There's a small grassy square between a nationalist housing estate at the top of North Belfast's Cliftonville Road and the predominantly loyalist Torrens area. In the harsh urban landscape of terraced housing and back yards, this small green area provides the only relief from tarmac, concrete and brick. Free article

With the final closure of the H-Blocks of Long Kesh this week, and the release of all but a small number of the remaining republican prisoners in both the Six and 26 Counties, ex-prisoner Peadar Whelan reflects on the toll of years, and of republican lives, lost in those jails. Free article

The events surrounding the Drumcree parade issue clearly shows the nature of the state we all live in. At the heart of this issue, is not in my view, the principle of the right to march in relation to the orange Order. Rather it is about unionism and in particular orange unionism recognising and ac cepting the right of nationalists in places like the Garvaghy and Ormeau Roads to live in this state as equals with the same rights and entitlements as everyone else. Free article

Despite homelessness being one of the most recurrent and high profile issues in Ireland over the past twenty years, government funding and strategy are far from meeting the needs of Ireland's homeless population, Michael Pierse writes. Free article

Last week we carried the first part of a report on the Tuna Fishing fleet where four trawlers have been arrested in so many weeks by Irish Naval Patrols, which fishermen claim to be persecution in face of the far more powerful rival Spanish fleet. In the second part of a two-part investigation of the Tuna Fishermen's raw deal, Roisin de Rosa looks at the ``sell off'' of the Irish fishing industry and our natural resources, which has happened under the Common Fisheries Policy of the EU. Free article

Cristina Riba and Caoimhe Butterly report from Mexico Free article

Tá sé dochreidte gur chosnaigh sé $750 miliún leis an cruinniú G8 in Okinawa sa Seapán a réachtáil. Chaith lucht eagrú an t-airgead ar áiseana, ar shiamsaíocht agus eile a chur ar fáil d'ochtar fear agus 22,000 saighdiúir ina gcuideachta l'iad a choinneáill slán. Free article

Journal Review The Republic. Published by the Ireland Institute Price £5. Free article

The week in quotes... Free article