Features

Leonard Peltier: Over 30 years in jail

Native American Leonard Peltier has languished in prison for three decades for an offence which even US courts have said he was wrongly convicted. Here GERI TIMMONS tells the story of how Peltier has been persecuted for defending his land and people.

Photo: Leonard Peltier

TV Review: Hunger Strike. RTÉ 1. Tuesday 2 May

A weakness of the programme was that it did not really get across the full extent of what the H-Block and Armagh prisoners went through between 1976 and 1980

For those of use who remember what it was like when Irish television was gagged by Section 31 of the Broadcasting Act it is still something of an experience to see republicans on RTÉ describing their role in events during that era of censorship and intense repression. For those who are too young to remember, a simple exercise will illustrate what Section 31 meant. Imagine RTÉ's Hunger Strike documentary without the participation of the former H-Block prisoners and Sinn Féin voices such as Jim Gibney and Gerry Adams.

Photo: A weakness of the programme was that it did not really get across the full extent of what the H-Block and Armagh prisoners went through between 1976 and 1980

The Mitchel McLaughlin Column

The opportunities and benefits of all-island economic planning have never been clearer. The North's economy is underdeveloped because of dependence upon and domination by the British economy. It has no fiscal independence and has been cut off from the 'Celtic Tiger' expansion of the rest of Ireland. The regional economy is over-dependent on the public sector whilst R & D expenditure, a key barometer of future economic growth, is at 0.7% of GDP. And almost 75% of our graduates leave and do not return.

Bayonets bared for Europe's military future, MEP's Diary.... and Strasbourg In Brief

• This news feature is funded by the European United Left/Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL)

OPINION: CIL rejects any coalition with right wing parties

The issue of of an Irish left wing alliance to counterpose the current conservative political establishment and its grip on power, has been discussed in An Phoblacht on several occasions. This week we continue that debate. Here, COLM BREATHNACH, a member of the Irish Socialist Network, a group affiliated to the Campaign for an Independent Left (CIL) writing in a personal capacity, argues the need for a new left party which would oppose coalition with conservative parties as a matter of principle.

The Matt Treacy Column

Despite one newspaper pundit managing to use the word "depressing" twice in the course of his piece on Dublin's victory over Kerry and in his preview of the Dublin College's victory in the All Ireland colleges final, which in his huge personal knowledge he thought was too much to expect, the prospect is far from depressing. Indeed if winning our first national titles - and two in the space of one weekend! - is a cause for depression, long may it last.

Media View… BY JOHN O'BRIEN

The tabloids had a field day last week, with the DPP's decision not to proceed with the Dermot Laide retrial for the manslaughter of Brian Murphy outside Annabel's nightclub and the self-exonerating interview given by Wayne O'Donoghue, the young man convicted of the manslaughter of young Robert Holohan.

Fifth Column

An Phoblacht's famous weekly satirical column.

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