike - a period that some appear to want to forget.

The assassination of Máire Drumm

Forty-nine years ago this week loyalist gunmen, posing as doctors, walked onto the ward of the Mater Hospital and shot dead the former vice-president of Sinn Féin Máire Drumm as she recovered from eye surgery.

Eamonn Ceannt

Eamonn Ceannt, born in Ballymoe, County Galway in 1881, would become one of the seven signatories of the proclamation of the Easter Rising. A short biograph, by Colm Wallace.

‘The next one is for you’

A new book by Ali Watkins, is a gripping account of how a group of working class Irish-Americans in Philadelphia procured and shipped weapons to the Provisional IRA in the early 1970s.

Belfast has changed

Symbols of Britishness are embedded in the everyday life of Belfast, but you’d never guess that from listening to those protesting loudly about the council’s new Irish language policy.

Cumann na mBan and the Northern Offensive

A renowned feminist historian has written a new book on the untold story of Irish republican women involved in the 1916 Easter Rising, the Irish War of Independence, and the Irish Civil War.

A President for all

Northeners are denied a vote in this election. That is unacceptable. But all of us should find some way to be part of the campaign to elect Catherine Connolly, writes Gerry Adams.

The inside story of the Blanket Protest

The Blanket Protest began 49 years ago this week. It and the deaths of ten men on hunger strike would completely alter the political landscape in Ireland.

Why won’t unionists confront the truth about hate?

Some unionist commentators have belatedly begun to ask why it’s a unionist thing to burn families out of their homes. It always has been.

January 22, 2026

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