THE HISTORY of the British Labour Party and its attitude to Ireland has been one of pride and shame, solidarity and betrayal at different times and among the different political tendencies within that very broad-based party. Free article

DAITHÍ BELL is a Sinn Féin councillor and a teacher in Belfast. Daithí is currently working with the Irish Friends of Palestine Educational Committee on its successful School Twinning Programme and visited Gaza shortly after the most recent Israeli Army invasion. Free article

DURING the recent visit to the EU Parliament by An Taoiseach Enda Kenny TD I challenged him on a number of issues affecting the people of Ireland. Free article

IT’S ESTIMATED to have cost €91million in taxpayers’ money yet not a single block has been laid. Say hello to one of the last white elephants of the Celtic Tiger years: Dublin City Council’s Poolbeg Incinerator — a project that has been squeezing millions out of people’s pockets since the late 1990s with no end in sight to the fiasco. Free article

A RECENT Ipsos MRBI opinion poll showed that more than half (55%) of people wanted to see the upper house of parliament in Dublin, the Seanad, scrapped. Many consider it a talking shop, a place where politicians go to either launch their career or to ‘retire’ from the Dáil with a cushy number. The costs associated with operating it is also of major concern. In their Programme for Government, Fine Gael and Labour pledged to hold a referendum on abolishing the Seanad. Sinn Féin has said the Seanad is “undemocratic” and called for it to be “scrapped in its current form” followed by a root and branch reform of the instiution. An Phoblacht’s MARK MOLONEY spoke to Sinn Féin Senator KATHRYN REILLY — at 24, the youngest member of the Oireachtas — about the Seanad’s future. Free article

NUAIR a iarradh orm áit Paul Maskey a ghlacadh mar Ball Tionóil Bhéal Feirste Thiar baineadh stad asam ar dtús nó ní raibh cliú dá laghad agam go mbeadh an athrú seo ag tarlú agus déanta na fírinne níor smaoinigh mé riamh go mbeinn féin i ról mar seo. Ar ndóigh, thuig mé go soiléir gur onóir mór é gur tugadh an deis seo dom agus chuir sé gliondar ar mo chroí go raibh muinín ag daoine s’againne asam. Premium service article

OSCAR-WINNING makers of The Hurt Locker are behind Zero Dark Thirty, a ‘docudrama’ following a CIA team tasked with hunting down Osama Bin Laden. One of the most controversial flicks of the year, it promises a lot more than it delivers. Free article

BEYOND the news headlines at Belfast City Hall about the Union flag controversy and unionist attacks on the Short Strand neighbourhood in east Belfast, Sinn Féin MLA Alex Maskey was in the Philippines in December as part of an international delegation to help in the peace process in the south-east Asian islands. Alex Maskey writes for An Phoblacht about how the Irish Peace Process is helping peace in the Philippines and while there is still a way to go he is hopeful. Premium service article

WHEN PEOPLE or propositions seem too good to be true, it’s often because they are . . . too good to be true. Consider Lance Armstrong. The first time I ever heard about Lance Armstrong was from a cycling fan who lived nearby. He was an obtuse individual whose fogginess only seemed to clear when he talked about cycling. And when he talked about cycling, he always talked about Lance Armstrong. Always! Of course, we all have our own peculiarities which we have to learn to live with. So yer man was like our very own ‘Lance’. Premium service article