Top Issue 1-2024

29 January 2004 Edition

Opportunity to accelerate process of change

29 January 2004

The review will not be a renegotiation of the Good Friday Agreement but it is an opportunity to accelerate the process of change promised in the Agreement, Sinn Féin's President Gerry Adams told a Belfast press conference. The review is due to start next Tuesday. "The purpose of the review is to identify how best to deliver the full implementation of the Agreement. This requires a focus on the failure of the British Government to deliver on key commitments on policing, demilitarisation, equality and the issue of human rights," said Adams. Free article

Freedom Charter initiative launched

29 January 2004

Rights for All - A Sinn Féin Discussion Document Introduction The creation of an Irish freedom charter - a charter for justice and peace in Ireland, a charter that brings together the demands for political and social and economic freedom - was first raised by Gerry Adams during the Peace Process. Free article

Up for sale again - Morgan calls for all-Ireland telecommunications strategy

29 January 2004

The proposed floatation of Eircom was one of the worst kept business secrets so far this year. The sale raises many questions, the primary one being how many times can the one company be sold? Then there is the question of who gains, who loses, and what are the government and regulators actually doing about it? And if you thought that the scam of the Dublin Government selling Eircom to the taxpayers who actually paid for it in the first place was an incredible feat, hold on. The 1999 frenzy of hundreds of thousands of Irish households rushing to buy Eircom shares is set for a sequel. Free article

Stormont smokescreen begins to clear

29 January 2004

Remember "Stormontgate" 2002? Remember the fictional "IRA spy ring" that stood accused of copying or stealing confidential documents from Castle buildings and the "evil republican plot", cited by unionists and the British state alike as the dramatic reason for the fall of the devolved Assembly in 2002? Well, more than a year later, the Director of Public Prosecutions has revealed that it has officially dropped half the charges against those arrested. Not a single person now stands accused of the offence of possessing "documents of a secret, confidential or restricted nature originating from government offices". Free article

GUE-NGL-new-Jan-2106

Residents reveal dossier of UDA attacks

29 January 2004

As a loyalist delegation from the Ulster Political Research Group, the mouthpiece of the UDA, travelled to Dublin to meet Bertie Ahern on Monday 26 January, residents of the small nationalist enclave of Ligoniel in North Belfast held a protest to highlight ongoing UDA attacks on families and property in the area. Free article

McGuinness welcomes Costello report on primary education

29 January 2004

Responding to the announcement from Six-County Minister Jane Kennedy that the North's 11+ transfer test is to be abolished, Sinn Féin MP and former Education Minister in the Assembly, Martin McGuinness, said that while he welcomed the fact that the test will be abolished, he was saddened that it took an additional two years for the British Government to come up with similar recommendations to the Burns Report, which he commissioned when he became Education Minister. Free article

Adams meets Carter

29 January 2004

Gerry Adams is pictured with the 39th President of the United States, Jimmy Carter, on the Sinn Féin President's visit to America last week. The two men met at the Carter Centre in Atlanta, Georgia. Free article


An Phoblacht
44 Parnell Sq.
Dublin 1
Ireland