“The Pogues were also unashamedly abrasive and political, at a time when being political about Ireland in Britain was no easy task”. Joe Dwyer offers a tribute to Pogues lead singer Shane MacGowan whose death was announced today. Free article

The 14 people murdered by British crown forces on Bloody Sunday, 21 November 1920, have been honoured with the naming of Bloody Sunday Bridge beside Croke Park where they were shot. Free article

While Civil War as an armed conflict had ended in early summer 1923, the Counter-Revolution led by the Free State government continued and those who bore the worst of it were over 11,000 Republican prisoners held in jails, internment camps and other places of detention throughout the Free State. Free article

40 years ago this week at the 1983 Sinn Féin Ard Fheis in Dublin’s Mansion House, Gerry Adams was elected President of Sinn Féin. Free article

Declan Kearney writes on the current situation in Gaza and the need for immediate ceasefires and the upholding of International Law. Free article

Lifelong Irish republican and former political prisoner, John Vincent McElduff was laid to rest in his native Loughmacrory recently. The graveside oration was delivered by Seán Hughes. Free article

Sinn Féin Vice President Michelle O’Neill spoke at a key fringe event at this year’s Labour Party conference. She was joined by Labour’s Shadow Home Secretary Hilary Benn, Opposition Leader in the British House of Lords, Angela Smith, and North Belfast Sinn Féin MP John Finucane. Free article

Sinn Féin national chair Declan Kearney writes on the future and the need for republicans to better understand Protestants and Unionists. Free article

The epic and heroic chapter in Irish history that was the H-Block Hunger Strike came to an end after 217 tortuous days on 3 October 1981. Free article

TWO YEARS after the epic 1981 H-Block Hunger Strike in which ten young republicans died, there was another epic event at Long Kesh that dealt a huge blow to the Thatcher regime in Ireland. This was the escape of 38 IRA prisoners from H-Block 7 on Sunday 25 September 1983. Free article