A DELEGATION consisting of farmers, environmentalists and trade unionists was hosted in Brussels by Sinn Féin Midlands North West MEP Matt Carthy in April to discuss their concerns around the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Parntership (TTIP) agreement currently being negotiated between the European Commission and the USA. Premium service article

WHO FEARS TO SPEAK of 1916? Apparently nobody. There is a lengthening list of views from former and current Taoisigh, to the not happening ones like Mícheál Martin, and not forgetting Ireland’s ‘social and political commentators’, who fill radio talk shows and Official Ireland’s newspapers with their pithy observations. They have been lining up to offer comment on ‘the 1916 problem’. Premium service article

AS the dominant figures in the European Union harden their stance against Greek democracy – with a Greek exit from the Euro looking increasingly inevitable and with questions even being posed about continued Greek membership of the EU itself – the reactionary core at the heart of the European project is being laid bare. Free article

IT’S MY BIRTHDAY TODAY but instead of going out celebrating I’m returning from a very interesting Q&A session I attended along with a former comrade, Pat Magee. It was at a conference organised by a group called ‘Veterans For Peace’. We were invited to London to address this group of British former soldiers and engage with them about our lives during the course of the conflict in Ireland, about our motivations in taking up arms against the Orange state, and Britain’s interference in Ireland but also, crucially, about our hopes and efforts today to help bind the wounds of war and create an Irish national democracy. Free article

A SMALL SELECTION of the contributions in the ‘Uncomfortable Conversations’ series carried in An Phoblacht since March 2012 to foster dialogue across communities was launched in booklet form in April by Sinn Féin in Belfast’s Linen Hall Library, an institution with a proud history of radical thought, ideas and voices. Free article

'I enlisted into the British Army to get the best training possible and come back to take the fight to the IRA' Free article

GUE/NGL MEPs visit Belfast and Dublin, Matt Carthy moderates discussion on wealth taxation at key EU conference, Lynn Boylan report on Right2Water due in summer and Juncker plan remains fundamentally flawed, says Liadh Ní Riada Free article

YOUTH representatives from all 31 Comhairlí na nÓg structures from across the state were in Leinster House in April for the introduction of their ‘Let’s Go Mental’ initiative to Dáil deputies and senators. Free article

ÁBHAR GÁIRE dúinn a labhraíonn Gaeilge go rialta go raibh an oireadh sin íonaidh ar Vincent Browne nuair a chraol sé clár as Gaillimh mar chuid dá shraith díospóireachtaí pobail. Free article

MICHAEL 'MITEY MAC' McNally, toggle-haired and thin-boned, stares out at the ocean, remembering. “We were never educated to stay here and love the place and the produce.” Premium service article

JAMES CONNOLLY was a self-taught literary man as well as a man of action in trade unionism and revolutionary politics. Reared in dire poverty, he saw education as vital for progress. He was a voracious reader from an early age and he became a prolific writer. In 1915 and 1916, his writings in his paper, The Workers’ Republic, had a crucial influence on the forces that made the Easter Rising possible. Premium service article

Inside the GPO, 1916: A first-hand account. By Joe Good | O’Brien Press | Price: €11.99 Premium service article