The success of Sunday's National Hunger Strike Commemoration in Galbally, County Tyrone was down to months of hard work by the organisers. Republicans from across the country turned out in their thousands, on Sunday 16 August, to remember the sacrifice of the ten H Block Hunger Strikers as well as Mayomen Michael Gaughan and Frank Stagg who died while imprisoned in England during the 1970s and the 12 other republicans who died on prison fasts in the 20th century. Free article

This poem was written by hunger strike martyr Martin Hurson at Easter 1981 and was read by Liam Nugent at the National Hunger Strike commemoration last Sunday in Martin's native Galbally, County Tyrone. Free article

Sinn Féin Vice President Mary Lou McDonald launched the party's No to Lisbon Campaign in Dublin on 13 August. Speaking at the campaign launch McDonald said the electorate is being asked to vote once again on the very same treaty that they rejected last year. She accused the Government of wasting the mandate that it was given to secure a better treaty. She said guarantees secured by the Government do not alter the text of the treaty in any way or change the impact it will have on Ireland. Free article

Residents of the North Antrim village of Rasharkin held a public meeting to express their anger at the decision of the North's Parades Commission to allow, unhindered, a loyalist parade through the village this Friday 21 August. Speaking to An Phoblacht Sinn Féin Assembly member Daithí McKay slammed the Commission's decision as "utter madness". Free article

The pogroms of 1969 when loyalist mobs supported by RUC and B Specials attacked the homes of nationalists along the length of the Falls Road from Dover Street to Bombay Street were remembered last Sunday 16 August as up to 1,000 marchers took to the streets of West Belfast. Led by a republican colour party the parade made its way up the Falls Road from Divis Tower, where 9 year old Patrick Rooney and Trooper Hugh McCabe were shot by the RUC who opened fire indiscriminately on the flats complex with heavy Browning machine-guns. Free article

Pól Brennan has this week lost his appeal against deportation from the United States to Ireland. In 1976 Pól Brennan was convicted of possessing explosives and sent to Long Kesh where he joined the blanket protest. He was there during the Hunger Strike and was one of the 38 IRA prisoners who escaped from the jail in 1983, after which he made his way to America. He settled there and married a U.S. citizen. Free article

There is a generation of people in this state who recognise the feeling of being shafted by government, banks and developers. Those people remember what happened the '80s and '90s, when Charles Haughey told Irish people to tighten their belts as he pocketed bribes and swilled champagne on his yacht. Those people watched as communities were devastated so land could be rezoned for shopping developments. They recall how AIB ripped off its own customers in the DIRT scandal and got away with a short-lived levy. That generation will look at NAMA and nod their heads knowingly. For my generation, however, this is our first experience of being well and truly screwed by a system that is designed to protect the establishment elite. Free article