DERRY CITY saw one of the biggest turn-outs in years for a local republican commemoration when hundreds of people turned out in the rain on Sunday 28 October to mark the 25th anniversary of the deaths of IRA Volunteers Edward McSheffrey and Paddy Deery. Free article

FOUR DAYS in December 1922 saw tragic events that were the working out of the British Government’s plan to divide and rule Ireland. Partition had been legislated for under the 1920 Government of Ireland Act. At the time of its passing, that Act was a dead letter throughout most of the country, where the Republic had the allegiance of the majority of the people. But in north-east Ulster, the Act led to the establishment of a sectarian Orange state. Partition and the creation of a Six-County state were confirmed in the Treaty that now divided nationalist Ireland. Free article

FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER, the official newspaper of Dáil Éireann, the Irish Bulletin, has been republished. This is a hugely important historical document, chronicling many of the events of the Black and Tan War. Premium service article

ON 1 DECEMBER 1972, the first unionist car bomb exploded in the 26 Counties during ‘The Troubles’ – at Liberty Hall, then the headquarters of the Irish Transport & General Workers’ Union. In a second bomb near O’Connell Street, two bus workers were killed. MARGARET URWIN of the Justice for the Forgotten campaign group looks back, 40 years on. Premium service article

The revelations around Jimmy Savile and the suspicions that people in authority knew about and covered up his abuse have clear echoes of the scandal surrounding the Kincora Boys’ Home in Belfast in the 1980s Free article

THE POPPY, its advocates never tire telling us, is about respect and freedom. So where’s the respect for the freedom of conscience of those of us who choose not to wear the poppy? Where’s the respect for Derry-born Ireland soccer star James McClean’s decision not to wear the poppy? Free article

CONTEXT IS EVERYTHING, without doubt, the message coming out of Ciarán MacAirt’s new book about the UVF bomb attack on McGurk’s Bar in December 1971. In The McGurk’s Bar Bombing: Collusion, Cover-Up and a Campaign for Truth (Frontline Noir, Price £9.99), MacAirt places the incident in the context of the conflict that was raging our streets at that time. Free article

WITH the inquest into the RUC killing of unarmed IRA Volunteer PEARSE JORDAN in Belfast in 1992 failing at the end of this October to reach agreement on key aspects of the case, Pearse’s parents, Hugh and Teresa, are accusing the state of prolonging the cover-up. An Phoblacht’s PEADAR WHELAN looks at the killing, the lies and the cover-up and finds that Britain’s ‘Dirty War’ continues behind closed doors 20 years after Pearse was shot dead by the RUC. Premium service article