Features

INTERVIEW: Women's Aid Awareness Campaign - Freephone Helpline 1800 341 900

WOMEN'S AID provides support and information to women suffering abuse from their partners in their homes. While Women's Aid recognises that men too are victims of domestic violence, as a feminist organisation it is committed to dealing with women victims and the feminist backdrop is evident in Women's Aid's non-directional approach to self-re-empowerment. Control and fear are two ingredients central to domestic violence, which hits all tiers of society. Nor does it recognise ethnic or religious boundaries. As part of Women's Aid Dublin Awareness Campaign, Policy and Research Manager MONICA MAZZONE (pictured) talks to ELLA O'DWYER about their role in combating domestic violence against women.

Referendum Watch ... Referendum Watch ... Referendum Watch ...

WHEN is a fact not a fact? When it's in a European Movement Fact Sheet. The European Movement was founded in the 1940s. Its aim is to "contribute to the establishment of a united, federal Europe founded on the respect for basic human rights, peace principles, democratic principles of liberty and solidarity and citizens' participation".

The Mitchel McLaughlin Column

POLITICS on the island of Ireland have been transformed and the process of change will undoubtedly continue to deliver for citizens across the island in the years ahead. But it is now 15 years since the first IRA cessation and 11 years since the Good Friday Agreement. There have been many attacks on Orange halls and property belonging to unionist organisations and I totally condemn such attacks. They bring disgrace on the entire nationalist community and they must stop. We must continue in our efforts to stop attacks on property, no matter where it occurs.

INTERVIEW: Jack Phelan

JACK PHELAN is 'well-got' in republican circles around Kilkenny. As a comrade of 25 years, Tom Kiernan says of him, "Jack was one of the very best." Born in 1924, Jack Phelan saw hard times in Ireland. He grew up in the hungry years of the 1930s and 1940s and there was also political tension in the aftermath of the Civil War in Ireland. The 1920s were, as Jack says, the years of 'the troubles' and 'the split': terms that have haunted the Republican Movement over the almost nine decades that Jack has given to the struggle. Jack chats with ELLA O'DWYER.

Photo: Jack Phelan with Kathleen Funchion

INTERNATIONAL: The Cuban Five

TO gain a full and clear understanding of the case of the Cuban Five and the stunning duplicity of which judicial and political elites are capable, it is necessary to recall the wisdom of that favoured sage of yesteryear, Mr George W Bush. Speaking in the immediate aftermath of the September 11 attacks, dear departed Dubya put it very succinctly: "Any government that supports, protects or harbours terrorists is complicit in the murder of the innocent and equally guilty of terrorist crimes."

Photo: RELEASE CALL: Protests for the release of the Cuban Five

Cúlchaint LE EOGHAN Mac CORMAIC

I mbliana chaith muid cúpla lá ag campáil i Normandy na Fraince ar shuíomh campála gar do Thrá Utah. Admhaím nach duine mé atá ró-thugtha don champáil ach bhí na páistí ag iarraidh seo a dhéanamh le blianta agus faoi dheireadh ghéill mé do vóta an tromlaigh. Bhí rudaí ag dul go maith i rith an lae, agus san oíche d'oscail muid buidéal fíona agus d'ól gloine nó dhó faoi ghrian an tráthnóna agus le titim na hoíche chuaigh muid a' chodladh, go suaimhneach. Músclaíodh mé go tobann cúpla uair i ndiaidh sin le scread na mná céile: Cad chuige gur reab tú an cheannadhairt faoi mo cheann? arsa sí.

RTÉ fantasists' field day

TV Review: If Lynch Had Invaded RTÉ 1, Tuesday, 1 September Reviewed By Mícheál Mac Donncha

Photo: ‘CIVILISED’: Jack Lynch

Giants' walk through Ireland and Scotland

BOOK REVIEW: At the Edge: Walking the Atlantic Coast of Ireland and Scotland By Joseph Murphy Sandstone Press Price £11.99 Reviewed by Seán Lynch

More than a game BY MATT TREACY

SUNDAY'S All-Ireland SHC final between Kilkenny and Tipperary sees a renewal of possibly the greatest rivalry in hurling (although Cork people would see themselves in there as the greatest rivals of either the Cats or Tipp). It is actually a rivalry based on relatively few meetings. They have played one another in 14 finals, with Kilkenny winning just four of them and the last of those was in 1967, which was the first time they'd beaten Tipp in a final since 1913. So it is a bit like the Dublin v Kerry football rivalry - very lopsided!

Remembering the Past: The Fermoy ambush and British reprisals

BY the autumn of 1919, the Irish people and British forces in Ireland were set on a path of armed conflict that was about to escalate significantly. The British Government had refused to recognise Dáil Éireann and had imposed a system of military rule. On 20 August, the Dáil agreed an oath to the Irish Republic to be taken by all its members and by all IRA Volunteers.

Photo: Liam Lynch and Michael Fitzgerald

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