TALKS are currently underway at Stormont to try and find a resolution to the current challenges facing the political institutions and to secure a workable budget for the Executive. Free article

‘For all of us with an interest in promoting peace and reconciliation across these islands, ‘Uncomfortable Conversations’ should be required reading’ – British Ambassador to Ireland, Dominick Chilcott Free article

DÚINNE, Éireannaigh a rugadh is a tóigeadh i Sasana, níl sa tír sin ach tír chiníoch, tir impireachta is tir a chuireann bac roimh fhorbairt an chine dhaonna ar fud na cruinne. Free article

WHEN, in 1994, the then leader of the Ulster Unionist Party, Jim Molyneaux responded to the news of the IRA’s cessation of military operations with the remark that the IRA decision “is the greatest threat to the Union in 50 years” and one of the most destabilising events since partition he exposed unionism’s split personality. Premium service article

THE recent track record of Irish governments in supporting and protecting asylum seekers is shameful considering our unique history of emigration. Free article

AS AN PHOBLACHT goes to print, the Dáil is debating a motion of confidence in the Taoiseach. The debate came about after Fine Gael and Labour moved to derail attempts by both Sinn Féin and Fianna Fáil to submit motions of “no confidence” in the Taoiseach amid the ongoing controversy surrounding the Fennelly interim report into the dramatic resignation of former Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan in March 2014. Premium service article

WITH A THIRD (33%) of those using the food banks working in low-paid jobs and dependent on family tax credit, Tory claims that only ‘the feckless’ and those who don’t want to work need these charities is exposed for the anti-working-class rhetoric that it is. Premium service article

JEREMY CORBYN’S ELECTION as British Labour Party leader was, by almost universal agreement, a political earthquake of historic proportions. Not only did he go from rank outsider to odds-on favourite in the space of a few short months, he did it with an unparalleled majority, with almost 60% of the vote – surpassing even Tony Blair’s vote of 57% when he was elected. And in this election Jeremy Corbyn won more than a quarter of a million votes of members and supporters, with around half a million taking part, winning a majority in every section. Free article

WRITING on news investigative website The Detail in April of this year, Steven McCaffery argued that progress in the North’s Peace Process has been delayed “by rows over what is arguably a phony culture war” with “the recurring battles over loyal order parades and around the Irish language” as good examples of this phoney culture war. Free article

THE Oireachtas Banking Inquiry has finished its public hearings and is now into its report stage. Its findings will be announced sometime in January 2016. The main questions are: will we have learnt anything new; what was the point of it; and will it have achieved anything? Free article

WHILE political cynicism and a sordid grab for votes by even the foulest of means explains much of the hysterical assault on Sinn Féin by the Southern political Establishment in recent weeks, there are underlying issues that expose deeper motivations for Fianna Fáil, Labour and Fine Gael. Premium service article

Carál Ní Chuilín MLA, Sinn Féin Assembly Minister for Culture, Arts and Leisure says upgrade should follow the upgrades of Ravenhill and Windsor Park Free article