GUE/NGL oppose Services Directive, Batasuna urges parties to 'a rapprochement', Website showcases 'faceless' EU staff, MEPs diary… Bairbre de Brún and Strasbourg In Brief Free article

In a recent opinion piece in the Irish Times, journalist and broadcaster Vincent Browne pointed out that not one of the mainstream media, would be championing the radical restructuring of Irish society to achieve greater equality. Free article

Republicans are entering a testing period. But it has nothing to do with obstacles created by the DUP. No-one, least of all the DUP, should question our sincerity about building a peaceful and democratic society. It was after all, the refusal by the unionists to allow the democratic franchise for all citizens that created the intolerable conditions that led to conflict on our streets. Therefore, if any section of our society is entitled to be sceptical and questioning, then nationalists and republicans have much that we could demand of unionists. But what would that achieve? Would it progress our political project of convincing society that the future is one based on equality and respect? A future where the force of argument will replace the argument of force. A future where all parties are free to actively pursue their political aspirations without threat or hindrance. Free article

A special edition of Magill magazine was recently included with the Sunday Tribune. It was not available for sale separately so many people will have missed it but it is worth commenting on because of its historical content. Entitled 'Operation Doomsday' it is based on documents 'never before seen in public' and which detail plans drawn up by Catholic clergy in the Six Counties to provide for emergency evacuation and supply of Catholics, mainly in Belfast, in 1974 and 1975 in the event of a massive loyalist pogrom. The clergy were given access to Government ministers and officials in Dublin and so many of the documents consist of Irish Government notes on the affair. Free article

Bhí sé ag stealladh báistí mar is gnáth agus na BMW's ag caitheamh uisce ar mo chulaith nua agus mo hata tuí agus mé ar mo bhealach chuig an chathair; mé stiúgtha le tart is le hocras sa tranglam ar bhealach a seacht, ag timpeallán sin na Ba Mire, é fiáin i ngach treo, mura nglacann tú seans agus éalú bheifeá dul timpeall go deo. Free article

I had been toying with the theory that Charles Stewart Parnell was Jack the Ripper but I have been unable to sustain it in the face of the facts. There are tenuous connections between the two, not least of which was that the Parnell Commission set up to prove that Parnell was involved in "terrorism" opened in October 1888. This was at the same time as some of the inquests into victims of Jack the Ripper and at the height of the hysteria about the murders which seem to have stopped in November. Free article

Tá sé fógartha ag Shell chun Sáile go bhfuil a n-agóid siúd don Aoine seo chugainn curtha ar ceal. Chuir siad an fógra amach mar gheall go raibh siad buartha go raibh sé ar intinn ag na Gardaí brúidiúlacht a imirt ar na hagóidithe agus go raibh contúirt mhór i ndán do shábháilteacht na n-agóidithe, cuid mhaith acu ag teacht ó cheann ceann na tíre. Gan amhras, an bunús a bhí ag Shell chun Sáile an cinneadh sin a thógáil an dualgas a bhrathann siad i dtaobh ghnáthdhaoine agus tacaithe lena bhfeachtas. Ag tabhairt san áireamh an bhrúidiúlacht a d'imir na Gardaí ar na hagóidithe coicís ó shin, bhí cúis mhaith acu le bheith buartha faoi shábháilteacht an phobail. Free article

In the 1980s Portlaoise Jail in County Laois housed hundreds of republican prisoners. Although there had been previous escapes and escape attempts, the grim jail, guarded as it was by armed troops and major fortifications had a formidable reputation as one of the most secure prisons in Europe. But November 1985 witnessed a daring escape by republican POWs which left them within yards of freedom. Free article

It is usually best to ignore the bilious outpourings of the Sunday Independent but the attacks on the Corrib protesters deserve a response, if only to illustrate the politically illiterate content of much of the paper's so-called analysis. Free article

An Phoblacht's famous weekly satirical column. Free article