EAMON DUNPHY used to play soccer with Millwall, a club with its origins in London’s docks and whose fans’ notoriety has led them to sing: “No one likes us, we don’t care.” You might think it could have been custom-made as a motto for Eamon Dunphy. Free article

SÍLIM GO BHFUIL am na cinniúna tagtha don Lucht Oibre. Ní dócha go raibh súil acu go dtréigfeadh na ceardchumainn iad ar an gcaoi a tharla le cúpla seachtain, ach thréig. Go traidisiúnta, bhíodar fréamhaithe go smior sna ceardchumainn agus cuid do na h-oifigigh ar feidhmeannas an pháirtí fiú. Ach, tá géarchéim anois acu agus éirí amach na gnáth bhaill ag féachaint sa straois orthu. Premium service article

PICTURE THE SUN splitting the trees. Winds gusting strong enough to catch your breath. The fresh April air still cold enough to whisper with conviction that winter isn’t long past. Picture throngs of people, milling around, mingling together, weaving in and out like bobbins on a loom. All shapes and sizes, ages and genders, people of every ethnicity. Picture the expressions on their faces from trepidation to exhilaration. Fun-seekers and record-breakers, all gathered together in an open-air communion that is one of the uplifting qualities of many outdoor sporting events. Free article

JUST a short time ago, I was sitting with Peadar Tóibín in the most boring conference ever held when both our phones started to come alive with a Twitter feed. Now it wouldn’t have taken much to distract the two of us from the monotonous, grey-suited, grey-haired, grey-everything speakers at the top table but here was something interesting. Premium service article

I MEET Danielle Ryan and John Sweeney at their home in Belmayne, near Donaghmede, in north Dublin. Their three-year-old daughter, Ellie, has progressively lost her hearing and is now profoundly deaf. A simple operation that comes as standard in many other European states – and also in the North of Ireland – could help change Ellie’s life but Health Minister James Reilly won’t engage with families who just want the best medical treatment for their young children. Free article

THE two-year statute of limitation barring survivors of the barbaric medical practice of symphysiotomy from pursuing personal injury claims must be lifted. The Fine Gael/Labour Government’s 11th-hour acceptance of legislation brought forward by Sinn Féin, in a Private Member’s motion with all-party support, has moved that day closer. Premium service article

GERRY ADAMS rounded off Sinn Féin’s first Ard Fheis ever in Connacht with a speech to a packed audience of 1,450 on Saturday 13 April and in a live, prime-time broadcast on RTÉ TV that posed challenges to many sections of society: to the governments, the trade unions and communities, and – not least – to unionists and republicans. Free article

How do we ensure we do not repeat the mistakes in government of Left republican predecessors such as Clan na Poblachta or the Workers’ Party/Democratic Left or our progressive European counterparts? Premium service article

Fewer than one in ten of all cases submitted to the DPP regarding shootings or assault incidents involving soldiers resulted in prosecutions Free article

Noonan’s New Deal, alas, changes very little. The deal gives us a seven-year extension to repay European and IMF loans for a debt burden that never rightly belonged to us Premium service article