Features

Driving around the North one cannot fail to be aware of the proliferation of flags on display. I often wonder what tourists make of this. Accepting that it is not a phenomenon restricted to one tradition, it does seem that unionists are more preoccupied with such displays.

Interview: Martina Anderson, Sinn Féin Department of Unionist Engagement

Martina Anderson was appointed head of Sinn Féin's Department of Unionist Engagement in March. This week she talks to An Phoblacht about the nature of her work and addresses why Sinn Féin members need to find ways to engage with unionists.

Photo: Martina Anderson

Orange parades: Seeking a shared understanding

As we near the halfway stage in the so-called 'marching season' SEAN MURRAY, Spokesperson for the Springfield Road Residents Group and a member of Sinn Féin's Cuige na Sé Chontae Officer Board , takes stock of how the latest events have impacted on perspectives of the parades issue.

Photo: Dodie McGuiness and Seán Murray

Interview: Treasa Quinn, Sinn Féin Joint National Treasurer

In the latest of her series of interviews with Sinn Féin activists ELLA O'DWYER talks to another of the party's Joint National Treasurers, Treasa Quinn

Photo: Joint National Treasurers, Treasa Quinn

Black & Tans were "no angels" - major concession by Loach critics!

Before it went on release, 'critics' who had not seen it, denounced Ken Loach's The Wind that Shakes the Barley. The London Times critic compared it to Nazi propaganda - ironic considering the role of ex-Black & Tans in reactionary and fascist politics in Britain. In the Daily Mail Ruth Dudley Edwards asked: "Why does Ken Loach loath his country so much?" - a question better addressed by Ruth to a mirror. Ruth also, in the manner of death penalty advocates discussing 'humane' methods of killing, informed us that the British Empire was "the most humane"...... ever, so there.

The Matt Treacy Column

One of my superstitions about matches is that the team who appears to have the most supporters in town beforehand will win. Of course this is a very subjective rule of thumb and depends very much on the route I take and which watering hole I favour prior to the match. Nor, in the interests of scientific accuracy, do I apply it to games involving Dublin given the obvious biases involved.

Cúlchaint le Seán ó Donaile

Tá puball beag agam cois cuain, áit a gcloisim na rónta i bpoill na pluaise is an faoileán lena phort uaigneach a aithním - bhí seal ann nuair a bhí mo shaol lán le cuideachta - bhí súile meabhracha gorma aici is gáire a mheall mo chroí; luíomar cois farraige i bpuball agus gheallamar grá dá chéile go dtí gur theith sí le Turcach i Londain a bhí ag éalú ón arm.

Remembering the Past

Fifty years ago this week, Clann na Poblachta, was formed to challenge the stranglehold of Fianna Fáil on Irish politics. The Party was to last 19 years and failed in its objectives due to internal feuds and lack of unity.

Media View BY FRANK FARRELL

Tom McGurk was one of the few voices raised against the hypocrisy of those who opposed the 1916 commemorations but who gloried in recent events marking the 90th anniversary of the slaughter at the Somme. Writing in The Sunday Business Post, McGurk took apart recent obsequious essays by journalists like Fintan O'Toole. Britain and her allies versus Germany and its axis was not a "futile slaughter ... for the taking of a few kilometres of ground", as described by O'Toole; rather it was it a global, territorial war between imperialist nations competing for ascendancy at the beginning of the 20th Century.

Photo: Commemoration of the Battle of the Somme, the Irish National War Memorial Park, Islandbridge, Dublin

Fifth Column

An Phoblacht's famous weekly satirical column.

Return to Top