I HAD been invited to speak at the World Council of Churches on Riverside Drive, New York. It was 1977 and no one told me or my driver, a Derryman from Pennyburn, exactly how to get there. In any event, we ended up in Harlem and there are no prizes for guessing that we were the only white faces about the place. Free article

SINN FÉIN made definite breakthroughs throughout the 26 Counties in the recent local elections. County Wicklow is an example, securing three town council and two county council seats. The party's growth in Wicklow took off in 2004 when Sinn Féin got its first elected representatives since the 1970s. COUNCILLOR JOHN BRADY of Bray Town and County Wicklow talks to ELLA O'DWYER about the teamwork and hard graft that harvested the result. Free article

NAVAN TOWN has just got its first Sinn Féin mayor in 80 years when COUNCILLOR JOE REILLY accepted the chain of office. It was an historic moment for Sinn Féin in Meath and another landmark in a life that has had more than its fair share of epic moments. Joe Reilly is a household name in the republican family the length and breadth of Ireland and he came to broader prominence in July 1976 after one of the most daring jailbreak attempts in the history of the 26-county state. Joe talks to ELLA O'DWYER about the journey that has brought him from a prison cell to more auspicious accommodation in the mayor's chambers. Free article

Nuair a bhí mé ar mo bhealach ar ais ó Dhoire go Gaillimh an tseachtain seo, oíche Mháirt an 23 Meitheamh bhí focail amhráin de chuid Christy Moore i gcuimhne agam agus mé ag tiomaint tríd an dorchadas: Free article

SAMMY WILSON as Minister for Finance. Edwin Poots as Minister for the Environment. Nelson McCaulsand as Minister for Culture. There's days when you just think the DUP is taking the piss, when you imagine Robbo and Doddsy sitting round the conference room in the DUP fuhrerbunker dosed up on weed and cider trying to outdo one another with more ridiculous suggestions. Free article

IT'S not often I take part in pitch invasions. Last Sunday was the third occasion that I can recall and, perhaps significantly, the other two - after the under-21s won the Leinster final in 2007 and after the senior hurlers beat Galway in the league the same year -have all been of recent vintage. Traditionally, the most likely reaction of Dublin hurling supporters at the end of games would be to quietly consider the merits of self-garrotting as opposed to cyanide tablets or leaping from the top of a tall building as the most efficacious means to put an end to the misery. Free article

One day in February 1866 a prisoner under armed guard was led across a British Army barracks square in Dublin. The prisoner was himself a soldier, now facing charges of subverting the army. As he was being led away the colonel of the 10th Hussars cavalry regiment, Valentine Baker, shook his fist in his face and said: "Damn you, O'Reilly! You have ruined the finest regiment in the service!" Free article