GERRY KELLY (54) took an interesting journey to become a junior Minister in the Six County Executive. After involvement in the Civil Rights Movement, active service with the IRA, imprisonment, hunger strike and numerous escape attempts, Kelly became a member of the North's Assembly. He chats to ELLA O'DWYER about the road he's travelled. Free article

ELLA O'DWYER is from County Tipperary. MARTINA ANDERSON is from the Bogside in Derry. Both were arrested in Glasgow in June 1985 with Gerry 'Blute' McDonnell, Peter Sherry and Pat Magee, 'The Brighton Bomber'. Ella was 26 years old. Martina was 23. Free article

The past year saw ceremonies and commemorations to mark the 50th anniversary of the beginning of the IRA's Operation Harvest (1956-'62) also known as the Border Campaign. Here, LABHRÁS Ó DONNGHAILE, an IRA activist during the 1950s recalls the role played by Wexford republicans in the campaign. Free article

With 2008 marking the 150th anniversary of the founding of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, Mícheál MacDonncha recalls a forgotten Fenian whose life spanned the decades from before the Great Hunger to within living memory of our own time. Free article

IT'S the Fifth Column Xmas Quiz, pulling some arguably intellectual plums from the staple diet of schoolboy humour and sniggering of yer man slumped in front of the telly with a large bottle of Southern Comfort and a box-set of Reverend William McCrea DVDs. Free article

SOME PROBLEMS in modern life have few tangible answers. Why does vinyl sound better than CD? Can I wear these very wide trousers again? And for those of us who live in what used to be called the countryside, what is it like having broadband? Fortunately, there are answers to the vexed question of how to survive a modern Christmas. Here is a list of things to help guide you through the festivities, all the while maintaining your heightened sense of alienation. Free article

WITH Christmas fast approaching, many weary republicans will be looking forward to a Yuletide break and a lengthy soujourn on a comfy couch by the toasty embers of a turf fire (or renewable wood, pellet, brick, etc) with suitable beverages and perhaps the odd mince pie, with cream, of course. Free article

MICHELLE GILDERNEW is the minister in charge of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD), which also has responsibility for fisheries. Free article

EOIN Ó BROIN speaks to writer and social activist SUSAN GEORGE about how important the Irish referendum on the EU Treaty is for democrats and progressives across Europe. With her satirical political novel, The Lugano Report, acclaimed by no lesser figures than Noam Chomsky, John Pilger and George Monbiot, Susan George's is a voice that should be heard. Free article

In recent years Venezuela has been a beacon of hope for those who know that another, more just political and social order is possible. The Bolivarian revolution has overseen a huge redistribution of Venezuela's oil wealth, primarily focusing on significant levels of social spending in the areas of public health, education and nutrition projects. With the defeat of a right wing coup and a string of stunning election victories, President Hugo Chavez looked unstoppable until the defeat this month of his constitutional reform referendum. Here, An Phoblacht's DARA Mac NIALL looks at the implications of the latest developments in Venezuela. Free article