Top Issue 1-2024

10 June 2004 Edition

Elections will strengthen Sinn Féin's hand

10 June 2004

This Tuesday, as the dust settles on the EU and local government elections, the Review of the Good Friday Agreement will resume. Sinn Féin will hope to enter that Review, with its largest electoral team ever. Speaking in Dublin at the close of the party's hard-fought campaign, Gerry Adams pointed out that Sinn Féin was on track to return an all-Ireland team of MEPs to Europe for the first time and to make significant gains in 26-County local government. "The elections also give the electorate an opportunity to strengthen Sinn Féin's hand as we enter what will probably be the most difficult and challenging negotiations since the Agreement," Adams added. Free article

Mayors and Chairs

10 June 2004

Sinn Féin Councillor Gearóid Ó hEára has been elected Mayor of Derry only a week after Councillor Joe O'Donnell was elected as Deputy Mayor of Belfast. On Omagh District Council this week, one of the longest serving members of the council, Sinn Féin's Seán Clarke, was elected chairperson. Jarlath McNulty was elected chair of Strabane District Council, while Gerry McHugh is the new chairperson of Fermanagh District Council. Free article

Shaming the nation

10 June 2004

A gathering of representatives of 45 groups, many representing a myriad of other community groups, came together on Tuesday as 'Voices for a NO Vote' to restate why they oppose Friday's referendum. The gathering was organised by the Irish Council of Civil Liberties and chaired by its director, Aisling Reidy. Free article

Everybody's talking

10 June 2004

Even Sinn Féin's political opponents have begun to describe the party's famous five EU election candidates as Padre Pios, with their ability to seemingly be everywhere at once. But if you take away all the canvassing and rely solely on the media's view of our campaign, things have never looked better. Free article

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Poll power

10 June 2004

With voters going to the polls today in the Six Counties and tomorrow in the 26 Counties, the day of reckoning is finally upon us. And as you sit in pubs, armchairs or even a count centre over the weekend, if you can get a pass, the question on your mind as the tallies and counts come in is how accurate were the opinion polls? This week, An Phoblacht pulls together the core results of the previous month's polls. Free article

Sinn Féin launches template for interface intervention

10 June 2004

Sinn Féin published its template of interface intervention on Wednesday in Stormont. Speaking after meeting British NIO Security Minister Ian Pearson, East Belfast Councillor and Belfast deputy mayor Joe O'Donnell, called for the NIO to endorse the Sinn Féin template. "The long-term success of this initiative will be improved if it involves cooperation by representatives of the loyalist/unionist community," said SF's Joe O'Donnell. Free article

Not one soldier told the truth: The Bloody Sunday Inquiry

10 June 2004

The Bloody Sunday Inquiry was told on Monday that not one of the soldiers or their commanding officers had told the truth when they gave evidence about the events of January 1972. The accusation came from Arthur Harvey QC, lawyer for some of the families, as the tribunal began two weeks of hearings in Derry in advance of the final oral submissions by all parties in October. Free article


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