Up to 500 hundred people attended the 50th anniversary commemoration of the death of Seán Sabhat who was killed alongside Feargal Ó hAnnluain in County Fermanagh on New Year's day 1957 during the IRA's Border Campaign. The commemoration was organised by Limerick Sinn Féin and was the largest seen in the city in many years. The main address was delivered by Sinn Féin Chief Negotiator Martin McGuinness. This is an edited version of that address: Free article

This week An Phoblacht begins a series of interviews with candidates hoping to represent Sinn Féin in Leinster House following the 26 County general election later this year. Free article

A capacity crowd attended the annual Fergal O'Hanlon Memorial lecture in the Family Resource Centree, Teach Na nDaoine in Cortolvin last Sunday where this year's address was given historian and University of Limerick lecturer, Dr. Ruan O'Donnell. Free article

We are told that millions world wide watched the obscenity that was the death of Saddam Hussein. The barbaric hanging of a human being became just another episode in the global entertainment market such is the lust in this so-called civilised world for the macabre. It was hailed as another victory for the war on terror justified by governments who claim that this barbaric execution was retribution for his crimes against humanity. Free article

Rug mé greim ar an chrann Nollag is chaith mé amach i lár an bhóthair é, ag iarraidh dul i bhfeidhm ar Fhionnuala, go dtí gur caitheadh isteach i gcúl an Paddywagon mé, agus iad ag magadh faoi m'fháinne cluaise nua agus mo scairf shíoda bhándearg - chaith mé dhá uair an chloig i gcillín sa stáisiún, mé ag caoineadh agus ag geallúint don sáirsint nach dtarlóidh sé choíche arís - gheall mé dom féin ag an bomaite agus mé faoi chois ag striapacha an stáit go gcuirfinn aithne ar bhómán nó dhó ar eagla go mbeadh cuidiú de dhíth uaim sa todhchaí. Le Seán ó Donaile Free article

Shortly after 7.30am on Friday, 5 January 1979, two IRA Volunteers - 24-year-old Lawrence Montgomery, a married man with two children, and 24-year-old Frankie Donnelly, also married - were killed when a bomb they were transporting exploded prematurely in the Ardoyne area of Belfast. Free article

Cuireadh tús leis an bhliain úr le roinnt foilseacháin agus Comóradh in Achadh Lon (Brookeborough) i gcuimhne an ruathair ar an Bheairic i 1957, comóradh i gcuimhne ar Sheán Sabhat agus ar Fheargal Ó hAnnluain. Bhí mé i láthair ann agus fuair mé tógáil croí ó imeachtaí an lae ar fad mar go raibh sé dírithe go hiomlán ar onóir a thabhairt do na laochra a fuair bás ar son a dtíre. Bhí comrádaithe Sheáin Sabhat ó Cholún an Phiarsaigh a bhí in éineacht leis sa ruathar sin i 1957, bhi siadsan i láthair ag an gComóradh in Achadh Lon ar Lá na Bliana Úire. Free article

It has been a difficult week for media watchers as the blurred line in our radio, newspaper, TV and web world between reality and fantasy finally collapsed. The breaking point came when it was unclear as we channel hopped and mulled over the morning papers whether we were watching and reading about Celebrity Big Brother or the latest Irish reality media fest of the Fine Gael self destruction show called Desperate Deputies, where a once serious political party swaps for a week any chance of election to government for being a national laughing stock and seeks new ways to demean and devalue its last shreds of dignity. And they didn't disappoint. Free article

You heard it here first. Myself and Larry O'Toole are investing some of our vast earnings from politics and journalism in a huge plunge on Wicklow to win the All Ireland. Surprisingly the major bookmakers have not yet responded to this major gamble and Wicklow are still freely available at 1,000/1. The fools, the fools. They will be rueing this when we come in to collect our 50 cent plunge next September. And that doubled up with Bohs to win the European Cup in Larry's case. Free article

An Phoblacht's famous weekly satirical column. Free article