ONCE again the people of Ireland are facing challenging economic times, not least for our small businesses (SMEs), and Social Economy Enterprises (SEEs), whose future is fundamental to the economy. How we respond to the challenges facing SMEs and SEEs will be crucial in the time ahead as they represent 98% of businesses employing hundreds of thousands of people on this island. Common sense should dictate that our focus in the present conditions should be on encouraging and assisting local manufacturers and SMEs to invest in Research and Development, invest in the green economy and seek export markets. The European Commission's Economic Recovery Plan contains concrete proposals of particular interest to these enterprises. Free article

Having been involved in over a dozen elections - local, general, European Parliament and by-elections - in the space of 26 years I have never seen anything like the anger towards Fianna Fáil and the Green Party that we are finding in the current contest. People are feeling betrayed and exploited and it's personal. They tell you their stories readily and the stories collectively make up the reality of Ireland in deep recession. Free article

ÓGRA Shinn Féin activist GARY McCLEAN recently spent three months as a volunteer worker in Autonomous Rebel Zapatista Territory (Chiapas, Mexico). Now back in Ireland, Gary reflects on events and progress there. Free article

YOU can imagine the sober mood in RTÉ a couple of years back as they contemplate their Lisbon referendum coverage. This inescapably mad notion of giving both sides of the debate equal time - 'Why, oh why, oh why, will the potato-eating monkeys not just do what Fintan O'Toole tells them?' our RTÉ heroes lament - means that Sinn Féin, as the only significant party opposing the Lisbon Treaty, will have a huge opportunity to set out its stall on Europe, workers' rights and neutrality. Free article

Tá súil eile agam ar toghacháin na laethanta seo! Toisc go dtagann baill den Chumann Gaelach ó cheantracha difrúla i mBaile Átha Cliath agus nach bhfuil curam ceantar toghachána faoi leith againn, bheartaíomar sinn féin a roinnt agus dul i mbun stocaireachta don iarrathóir inár gceantar féin. Free article

IT'S NOT often that I regret my family's having left the ancestral hearth in North Tipp but this election has provided one reason. If I was there then I would be able to vote for someone other than Seán Kelly in the European elections. Toireasa Ferris, obviously, but the main object of the exercise would be NOT to vote for Seán Kelly. Why, you may ask. Well, I have nothing personal against the chap. He appears a quite decent enough fellow when it comes down to it, even if he did play for Parnells when he was in Dublin. And it's not even so much that he's a Blueshirt. After all, are we not supposed to be casting our second preferences for the proxy Blueshirts? Free article

In May 1994 the Irish Peace Process was in its most delicate early stages with the Irish Government, Sinn Féin and the SDLP moving towards political progress which would lead, later that year, to the first IRA cessation. But set against the process were powerful forces, not least British military intelligence and their loyalist surrogates. On 21 May those forces came to Dublin city, intent on death and destruction on a large scale. That Saturday night the Sinn Féin Prisoner of War Department was holding a fund-raising function at the Widow Scallan's pub on Pearse Street. The upstairs venue was packed with around 300 people. Having earlier collected admittance fees at the door, Martin Doherty went downstairs to the public bar. There he noticed two men acting suspiciously and followed them out onto the street. Free article