GETTING Ireland back to work while reshaping the economy so we have the infrastructure, skills and public services that will deliver an improved quality of life for all - that's the core of Sinn Féin's new job-creation strategy launched this week. The need for a more effective job-creation strategy, with an all-Ireland dimension, has been at the core of Sinn Féin thinking for more than five years. In both the Assembly and Leinster House teams, considerable effort was put into the project, culminating in the adoption a new enterprise strategy at the 2006 Ard Fheis with the policy focus permeating Budget submissions, statements and party campaigning. Free article

AS Establishment parties' TDs sat across the road in the Dáil on Monday, in Buswell's Hotel, Sinn Féin was briefing the media on its jobs strategy document, Getting Ireland back to Work. Presenting the document and giving answers to questions from journalists and columnists on the party's proposals were Sinn Féin Vice-President Mary Lou McDonald MEP, Economy spokesperson Arthur Morgan TD, IntertradeIreland board member Cllr Pádraig Mac Lochlainn, and Sinn Féin policy researcher Robbie Smyth. Free article

TRIBUTES have followed the sad news of the death of Marie Moore. Marie, a lifelong republican, died at the weekend following a long illness. Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams was one of the first to express the sense of loss felt by the many people who knew Marie personally and the many more whose lives she had touched. Extending his condolences to the family, Adams said Marie will be deeply missed. "Marie Moore will be deeply missed by the republican people of this city and the many who would not share her politics but who found in her an outstanding activist for citizens' rights and, in particular, the rights of women," said Adams. Free article

AN INTERVIEW published exclusively on the Bobby Sands Trust website indicts the British Government over its handling of the 1981 Hunger Strike in which 10 republican prisoners died. The transcript of the interview given by Sir John Blelloch, a senior member of British Intelligence who was seconded to the Northern Ireland Office, "clearly exposes the intransigent mindset of the British to the hunger-striking prisoners", according to former Sinn Féin Director of Publicity Danny Morrison, who was a key figure during the Hunger Strike period. Free article

SINN FÉIN hit out this week against the detention of people by the PSNI for questioning beyond seven days. A total of 11 people have been held in custody in the North in connection with the deaths of a PSNI officer and two British soldiers earlier this month. Free article

AT the Sinn Féin Ard Chomhairle meeting on 7 March we discussed PSNI Chief Constable Hugh Orde's call some days previously for the redeployment of British undercover soldiers in the North and the staged media leaks beforehand. The meeting was reminded that, notwithstanding the advances of the Peace Process, the shadow of the 'Dirty War' remains. It was a prescient reminder - some 10 hours later, two British soldiers were shot dead in Antrim. Free article