TWENTY YEARS AGO this summer, I visited South Africa for the first time. Two years after the first democratic elections, real social and political transformation had a long, long way to go. Yet there was a sense of anticipation. Belief in the mission, passion and commitment which helped secure an end to the repressive apartheid government was still in abundance. Free article

The Rising – Ireland: Easter 1916, by Fearghal McGarry and Years of Turbulence: The Irish Revolution and its Aftermath, edited by Diarmuid Ferriter and Susannah Riordan Free article

FAMILY, friends and comrades remembered Derek Highsted, Sinn Féin Organiser in Britain during the 1970s, on Sunday evening at a wreath-laying ceremony in July which enjoyed warm sunshine at his final resting place in St Patrick’s Churchyard, Glen, Maghera, on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of his death in England. Free article

MAYO SINN FÉIN held a commemoration in Ballycastle, County Mayo, on 4 June in honour of local patriots Tommy Nealon, Clydagh and Dr John Crowley. Free article

THE death took place on 30 April of lifelong republican Seán Tierney of Corlat, Newbliss, County Monaghan. Free article

PEADAR BEECHER joined the Republican Movement in the very early 1970s, prompted by the unfolding events in the Six Counties. Free article

Life springs from death and from the graves of patriot men and women spring living nations - Pádraig Pearse Free article