A Sinn Féin Bill which will see a referendum on the extension of voting rights in Presidential elections to the Irish Diaspora and Irish citizens in the North – as well as the lowering of the voting age to 16 – passed first stage in the Dáil in March. Free article

ED KANE is not a name that is known to most people. His appearance at the bank inquiry was a low-key affair, lacking the media bells and whistles of a Patrick Honohan or a David McWilliams. Yet, for the two hours he gave evidence, Professor Kane, a world expert in banking and finance, explained the way a crisis unfolds. Premium service article

DOES the looming sale of Aer Lingus give you a feeling that you have been here before. Auctioning off our national assets is nothing new. Various Irish coalition governments run by Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Labour have all in recent decades signed up to sell out. Free article

CATHERINE ‘CAT’ SEELEY is flying the Sinn Féin flag in the Upper Bann constituency in the Westminster elections on 7 May. She is under no illusion that the task she faces is a massive one. Free article

AS RELATIONS between Greece, under its new anti-austerity government, and the major powers of the Eurozone (particularly Germany) continue to deteriorate, the future of the troubled currency looks increasingly shaky. Free article

CONTRARY to the requirements of the Good Friday Agreement, people imprisoned for conflict-related offences are still being criminalised, according to a report commissioned by ex-prisoners’ organisation Tar Isteach. Premium service article

TÁ feachtas láidir ar siúl ag an bhfeisire Eorpach Liadh Ní Riada le ceart lucht labhartha na Gaeilge san Aontas Eorpach a chinntiú. Ábhar náire don rialtas go bhfágtar ag Sinn Féin é an feachtas seo a dhéanamh. Free article

IT HAS BEEN estimated that some 75 women who were members of Cumann na mBan and the Irish Citizen Army served in the GPO garrison during Easter Week 1916. When most were evacuated after the building caught fire, only three remained – Elizabeth O’Farrell, Winifred Carney and, perhaps the least well known of the three, Julia Grenan. Premium service article

The West is facing historical challenges again and the time has come, as The Saw Doctors once sang, to sing a powerful song. In the first of a series on 'West Life', ROBERT ALLEN follows the ghost of Pádraig Pearse into the heart of Connemara, where the laments are rising Free article

GUE/NGL condemns Israel’s continued refusal to grant MEPs entry to Gaza, Europe must fight all forms of racism and extremism, Energy Union must put people before energy companies and Medicines research must serve public heath priorities, not big-pharma profits Free article

Danny Morrison remembers in his teens discovering with excitement Macken’s trilogy – Seek The Fair Land (1959), The Silent People (1962) and The Scorching Wind (1964) – a literature which presented and dealt empathetically with earlier periods in the struggle for Irish freedom: namely, Cromwell’s invasion of Ireland; the Famine of the 1840s; and the Easter Rising and subsequent Tan War and Civil War. Premium service article

DUBLIN’S favourite ska and reggae stalwarts are back with their third album, Another Fine Mess. An eclectic mix of political and social songs and insanely catchy ska tunes, this is a top-drawer offering from a band who deserve to be on more people’s radar. Free article