Sinn Féin South Belfast candidate Alex Maskey on Tuesday withdrew his nomination for the forthcoming Westminster election in a bold display of leadership. The Sinn Féin decision to maximise nationalist representation comes after a unionist unity candidate was put forward in Fermanagh and South Tyrone and the SDLP rebuffed earlier discussions on an electoral pact. The Sinn Féin initiative is aimed at protecting the two nationalist seats under threat from unionism. Free article

UNEMPLOYED workers and Dublin Sinn Féin activists took their passports and suitcases to Leinster House on Monday and formed a queue to leave the country in a piece of street theatre to highlight the emigration of thousands of Ireland's skilled workers as a result of the Government's failure to bring forward an economic stimulus plan to create and retain jobs. Free article

Speaking at the latest of Sinn Féin's town hall meetings in the Strule Arts Centre in Omagh last week, Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams spoke about the importance of Tyrone in the struggle for Irish freedom and the reasons why voters should choose Sinn Féin on 6 May. Free article

Irish neutrality and sovereignty are being violated by the active recruitment of young Irishmen into the British Army in Moyross, according to Limerick City Sinn Féin Councillor Maurice Quinlivan. He said it was disgraceful that this was being facilitated by a jobs club totally funded by the Irish taxpayer. "Outside the Millennium Jobs club at the Watch House Cross this week I saw an advertisement urging people to 'Join the Royal Irish Army' and to 'apply in Jobs Club'," Quinlivan told An Phoblacht. "I was appalled. When I expressed my opposition to this I was told that it would be good to 'instil discipline in them' and that the Jobs Club employee is no fan of my party. Free article

Sinn FÉin Dáil spokesperson on education, Senator Pearse Doherty, welcomed Wednesday's announcement by Minister Mary Coughlan of the summer works programme for summer 2010 but said that this is no substitute for full investment into new school buildings. Free article

Speaking in the Dáil on Wednesday evening on the Central Bank Reform Bill, Sinn Féin Finance spokesperson Arthur Morgan TD questioned why the two government-appointed Public Interest Directors on the board of Anglo Irish Bank signed a set of audited accounts which indicated the bank had made a pre-tax profit of €784 million, when it was common knowledge there was a problem with the bank, a fact only confirmed some weeks ago when the profit suddenly became a loss of €12.7 billion. Free article

Responding to the ban on the sale of mephedrone which took effect in Britain and the north of Ireland on Friday, Sinn Féin TD Aengus Ó Snodaigh has called on the Gardaí and Customs to be on the lookout for shipments of the drugs being brought to Ireland for sale in shops here. Free article