Features

36th Anniversary of Internment

In August 1971 the unionist regime at Stormont, under prime minister Brian Faulkner and supported by Edward Heath's Tory government in London, introduced internment without trial in the North of Ireland. More than 340 men were taken to prison camps in the initial swoop.

Interview : Andrée Murphy of Relatives For Justice

Alice Harper, daughter of Danny Taggart, Andree Murphy, Relatives for Justice and Briege Voyle, daughter of Joan Connolly, at the launch of the photo exhibition of the Ballymurphy families in Grand Opera House, Belfast.

All and any resistance to the introduction of internment in 1971 was ruthlessly suppressed. The most notorious single incident was on the night internment was introduced, 9 August. In and around a small field in Belfast's Ballymurphy estate, five unarmed people, including a mother searching for her children and a priest giving the last rites to a mortally wounded teenager, were shot dead by British soldiers. Relatives For Justice is a Belfast based group working with relatives of people killed or injured during recent decades of British occupation in Ireland. Here the organisation's Deputy Director ANDRÉE MURPHY talks to ELLA O'DYWER about the trauma experienced by the relatives of those killed at the onset of internment and about the vital importance of having their loss acknowledged by the British establishment.

Photo: Alice Harper, daughter of Danny Taggart, Andree Murphy, Relatives for Justice and Briege Voyle, daughter of Joan Connolly, at the launch of the photo exhibition of the Ballymurphy families in Grand Opera House, Belfast.

Seanad : Criticism of Ahern nominations

This week we have seen perhaps the real Bertie Ahern unleashed, with bridges to burn, voters to disregard and long held grudges to be appeased

Bertie Ahern's countdown to retirement is going to be a rocky road, judging by the controversy generated by his third and final set of Seanad nominations. His 1997 and 2002 appointments hardly generated a headline but this week we have seen perhaps the real Ahern unleashed, with bridges to burn, voters to disregard and long held grudges to be appeased.

Photo: This week we have seen perhaps the real Bertie Ahern unleashed, with bridges to burn, voters to disregard and long held grudges to be appeased

The Mary Nelis Column

Last week the PSNI announced that Catholic and Protestant clergy were set to go on patrol with police officers to see the risks and difficulties that police encounter in a County Tyrone town.

Fiosrúcháin na Rásaí

Sé an céad rud eile atá i ndán dúinn is cosúil. Tá na fiosrúcháin mairteola curtha dínn, na fiorúcháin pleanála i mbun gnó agus chomh luath is atá siad sin réidh mé á rá leat beidh na rudaí seo anuas orainn. Déanann sé ciall iontach má smaoiníonn tú air soicind. Bhí a fhios ag madra na sráide go raibh rud éigin ag tarlú idir fir mhóra an rialtais agus na solátharaithe feola. Lena chois sin is dócha nach raibh mórán daoine amach i dtreo Gleann na Life nár thuig an méid a bhí ag tarlú amuigh ansin. Anois tá an rud céanna againn; puball mór curtha in airde le linn na rásaí oirthear tíre, buachaillí móra gnó, pleanáil 7rl ag siúl timpeall laistigh ann, agus n'fheadar le duine ar bith cad atá ag tarlú! Níl sin dochreidte in aon chor!

New book covers latest momentous events in Irish republicanism

An Irish Eye, the latest new publication by leading Irish republican Gerry Adams is a unique book covering the last four years of momentous events in Irish republicanism and in the politics of Ireland as a whole. From the IRA decision in 2005 to formally end its armed campaign and to put its arms beyond use to the Sinn Féin decision in January 2007 to support the policing and justice system, unparalleled historic change has taken place. In An Irish Eye Gerry Adams brings his own perspective to bear on these developments.

The Resistance Campaign 50 years on

Garda seizes camera of Irish Times photographer Edward Kelly outside Mountjoy Jail on 1 August 1957. Kelly was trying to photograph republican prisoners being taken by police tender from the jail to the Curragh Internment Camp when his camera was seized a

Mícheál MacDonncha continues a monthly series marking the 50th anniversary of the IRA's Resistance Campaign - more widely known as the Border Campaign - which commenced in December 1956. The series will be based on the monthly republican newspaper of the time An tÉireannach Aontaithe/ The United Irishman.

Photo: Garda seizes camera of Irish Times photographer Edward Kelly outside Mountjoy Jail on 1 August 1957. Kelly was trying to photograph republican prisoners being taken by police tender from the jail to the Curragh Internment Camp when his camera was seized a

Sláinteachas Bóithre

Tá deireadh seachtain eile imithe uainn, agus níos mó daoine marbh ar na mbóithre. Is uafásach an scéal é ar fad nár cuireadh leigheas níos fearr ar an gceist seo fós. Tá bagairtí na Gardaí imithe ar shlí na fírinne, feachtas bóithre an rialtais ina thost chomh maith, agus mar is gnáth tá na húdaráis ag déanamh neamh-shuim des na sé contae. Is dochreidte an scéal é nach dtuigeann na daoine seo fós go bhfuil gá an fadhb seo a leigheas ón dá thaobh den teorainn.

The Matt Treacy Column

Ernest Hemingway wrote that "As you get older it is harder to have heroes, but it is sort of necessary."

Media View

According to legend, at the height of his insanity the emperor Caligula, who ruled the Roman empire for a decade during the first century, appointed his horse to the Senate as a gesture of his contempt for the electoral process in Rome, such as it was.

Fifth Column

Letter to the Taoiseach

I was walking past your office at 161 Lower Drumcondra Road on Saturday afternoon last. There was a uniformed member of An Garda Síochána standing outside St Luke's. I was going to call in to see you personally but the word on the street was that you were in Kerry on your holidays.

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