Pirates set to storm the Bundestag, Labour leader wants Fianna Fáil merger, Spanish king packs his trunk Free article

STRIKING WORKERS at the Lagan Brick company in Kingscourt, County Cavan, took their protest to the company’s Belfast HQ last month after they were met at City Hall by the city’s Sinn Féin Mayor and councillors. Premium service article

HARD-PRESSED homeowners already struggling with mounting debts and cuts to supports will be forced to pay up to €800 per property to have water meters installed, Fine Gael/Labour Party ministers have reluctantly revealed. Free article

DURING THE WAR between the Irish Republican Army and British crown forces in the 1970s and 1980s, both sides suffered many military reverses and successes. During the mid-1980s, the IRA increased the pressure with more direct attacks on British military installations, including heavily-fortified RUC and British Army bases. Premium service article

EVEN Government TDs confess that the Household Charge is unfair and now all deputies will have a chance to do something about it when Sinn Féin tables a Bill in the Dáil in June to ‘axe the tax’. Sinn Féin has appealed to elected reps from all parties, trade unions and community groups to support the ‘Back the Bill’ campaign to scrap the charge and reimburse households that have already paid. Free article

THE Fine Gael/Labour Party Government’s Innovation Minister, Seán Sherlock, wants to to push into law by a ministerial order — without a vote by TDs — controversial and far-reaching legislation that could affect everyone’s access to YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and countless websites and blogs. Free article

IT WAS A DARK DAY for civil liberties on Wednesday 18 April in Strasbourg as the European Parliament voted for an EU/US air passenger data transfer agreement. Free article

DELEGATES, members, unthinking Labour lobby fodder . . . I would like to welcome you to our Annual Conference here in Galway where we celebrate 100 years of a party founded by James Connolly and Jim Larkin to achieve a socialist republic. Premium service article

“A CHANGED COUNTRY rooted in tradition,” the newspapers told us, “overwhelmingly Catholic” and “experiencing a population explosion”, while “family breakdown soars”. This was their take on the premilinary results of Census 2011 on ‘official Ireland’ (26 Counties being passed off as ‘Ireland’). The Irish Government’s Central Statistics Office even called its report ‘This is Ireland — Highlights from Census 2011.’ Premium service article

MANY PEOPLE interested in Irish history will have seen the cartoons of Ernest Kavanagh reproduced in books. Very few, including this reviewer, knew the name of the artist — fewer still the tragic circumstances of his death. Premium service article

ONE of the peculiarities of the American justice system is the use of capital punishment in 16 states, most enthusiastically in Texas. Herzog interviewed a number of prisoners on Death Row. The case of Mike Perry and Jason Burkett is the basis of this film. (Other interviews have been shown by Channel 4 under the title Death Penalty.) Premium service article

EASTER 2012 will be long remembered as the time we said goodbye to Barney McKenna of The Dubliners. Barney had not been in good health in recent years and he was a fair age, yet his death came a shock. His music was such a presence in so many people’s lives that it was hard to believe he was gone. Free article

MÍCHEÁL DOHERTY was a gentleman, a great character, a loving father and grandfather, and he will be deeply missed by many, especially his family. Free article

IT WAS with deep sadness that republicans in Donegal and Derry learned of the death of Jim Ferry from a long illness at the end of March which he bore with great dignity and courage. Free article

REPUBLICANS throughout County Sligo have been saddened by the recent and untimely death of our comrade, Volunteer Ronan Chambers. With his passing Sligo has lost an idealistic young republican activist who possessed a strong sense of social justice. Free article

DERRY CITY COUNCIL has passed a Sinn Féin motion calling for the release of Marian Price and Martin Corey, imprisoned on the basis of the revocation of their licences. Free article

MÉILE AN RÍ, Tor an Rí and Búirg an Rí are three estates of 465 social houses and apartments built on the border of Clondalkin and Lucan in west Dublin between 2004 and 2007. The estates are locally known as Balgaddy. Free article

GROWING UP, the only Dublin Gaelic footballer with whom I felt any affinity was Kevin Moran — although I have to admit that by that stage he was already wearing a red shirt. Premium service article

AIN’T REALLY into boxing myself. Never have been. Probably due to it being too sore on the face and especially if you box like I do. Premium service article

Crossing the line

THERE’S NO QUESTION that the jeering by some of the Chelsea supporters at the FA Cup semi-final with Tottenham that ruined the minute’s silence to mark the 23rd anniversary of the Hillsborough semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest at which 96 fans died was a total disgrace – the question is what Chelsea and the FA are going to do... Premium service article

TWO YOUNG republican activists are to join a group of volunteers next month teaching Palestinian children in the Occupied West Bank. Also: Derry Friends of Palestine solidarity visit to Gaza Premium service article

TÁ LIADH NÍ RIADA ceapaithe mar Oifigeach Náisiúnta Gaeilge. Is as Gaeltacht Mhúscraí atá in Iarthar Chorcaí gurb as Liadh. Is í an té is óige do chlann Sheáin Uí Riada agus tá sé nádúrtha go mbeadh ceangail láidir aici lenar gcultúr agus ár dteanga. Free article

Speaking ahead of an Easter Rising commemoration in Bandon, County Cork, Gerry Adams said that a united Ireland makes economic sense, would create prosperity, and would deliver a better standard of living for future generations. Free article

THE independence of the Historical Enquiries Team, the body set up by the PSNI to re-examine all deaths attributable to the conflict in the Six Counties between 1968 and 1998, has been called into question in a report by a senior academic at the University of Ulster. Free article

CAITHFIDH Fine Gael agus an Lucht Oibre stopadh de bheith ag déanamh leatrom uafásach ar thuismitheoirí aonair. Premium service article

IT IS CLEAR from the response she’s getting from people across the Six Counties that the Minister for Culture, Arts and Leisure Carál Ní Chuilin MLA is having a positive effect. Free article

A PLAN to help seek a resolution of the situation at Priory Hall has been endorsed by the evacuated residents. A former Supreme Court judge, Justice Finnegan, is to chair a resolution process that is due to include residents, mortgage lenders and Dublin City Council. Free article

ALL Sinn Féin members and supporters are being urged to help make the Sinn Féin Ard Fheis in Killarney, County Kerry, just days ahead of the vote on the EU Fiscal Austerity Treaty, one of the biggest political rallies of the year at a critical time in Ireland’s history. Free article

Despite our fanaticism for Celtic, it still makes it more appealing to have a competitive Rangers breathing down our necks or vice versa Free article

THE QUESTION I’m most frequently asked is: ‘Where do your ideas come from?’ I have no hesitation in saying that I find my own experience, my own journey, infinitely more interesting than anyone else’s. It took me years, though, to trust in my own background, to believe that the events that had shaped me were important and worth sharing with the world. Premium service article

The logical extension of Peter Robinson’s Carson Lecture in Dublin is for him to give the leadership required to free up unionist thinking, to become partners in reconciliation with republicans and not just partners in government Premium service article

THE Bradford West by-election on 29 March saw a spectacular victory for George Galloway and the left-wing Respect Party, winning what Westminster’s newest MP described as “the most sensational result in British by-election history”. Premium service article

BELFAST MAYOR Niall Ó Donnghaile is leaving his post a few days early to allow a DUP Mayor to take up office in time for the Jubilee celebrations. The decision was agreed with the DUP 12 months ago, making nonsense of a Belfast Telegraph splash that it is a “snub” to unionists. Free article