In 2009 public debate in the 26 Counties focused on the crisis in the public finances. As investment, lending and tax revenues plummeted, the government argued that economic recovery required cuts to social welfare and public spending on services and wages. Free article

KERRYMAN Mickey Donal O'Sullivan, known locally as Mickeen, is this year's Munster honouree for the annual Le Chéile function. Mickeen is from one of Ireland's staunchest republican counties, a place that has seen some of the worst events in the fight for freedom in Ireland. Free article

THOSE OF YOU who texted me last Sunday to suggest that Dublin were surely certain now of winning the All Ireland could be right. Although we won't read that much into a Walsh Cup win over Wexford just yet. Early days! Free article

One of the first major IRA attacks on an RIC barracks during the Black and Tan war took place in Ballytrain, County Monaghan, in February 1920. Among those who participated in the attack were three men who would later become well known and who took very different political paths - republican guerrilla leader Ernie O'Malley, socialist organiser and author Peadar O'Donnell and the local IRA commander Eoin O'Duffy, Ireland's would-be fascist dictator. Free article