HOUSING POLICY is one of the issues that goes to the heart of our current economic crisis. More than health or education, it is an area of policy that successive governments left to the mercy of the market.
Some of the consequences are widely acknowledged, such as the massive property bubble and subsequent house price crash. Unfortunately, equally important consequences continue... Free article

BOOK REVIEW
BY ROBBIE SMYTH

SINS OF THE FATHER – TRACING THE DECISIONS THAT SHAPED THE IRISH ECONOMY
BY CONOR McCABE
(THE HISTORY PRESS IRELAND, €17)

WITH our shop bookshelves laden with vanity treatises on the economy, Conor McCabe’s ‘Sins of the Father’ is a refreshing change from the ‘how I foresaw the economic crash and how I told Bertie, Brian and Seánie, while we were... Free article

Step in right direction on GMOs

BAIRBRE DE BRÚN MEP voted in the European Parliament on July 5th for individual countries’ right to ban the cultivation of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) in their territory.
de Brún said:
“Today the Parliament voted to ensure that GMOs can be banned on the territory of individual member states on the basis of environmental and socio-economic... Free article

NUAIR a smaoiním faoi na meáin chlóite, cuimhnigí ar an seanabairt Rúiseach ó aimsir an Aontais Soibheidigh a dúirt nach raibh Pravda i dTass, ná Tass i bPravda (nó, nach raibh Firínne sa Nuacht, ná Nuacht san Fhirínne). Le seachtainí anuas tá an fhírinne ag briseadh tríd agus anois is léir go raibh na taicticí uafásacha, ísle, suaracha, eadrócaireacha i bhfeidhm ag an ‘nuachtán’... Free article

No one said changing society is easy

» BY PEADAR WHELAN

» BY PEADAR WHELAN

IN HIS REVIEW in last month’s ‘An Phoblacht’ of Ronnie Kasrils’s recently released tribute to his late wife, Eleanor, ‘The Unlikely Secret Agent’, Sinn Féin National Chairperson Declan Kearney wrote: “Eleanor forsook a life of privilege for a life of struggle.”
The same can also be said about Ronnie... Free article

A SPONSORED WALK is taking place in August to raise funds for a memorial to all deceased republicans to be erected at The Heath in County Laois, where local republican Jim Hyland lost his life.
The walk is organised by the Republican Memorial Committee formed by Laois/Offaly Sinn Féin and is supported by newly-elected TD Brian Stanley.
The walk starts in the Slieve Blooms on... Free article

TWO DOCUMENTARIES on the life of James Connolly were produced last year. One of them, the most substantive, was a documentary by Brian O’Flaherty, ‘James Connolly - A Working Class Hero’, currently available on DVD. The second was part of a series on prominent people in Irish history and presented by Joe Duffy. While both films had merits they shared one glaring omission - they... Free article

HERE IS an old adage which states that if you can’t be good, be lucky. The Dublin footballers are certainly living proof of that these days.
Probably most referees would not have awarded Bernard Brogan a free in the dying seconds of the Kildare game. And the first goal against Wexford might have been scripted by Harold Lloyd.
Mind you, any attempt thereby to detract from Dublin’s... Free article

Bobby’s story wins Italian award

SILVIA CALAMATI, Laurence McKeown and Denis O’Hearn recently received the Alessandro Tassoni Award in Modena, Italy, for their book, ‘Il Diario di Bobby Sands. Storia di un Ragazzo Irlandese’/’The Diary of Bobby Sands: The Story of an Irish Young Man’ (Rome, Castelvecchi Editore, 2010). Silvia Calamati was also given a cheque for €1,000 which... Free article

HERE are the events that the National Hunger Strike Commemoration Committee knows of to mark the 30th anniversary of the heroic 1980/1981 Hunger Strikes.
Updates can be got from Maureen or Deirdre at the National Hunger Strike Commemoration Committee at 028 9034 7350 or [email protected] or local Sinn Féin contacts in your area.
The ‘An Phoblacht’ website will also... Free article