MARKING THE END OF THE 1981 HUNGER STRIKE | LEO GREEN AND ROSE DUGDALE

H-Blocks Hunger Strike transformed the struggle

BY IAN McBRIDE

THE END of the H-Block Hunger Strike on October 3rd 1981 was marked in Dublin on October 3rd 2011 by the Dublin South Central ’81 Commemorations Committee in the Ballyfermot Civic Centre with guest speakers former H-Blocks Hunger Striker Leo... Free article

Nightmare legacy of the Celtic Tiger

BY MÍCHEÁL Mac DONNCHA
SINN FÉIN DUBLIN CITY COUNCILLOR

AS WE approach the centenary of the 1913 Lock-Out, we might have hoped that the sight of families being moved out of their homes because they were living in dangerous buildings was a thing of the past. But memories of the crumbling tenements of Dublin have been revived as scores of... Free article

Nelson McCausland - ‘Minister for Evictions’

LAURA FRIEL

» BY LAURA FRIEL

NELSON McCAUSLAND is in danger of becoming “the Minister for Evictions”, according to the Sinn Féin spokesperson on Housing, Fra McCann.  The West Belfast MLA was speaking after the DUP, backed by the Ulster Unionist Party and the Alliance Party defeated a “Prayer of Annulment” motion by Sinn Féin in the... Free article

ON NOVEMBER 2nd, the Fine Gael/Labour Government handed over €711million of taxpayers’ money to an unguaranteed bondholder in the toxic Anglo Irish bank.
Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams TD raised the issue in the Dáil well before the deed was done. Taoiseach Enda Kenny and his advisers signed off last month on a 50% cut on debt for Greece. Gerry Adams said then:
“The Government is... Free article

WHAT THE PAPERS SAY

FROM the reporting of the first tallies on Friday morning, October 28th, to the publication of Monday’s daily papers on October 31st, large sections of the Establishment Irish news media were making concerted efforts to recast not just the actual result of the Presidential election campaign but the last days of run-in to polling on the 27th.

It wasn’t just... Free article

Martin McGuinness – Trail blazer

BY GERRY ADAMS TD
President of Sinn Féin

MARTIN McGUINNESS is a trail blazer. That much must be clear. Even to his detractors. A life devoted to struggle has seen many examples of this. Martin, in good times and bad, has had many opportunities and occasions to draw on these pioneering qualities. The net outcome has generally benefited the... Free article

Record vote performance breaks new ground

IN FEBRUARY 2011, 220,685 people voted for 41 Sinn Féin candidates in 38 constituencies in the Leinster House election, electing 14 TDs, a record performance for the party who won 9.9% of first preferences. The turn-out was 70.1%.
Martin McGuinness running in the Presidential election campaign polled 243,030 votes, a 13.7% share of... Free article

FIRST OFF it was Harry McGee writing in The Irish Times the Saturday after the Presidential election, as the count was being completed. Commenting on the Sinn Féin election result, McGee said that the vote for McGuinness “reflected traditional Sinn Féin voting patterns, with none of the party’s breakthrough constituencies in the general election shoring up his support. He... Free article

McGuinness Abú!

LE TREVOR Ó CLOCHARTAIGH

AGUS MÉ dhá scríobh seo níl vóta ar bith caite i dtoghchán na hUachtaránachta, ach tá bua mórálta faighte ag Martin McGuinness agus Sinn Féin cheana féin sílim. Leathnaigh ainmniúchán an Leas Chéad Aire an díospóireacht maidir le ról agus roghnú Uachtarán na hÉireann, ach chomh maith leis sin d’ardaigh sé ceisteanna maidir le seasamh na... Free article

E LIES THERE, in the quiet, pre-dawn darkness, with the sweat cooling on his big, baldy, robot head. Over and over again the moment plays in his mind. He stands before the Irish people, proud, confident, mere days away from becoming the President of Ireland. He is master of all he surveys, a leader, a man destined for greatness.
And then a soft Derry accent quietly says, “I have... Free article