26 May 2005 Edition
Left feel let down by Lula
26 May 2005
Three years ago, Luis Inacio 'Lula' da Silva and the Brazilian Workers' Party (PT) were elected to power promising broad-based agrarian reform. Lula's rags to riches past was seen as a guarantee that he would keep his word, and when he was inaugurated as Brazilian President in 2003, the powerful Movement of Landless Workers (MST) declared a truce with the government, pledging to give it time to fulfil its promises. Free article
The DUP and democracy - a contradiction in terms
26 May 2005
With a number of the North's councils holding their first meetings since the local elections over the past number of days, the eyes of many were turned towards Ballymena in North Antrim, where Monica Digney became the first ever Sinn Féin councillor to take her seat in the DUP-dominated chamber. Free article
Praise the Lord and pass the Schloer!
26 May 2005
Travelling to Ballymena on Monday night with Monica Digney, was a bit like walking into a lion's den. Speculation had been rife since she became the first Sinn Féin member of the DUP-dominated council that loyalists would be staging a protest, no doubt incensed at the affrontery of a republican taking her seat in Big Ian's backyard. Free article
Reilly extends condolences after Meath tragedy
26 May 2005
Sinn Féin Meath Councillor Joe Reilly has extended his deep condolences to the families and friends of all those killed and injured in Monday evening's crash in Kentstown. He said that people throughout the area are in deep shock at the tragedy and the thoughts of the entire community are with those bereaved. Free article
More support for rape crisis services needed
26 May 2005
Sinn Féin TD Aengus Ó Snodaigh has called on the government to provide needed additional resources to rape crisis services across the state in the revised estimates coming before the Dáil and to take stronger action to encourage and support reporting sexual violence to the Gardaí. Ó Snodaigh was speaking after attending the launch of the first statewide statistics from the Rape Crisis Network, Ireland. Free article
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Youth groups protest Garda powers extension
26 May 2005
Youth groups, including Ógra Shinn Féin, held a protest in Dublin city centre on Saturday last over proposed amendments to Michael McDowell's Criminal Justice Bill. Free article
Údarás must promote the language
26 May 2005
Sinn Féin is the only political party to submit proposals to the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs on the restructuring of Údarás na Gaeltachta. The party's West Kerry branch, Cumann Thomáis Ághas, pioneered the submission in a bid to make the Údarás more relevant to the needs of the Gaeltacht communities. Free article
French say no re-run on EU Constitution
26 May 2005
Sinn Féin National Chairperson and MEP for Dublin Mary Lou McDonald has challenged the Dublin Government to publicly commit itself to ruling out a re-run of the EU Constitution referendum if it is defeated by people in the 26 Counties. McDonald made her comments after the French Prime Minister, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, said that a re-run of the EU Constitution referendum was "not a perspective that France could accept". Raffarin made his comments on television on Tuesday before the French people vote on the EU Constitution this coming Sunday, 29 May. Free article
Rousing Noraid AGM in Phillie
26 May 2005
Bernice Swift, County Fermanagh project manager with An Fírinne (the victims of state violence group) was invited out as a speaker on behalf of Sinn Féin to address the Irish Northern Aid (INA) AGM last weekend in Philadelphia. Free article
Sinn Féin hosts EU Constitution conference
26 May 2005
Sinn Féin is holding a two-day conference on the EU Constitution this weekend in the Irish Film Institute in Temple Bar, Dublin. The gathering will bring together academics, trade unionists, NGOs and MEPs from across the EU to examine the content and implications of the Constitution. Free article