SINN FÉIN launched its Westminster election manifesto this week. This is a summary of the main points. The full manifesto can be seen at www.sinnfein.ie Free article

IN TERMS of recording the highest Sinn Féin vote share, Mid-Ulster has run consistently second to West Belfast in the strength of the party vote. Sinn Féin took three seats here in 1998 and 2003. Free article

THE buzzword in this election is 'hung parliament'. That simply means that no one party will have an overall majority in the British House of Commons. Well, those are the predictions and the very thought of such an outcome has sent a rush of blood to the heads of both the unionists and the SDLP, whose leaders appear to be overwrought at the thought of their own importance in such a situation. Free article

WHO is shouldering the burden of the recession? The Irish Congress of Trade Unions has this month released a report which seeks to answer that question. The report is called Shifting the Burden: Why the Government wants to load the cost of the collapse onto the less-well-off and why their plan will just make things worse. Free article

Tá cinneadh tógtha ag Coiste Bunaithe Gaelscoil Ráth Tó, Co na Mí, go n-osclófar Gaelscoil nua sa cheantar i Mí Meán Fómhair in ainneoin na heaspa tacaíochta ón Roinn Oideachas agus Scileanna agus cinneadh nach dtabharfaí aitheantas don scoil seo atá ag comhlíonadh gach critéir leagtha síos ag an Roinn chun scoileanna nua a fhaomhadh. Free article

AS I STOOD beneath a UVF flag on the edge of an estate chock full of frothing loyalists, looking at the head of the local UVF as he decided whether he was going to kill me, I have to admit it did cross my mind that you didn't get these problems in Cork. Oh sure, sometimes you'd get a bit of abuse on the doorstep but you're not likely to be beaten to death with an iron bar of the sort the man with the Rangers top had waved at me five minutes ago. Free article

THE first day of May is celebrated across the world as International Workers' Day with public holidays in most countries and demonstrations and celebrations by organised workers and other citizens for progressive social and economic and internationalist demands. Free article