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

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

REPUBLICANS are moving Irish society closer to the principles contained in the 1916 Proclamation every day, Sinn Féin MLA Gerry Kelly said at the Belfast Easter Commemoration held at the Republican Plot in Milltown Cemetery. Free article

JOHN RAFFERTY was buried on Wednesday 25 March in the townland of Tyavnet in County Monaghan, where he was born and reared 81 years previously. Free article