As we ponder on the period of the Blanket protests and the Hunger Strikes, it is easy to allow the monstrous shadow of 1981 to overcast the hunger strike that brought seven men close to death the previous year. Free article

They can also inflict serious wounds on political careers. Add to this an ability to enrage the public with revelations of systematic corruption and abuse of power while at the same time boring us with their endlessness and tediousness. It raises the question of is it time to end the Tribunal pantomimes? Free article

As Aer Lingus planes litter the runway and Dublin Airport looks like a Ballymena swingpark on Sunday, Scotland is about to be gripped by its own wave of industrial unrest. Free article

H-Block Men announce Hunger Strike in face of British inhumanity and intransigence Free article

The Easter Rising By Michael Foy and Brian Barton Sutton Publishers Ltd. £19.99 Free article