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DONEGAL Sinn Féin Senator Pearse Doherty is in the High Court in Dublin this morning seeking leave for a judicial review into the failure of the Fianna Fáil/Green Party Government to hold the Donegal South-West by-election.

If leave is granted this will be a first step in the battle to force the Government to hold the by-election.

BARCELONA: More than a million people have gathered in Barcelona to demand greater regional autonomy for Catalonia and protest against a recent court ruling forbidding the prosperous region from calling itself a nation.

http://www.smh.com.au/world/million-march-for-catalonias-right-to-autonomy-20100711-105p2.html

GOLF CHAMPION Graeme McDowell has tried to end the confusion over whether he should be described as Irish or British.

The 2010 US Open winner comes from Portrush in County Antrim and says:

“Mum's a Catholic, Dad's a Protestant, I was brought up Presbyterian but... I'm Irish.”

He told Jay Leno on The Tonight Show in the United States that he’s Irish.

McDowell has made it clear,... Free article

REPORTS that the Fianna Fáil/Green Party Government has dropped plans for a property tax in this year's Budget have been welcomed by Sinn Féin Finance spokesperson Arthur Morgan TD.

Deputy Morgan said a flat-rate universal property tax would unfairly punish struggling families who are already hit with a range of direct and indirect regressive taxes and duties by this... Free article

A NEW REPORT into the UVF bombing of McGurk’s Bar in 1971 has to be produced by the Police Ombudsman has to be produced to rebuild confidence amongst the victims’ families and the wider public, Sinn Féin North Belfast Assembly member Gerry Kelly has said.

“The report given to the relatives of those killed in the UVF attack on McGurk’s bar was so inaccurate that it couldn’t even... Free article

POLICE OMBUDSMAN Al Hutchnison has suspended today's scheduled publication of his report into the RUC investigation of the 1971 UVF bombing of McGurk's Bar in north Belfast which claimed the lives of 15 people, including two children.

The Police Ombudsman said he will be meeting relatives to discuss their concerns.

FIFTEEN people, including two children, died when a UVF bomb exploded at McGurk's Bar in north Belfast in December 1971.

The bombing was initially blamed by the authorities on the IRA as a premature explosion, a so-called 'own goal'.

Relatives of the victims have expressed their upset at Police Ombudsman Al Hutchinson's findings.

UTV and RTÉ news reports on the probe into... Free article

GERRY ADAMS has appealed for calm over the Twelfth period, describing the Orange Order's rejection of draft proposals agreed by the DUP and Sinn Féin to solve the issue of controversial parades as “deeply disappointing”. He warned that unionist and nationalist fringe elements may seek to provoke trouble around the Twelfth.

The Sinn Féin president revealed that he has written to... Free article

PROMINENT former Green Party councillor, Independent Cork City Councillor Chris O’Leary, has today joined Sinn Féin.

Chris works full-time as a project manager in a Community Development Project on the city’s northside and has been involved in anti-poverty work for many years.

The well-known environmental activist has also spent time working on a voluntary basis in Latin... Free article